* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

​The Five Generations of Light the Lanterns Recordings

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

1.   The Original Master Recording

• Nothing is known about the original master tape -- neither its date nor its place of recording, nor its fate since then. Probabilistic reasoning and feedback from prominent musicologists point to 1968-1969, either in San Francisco or the Mendocino region. Although LA is a possibility too.
• Light the Lanterns operates under the practical definition of an "orphan work", since the composer is unknown and 6 years of collective public "due diligence" to find the songwriter has not found them.
• People have searched high and low for 6 years and the original LTL is not registered with any modern Digital Music Distribution Service, because nobody has ever uploaded the physical master audio tape to a digital aggregator. It therefore lacks any registered audio "Digital Fingerprint." LTL was probably unregistered -- even in its day, by analogue methods. So it would never have been transferred into digital post-1978 when the industry adopted fingerprinting.
• Copyright Status: Legally, all public instances of Light the Lanterns are copyright infringements because any musical composition is automatically the Intellectual Property of its author. For an anonymous work like this [if created before 1978], federal protection lasts for 120 years from its creation or 95 years from publication, whichever is shorter -- even if it is left in a box in an LA office and the songwriter is not found!
• Royalty Status: Prior to December 2025, as an unregistered orphan song, royalties could not be collected on behalf of its author or performers. But now, due to my declaring it as the original source of my own licensed digitally remastered cover version, a percentage of royalties to its unknown composer are automatically routed into a centralized holding pool managed by The Mechanical Licensing Collective (The MLC).
• However, no royalties have been collected through any playing of the original version itself, nor will they ever be until the composer proves song ownership and registers it. All the YouTube copies, listens, and downloads are technically musical piracy because the channels are not monetized and automated systems cannot trace them. These funds are held by the MLC before they are subject to redistribution to the broader music industry if the author remains untraced. The LTL songwriter may never get her dues -- despite 200,000 YouTube listens!

2.   The LA Demo Cassette recording

This is the version about which Joseph said: He found it in the mid 80s, ripped it to MP3 in 2000, uploaded it to YouTube in Sept 2019, and threw away the original cassette. It was the closest thing anyone has ever heard to what the players intended. But it no longer exists.

3.   The Original Windows to Sky 2019 Upload Version

• Joseph's uploaded version only existed online for a few months before being taken down by him. One copy of it was saved by Simon Hill, but his copy subsequently got taken down due to a false copyright claim. One other copy of it still exists today on Janusz's YouTube Channel. According to Janusz's "Description", it remains exactly as he first captured it in June 2020.
• Since he first put it up, it has been the source which has been copied to innumerable other YouTube Channels ... and god knows how many downloads from them all. So that is still the closest to the LA demo tape we still have.

4.   Copies of Copies and Doctored Versions

• Many other copies-of-copies of varying quality of Janusz's (and maybe Simon Hill's) recording are still widely available on YouTube. In the first few years, the song's YouTube footprint grew to over 200,000 listens on about 10 channels. There are now 40 channels carrying Light the Lanterns. Following the removal of Simon Hill’s version, approximately 80,000 of those views were lost from the aggregate count, leaving my June 2025 tally at ~125,000 plays.
• Some of these later versions have been doctored (NOT remastered) in failed attempts at improvement. Amateurs have simply band-filtered it to "cut noise" and "bring out certain frequencies". But you can never make a copy better than the original! -- and all this has done is confuse the punters about what was in the original recording. It has made it sound (to some listeners) like pianos and synthesisers and dulcimers exist within it, which they do not.
• "musicfan1994" thoughtfully wrote below one such modification:

  "The reverb you put on this recording effectively makes this unsolvable. When musicians and people in general listen to a recording of a song they normally listen to every element of the piece, and just assume that everything in the recording should be there. They will tend not to distinguish between what should be there and what shouldn't (aside from using common sense) nor block out elements not typical of the genre the music fits into/what they think shouldn't be there/what they think they shouldn't be hearing. This includes reverb. If you send people the original upload from Windows To Sky (in this case a reupload because the original video was privated), they may be able to help you better, and we may get a solution quicker. Until then, we won't be able to solve this, unless you tell anyone you send this particular recording to that the reverb is not part of the song, in which case they will bare that in mind when listening".

• The best solution to such confusion is to stop modifying/worsening the WTS original and to circulate the new 2025 studio-remastered version which is definitively better than even the WTS version.

