Great idea! Worth checking out the Public Song Project from WNYC: looking for music based on or inspired by works in the public domain https://www.wnyc.org/story/2025-public-song-project

Probably going back to the old reliables, Rudyard Kipling or Henry Lawson.

My first thoughts were about the biggest public domain library in existence so here is The Ballad Of Alan Lomax https://write.fawm.org/songs/311315

NSFW or probably anywhere else. It's a play on "Tiptoe through the tulips" But, here's mine: https://write.fawm.org/songs/311479

I’m working on lyrics based on nursery rhymes that go off in a different direction. Sounds quite heavy so far with organ and overdrive bass. Hoping to add low trombones and possibly saxes towards the end but verses are quiet and might just talk the words like the very English story teller that I’m not.

I want to do this but I'm having nothing but trouble trying to find a definitive list of songs in the public domain. I'm looking for the 1930s. Anyone have a link to that?

Man I really got a kick out of putting this one together! It was fun trying to transform the energy of the original public domain recording from an upbeat advertising script to a more introspective, melancholy vibe. Here she is: https://write.fawm.org/songs/312253

As I said in my liner notes this turned out not to be the public domain I thought. But it was inspired by this challenge! https://write.fawm.org/songs/312503

I put the Dorothy Parker poem "Song In A Minor Key" to music and @tan482 helped me add some warmth and colour with some accordion. https://write.fawm.org/songs/312694

Here's mine, big ups to JS Bach (and to Margo Guryan for the layup): https://write.fawm.org/songs/313327

My accompaniment for a silent film in the public domain: https://write.fawm.org/songs/313469

@leslie333 Everything from 1929 just entered the public domain on January 1! Which includes some early Fats Waller and some other standards like "Am I Blue" - here's just the tip of the iceberg, with some info about it all as well: https://web.law.duke.edu/cspd/publicdomainday/2025/

A bit late, but I did one, thanks to a melody from Bela Bartok! https://write.fawm.org/songs/314602

https://write.fawm.org/songs/313621 Dead poet