Milwaukee Record is proud to present Public Domain. The video series features Milwaukee musicians setting up at Colectivo’s new Back Room performance space at its Prospect Avenue cafe to adapt some of the world’s best-known songs in ways they’ve never been heard before.
This installment features a song by Russian-born composer Irving Berlin. After moving to America as a child in the early 1890s, Berlin went on to write and publish approximately 1,500 songs before his 1989 death. He scored nearly 40 Broadway shows and motion pictures combined, and is responsible for such colossal hits as “God Bless America,” “Blue Skies,” and “White Christmas,” to name just a few. George Gershwin once called Berlin the “greatest songwriter that has ever lived.”
Over the years, Berlin’s work has been performed by the likes of Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra, Al Jolson, Diana Ross, Louis Armstrong, Barbra Streisand, Bing Crosby, Ella Fitzgerald, Nat King Cole, Bob Dylan, President Ronald Reagan, and so many more. Now, Dramatic Lovers will take a stab at his 1920 song “After You Get What You Want, You Don’t Want It,” which was most famously performed by Marilyn Monroe. This Back Room rendition is the first public performance by the new Milwaukee super group that features members of The Promise Ring, Decibully, and Maritime in its ranks. Dramatic Lovers will be playing their first show at Cactus Club on Saturday, December 17, in support of Whips.
The video was shot, recorded, and edited by Cheston Van Huss of Effigy Media (with additional camera support by Emry Brisky). Grant Steskal engineered lighting. Travis Whitty produced the opening sequence. Public Domain is sponsored by Colectivo Coffee Roasters.