VOA慢速英语:THIS IS AMERICA - From Bob Marley to Franklin Roosevelt, History in Sound

By Jerilyn Watson / Broadcast: Monday, April 09, 2007

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Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English. I'm Steve Ember.

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And I'm Shirley Griffith. This week -- some recorded sounds for all time.

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The Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., recently added twenty-five sound recordings to its National Recording Registry. Congress established this registry list under a law called the National Recording Preservation Act of Two Thousand.

Recordings are added yearly. They have to be at least ten years old. And they have to be culturally, historically or artistically important.

Members of the public make suggestions online. The library also gathers nominations from experts in music, recorded sound and historic preservation.

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The twenty-five new additions chosen by the Librarian of Congress, James Billington, were made between nineteen-oh-four and nineteen eighty-eight. Some are in the library itself. Others are in collections throughout the country. The library is identifying the best existing versions of the recordings. These will be expertly restored, if needed, to protect them for the future.

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Rolling Stones

Many of the latest additions to the registry come from popular music. One of them is "Blue Suede Shoes," recorded by Carl Perkins in nineteen fifty-five, a year before the version by Elvis Presley.

Another addition is the nineteen sixty-five hit "Satisfaction" by the Rolling Stones. Also, Paul Simon's nineteen eighty-six album "Graceland," recorded with the South African singing group Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

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But the list also includes classical pieces like "Il mio tesoro," from "Don Giovanni," sung by tenor John McCormack in nineteen sixteen. And there are spoken word recordings, like one from nineteen sixty by comedian Bob Newhart.

Bob Marley

Social protest is also represented. For example, the album "The Wailers Burnin'" with the reggae singer Bob Marley is from nineteen seventy-three.

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That was "Get Up, Stand Up," from the last album that Bob Marley released under the name "The Wailers."

But let us begin our musical trip back in the nineteen twenties -- the Jazz Age. Jelly Roll Morton was one of the pioneers of jazz. He helped spread its popularity in New Orleans, Chicago and throughout the country.

In this nineteen twenty-six recording, Jelly Roll Morton leads his Red Hot Peppers in "Black Bottom Stomp."

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The National Recording Registry honors memorable words as well as music. The latest additions to the list include "The Osage Bank Robbery" from the radio program "The Lone Ranger." The show was heard December seventeenth, nineteen thirty-seven, making it the earliest known recording from that popular series.

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Two brothers rob a bank. The criminals try to hide in an old mine. But they should have know that the Lone Ranger would catch them. Listen now as the hero rides off on Silver, his trusty horse.