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Fans of Negativland will undoubtedly know about their infamous U2 single, which got them sued by Island Records (for unauthorized use of a U2 song) and Casey Kasem (for unauthorized use of "American Top 40" out-takes). The Casey Kasem out-takes, in particular, are incredible, because it's very disturbing to hear the clean-cut host of "American Top 40" swearing up a storm, as he tries to record his program.

The U2 lawsuit was covered in Negativland's book, Fair Use, which details all of the legal proceedings that heppend a few years after the 1991 single was released. The band uses all of the legal documents and communication that occurred during the lawsuit and settlement process, which allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusions from the paperwork as to where fault lied in the lawsuit battle. (The 1991 single was eventually re-released in 2001, just in time for its 10-year anniversary. There's the original single, some live versions, some alternate mixes, etc.

The reason I bring all this up is that this weekend marks a milestone in Casey Kasem/"American Top 40" history. Kasem is leaving the program, after 30-plus years of being its host. To mark the event, the NPR quiz program Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me had one of its hosts, Carl Kasell, read a portion of the Kasem out-take that was used on the Negativland single... only where there was a dirty word, he substituted the word "bleep." Since this is a family program and everything.

So as a public service for those of you who don't have RealAudio players, here's some MP3 versions of both the Carl Kasell cleaned-up version of the dedication, as heard on "Wait Wait" this weekend, and the original Casey Kasem version. Both files are in MP3 format.

Carl Kasell - Long Distance Dedication (MP3 audio, 846 Kb)
Casey Kasem - Long Distance Dedication (MP3 audio, 594 Kb)

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