5.   My New 2025 Reconstruction Version

• This is a fully professional, 16 track into stereo, MP3 digital master recording (7.5MB),  primarily composed of isolated vocal and bass elements extracted via spectral audio repair and demixing off Janusz's version, with partial note for note replication of the original players' recording.
• A broadcast quality Master WAV File (60MB) for Digital Music Distributor Services, Aggregators and Radio Station Airplay is available upon request.
• The original orphan song is now listed "in the musical records system" as: Light the Lanterns. Writer Unknown. Artists Unknown. Date of Publishing Unknown.
• My new version is listed "in the system" as: Light the Lanterns Mystery Song. 2025 Digital Remaster. Writer Unknown. Various Artists. Date of Publishing Dec 2025.​
• Copyright Status: My 2025 version operates under a Standard Mechanical License to ensure all mandatory publishing royalties go to the writer. I control the rights to the new 2025 instrumental audio elements, meaning it has an ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) and an audio "Digital Fingerprint". As such, users can stream, download, and share links to it freely and legally without triggering automated system flags.
• But users cannot re-upload it to any online music service (like YouTube, Spotify, TikTok, etc.), post it on any website, copy it to friends, download it from YouTube, or use it in a video, podcast, or public project without my permission, as this would breach my registered sound recording rights, plus rob the songwriter of their rightful royalties. Legally, I am not even entitled to give it away for free, except as a limited-usage copy, due to the restrictions protecting the unknown songwriter's composition.
• Clarification of Rights​:  I control the rights to the specific 2025 instrumental backing tracks. I can issue takedowns for re-uploads of my audio track ... not that I feel inclined to do so. But if people ever exploit my generosity to this cause by trying to profit from my 2025 version, I will. Just make sure that if/when you spread the new version around that you designate it as the "2025 Digitally Remastered Version" so punters don't get confused as to which version they are listening to.
• Composition: I do not own the song itself. I cannot stop others from recording their own covers of "Light the Lanterns" or of using the original LA Demo audio, as I do not represent the unknown author's estate.
• Royalty Status: As a licensed version, each time my version is streamed, or downloaded, or broadcast, a percentage of "my" royalties is diverted into the MLC's unmatched collection pool for the songwriter's share, while I retain the royalties from my own cover version. But money was never my intention. I do not intend to make a cent from this new recording. I am going to keep my own due royalties aside in case the songwriter ever surfaces. In 6 months I've made $2.69!

* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Aim and Motives
* * * * * * * * * * * * *

My sole motive to make this new recording is to flush out identification of the singer through vocal recognition through greater distribution. My new licensed version allows for links to the song to be spread legally wherever desired.

One problem over the years has been the poor quality of the YouTube copies. No radio station will play them. My strategy is to get people to spread this high quality version and encourage far wider distribution to potentially catch the songwriter or a descendant/associate of them. For tactics, see Page 7 - Finding the Singer: How You Can Help.

Copyright and Troll Issues (for me)

There are two aspects I had to be careful of to create this new recording. The first was the future possibility of being sued by the original songwriter -- or one of their descendants -- for willful copyright infringement. Yes, even despite them neglecting their little demo tape in an L.A. office for 55 years. It's a maximum statutory fine of $150,000; plus forfeiture of any earnings made off their song; plus legal costs of course.

But my protection is:

• the 6 years of collective diligent searching done to find the author (which I have archived as proof);
• my good faith to ensure the songwriter's royalties are collected by registering my own version and indirectly bringing theirs into the royalties system;
• holding aside my own due royalties just in case they ever initiate a claim against me.

So I feel a clear conscience about it all.

The other issue is trolls, ie false claimants to authorship. But that won't ever be my problem. If anyone attempts a fraudulent claim, the burden of proof is entirely on them. I can just say -- "Well, prove it to the copyright lawyers running the holding account." Real or otherwise, any claimants will have to show watertight evidence in court for writing the song 60 years ago. Not my problem.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 
The Making of the New Version
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 

The new 2025 version of LTL was made by using a mixture of original source elements extracted with advanced AI mastering and stem-splitting programs, and partially re-recorded elements. This is because cleaning up the original muddy and distorted recording was deemed impossible for a 2025 distribution. See Page 9 - Instrumental Breakdown for complete details.

The project involved paying 3 professional musicians and a sound engineer for 2 days work to remake LTL so the final outcome is note-for-note identical to the original.

The Original Elements we cleaned up and kept:

• The primary singer's voice was kept entirely. It was scrupulously cleaned up, digitally, bar by bar where needed, and made fit for remastering.​
• The original fretless bass lines were cleaned up and made fit for remastering.​
• The best and most appropriate sliding guitar licks from the original were cleaned up and most were re-used.
• Our guitarist (Stu) newly added some bits that were degraded in the background of the original mushy version. His replacement licks confirmed that what sounded like synth strings was actually the effect of the swell pedal upon the slide guitar.

The New Elements we re-recorded and added:

• The rhythm guitar was freshly re-recorded, chord for chord by Stu, on a similar sounding instrument to what the original rhythm guitar player was using.
• Beautiful second harmonies were newly added by Bea, because the originals were weakly sung and badly lost in the original's mushy sound.​
• Clay the drummer was hired to copy the original drums hit for hit, providing a new-but-old drum sound.​
• No Yamaha CP80 pianist or synth strings keyboardist were invited ... because there never were any! (See Page 9 - Instrumental Breakdown for the joke).
• Stu then tirelessly remastered the lot to best emulate the INTENDED original mix, tones, and feel. Well done Stu.
• The end result is close to what the original once was, but of better quality, sounding like a great 3 minute 10 second commercial hit song.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Round Up of Pages 1 - 6
 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Now that you've explored the researched meaning, history, geography and dating parameters for LTL, and gotten informed about the new recording, only one thing remains --TO IDENTIFY THAT GIRL!

Using the new recording, plus spreading around the most pertinent info from this website, you're ready to join in "The Campaign" on Page 7 - Finding the Singer.