Hoping this reaches you Ray,
My name is Marc Allred and I'm the front man for a punk/ska/reggae band called Upstanding Youth located in Hawaii. I was extremely inspired by your book a few years ago and wrote a song based on the ideas of self inflicted ignorance. I would be honored and extremely grateful if I could let you hear it sometime. Our band will release the professional recording of it in a few weeks, but I could slip you a bootleg copy of it right now if you'd like. Check us out at upstandingyouth.com or email me at
marxnow@yahoo.com
Much love.
-Marc Allred

This is all good, however...
My question would be: Which book?

There are SO many.

Gosh, this is a "gray area" for me. I do know making a work based directly on the author's work (such as a film adaptation of a Bradbury story) requires permission, but I think a song or poem inspired by the author's ideas is perfectly okay as long as most of it is original--"fair use" dictates quotes or references be brief and not comprise the bulk of the song. Thanks, by the way, for not posting the lyrics. Links to such things are fine, but I've really tried to discourage the board becoming a showcase for poetry or fiction. Plenty of ideas here, though!

Sorry, I noticed I didn't clarify which book I was referring to. The song is called 451 Degress, inspired by F. 451. The song was inspired by it - nothing waS quoted or taken from the actual writings. I'm always excited to play the song to large crowds because that gives me a chance to shamelessly promote the book and the ideas I found valuable therein.

WOW, that sounds like a great song and a great cause!

Hey Marxnow, welcome to the board. Just to let you know--Ray does not check out this website, so he won't see your posting, but maybe some of his friends here who are on a phone or letter basis with him can pass it along. I know he appreciates hearing stories such as yours. I went to your website and played "Jimmy" and loved it. I will go back and listen to more songs when I have a bit more time. (piles of papers to grade tonight...) Keep promoting Ray and his books!! I do the same every chance I get with my middle school students.

I'm sure we can arrange something.

Thanks for all the support everyone has given. The song "451" has been a favorite of the crowd and our band for awhile now. Hope everyone who has read the book can appreciate the song even more than just for it's catchy tune. You can check out our band at
www.upstandingyouth.com
or
www.myspace.com/upstandingyouth

Eh, braddah. Lived in Maui for a while. Where u at? I'd like a bootleg LoL.


Glad to see u appreciate Ray.


Check back with us more often now that ur here.


And I checked the song 451 on MySpace... simply sweet.

Like your site, marxnow. Unfortunately, my dialup will only let me hear about 5 seconds of your music at a time, no matter how I try to listen to it. But, what I can hear sounds great. Could you post again when the cd that includes 451 is released?

Yes, let us know when Ray's is on its way to him and when we can get ours!

Thanks everyone for such a good response to our music. I really hope people enjoy the message and sounds. I'll make sure to post the day our album drops and is avazilable for sale.
Another interesting thing is that I'm also a full time substitute teacher as well as a musician. I use every chance I get to teach kids about the things I feel are important in books like 451 and others. I'm glad there are materials like Ray's book to use to get that message across.