BOOTLEG FILES 852: “The Woo Song” (2024 music video by Corey Rieman the Dilemma Band incorporating Walt Disney’s “Steamboat Willie”).
LAST SEEN: On multiple social media and online video sites.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: Not yet.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: The underlying “Steamboat Willie” footage has been the subject of complicated copyright actions.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: Some day, perhaps.
On New Year’s Day, Mickey Mouse was the center of attention because the copyright for the 1928 animated short “Steamboat Willie” finally expired and the groundbreaking film that helped usher synchronized sound into the world of cartoons was suddenly denuded of copyright protection. Less than two weeks after “Steamboat Willie” officially became a public domain work, footage from the film was incorporated into a bouncy music video for “The Woo Song” from the rockers Corey Rieman and the Dilemma Band.
For years, a controversy percolated over whether “Steamboat Willie” was properly protected by copyright. During the 1990s, the film was the subject of papers published by several law students who believed that errors in the original copyright filing meant the film was always part of the public domain – Disney’s aggressive legal team ensured those considerations never went beyond the concept of academic debate. Disney successfully lobbied Congress for copyright extension legislation in 1976 and 1988, but by 2022 Republicans on Capitol Hill became tired of what they perceived as the Mouse House’s detour into woke politics and they refused to consider a third copyright extension law that would have kept “Steamboat Willie” in Disney’s ownership for longer.
For “Steamboat Willie,” Disney used the tunes “Steamboat Bill” and “Turkey in the Straw” on the soundtrack. Those songs were already old standards by the time 1928 audiences saw and heard the film, but they fit into the cartoon’s vaguely antediluvian setting.
But when the original soundtrack is removed and a contemporary rock song is substituted – in this case, “The Woo Song” from Corey Rieman and the Dilemma Band – something magical happens. When channeled into this music video, “Steamboat Willie” doesn’t seem like something from the dawn of the Herbert Hoover years, but instead comes across with a contemporary vibe with a free-spirited Mickey getting slapped down by a strict authority.
In the video, the lyrics flash on the screen and they wonderfully mirror the 1928 animation. Rieman’s song opens with “Being caught between dreams and memories makes you lose sight that yesterday’s today was once a tomorrow” and the on-screen action is the smiling, too-cheery Mickey steering the steamboat while whistling and musically rocking his body. Of course, Mickey loses sight of the seriousness of his duties, as the steamboat’s captain Pete exiles him from the boat’s steering wheel to the below deck ignominy of scrubbing the floor with a bar of soap while a nasty parrot laughs at his downfall. The song is punctuated by the cry of “Woo!” that is echoed throughout the cartoon in the steamboat’s whistle and its various characters, and it can be considered as a cry for individualism amidst an environment where such behavior is not tolerated.
And when Mickey is punished further by Pete for his dereliction of duties to peel potatoes, the song’s lyrics “Sometimes it’s what you need, sometimes it’s you want” echo the mouse’s penchant for self-destructive behavior in this restrictive setting, reminding the view that he brought his punishment on himself for not taking himself seriously when the rules demand obedience and a somber sense of duty.
As a disclosure: I’ve known Corey Rieman for a number of years and I’ve worked with him on the PPRN Radio Internet-based talk show and on my own “Nutmeg Chatter” radio show in Connecticut. I am prejudiced when I say what Corey and his band are among the best indie music groups out there today, and I can say in all sincerity that his video for “The Woo Song” with Mickey Mouse as his star is among the most entertaining offerings that you’ll find on the Internet today. For about three minutes, get yourself lost in “The Woo Song” and be grateful that Mickey Mouse fell into the public domain and that Corey Rieman caught him.
IMPORTANT NOTICE: While this weekly column acknowledges the presence of rare film and television productions through the so-called collector-to-collector market, this should not be seen as encouraging or condoning the unauthorized duplication and distribution of copyright-protected material, either through DVDs or Blu-ray discs or through postings on Internet video sites.
Listen to Phil Hall’s award-winning podcast “The Online Movie Show with Phil Hall” on SoundCloud and his radio show “Nutmeg Chatter” on WAPJ-FM in Torrington, Connecticut, with a new episode every Sunday. His new book “100 Years of Wall Street Crooks” is now in release through Bicep Books.