Many moons ago, when computers were made out of oak and beige slacks, I recorded a heavy metal version of the [Free Software Song](http://www.gnu.org/music/free-software-song.html) that Richard Stallman cobbled together. When I recorded this song I didnt really have the right equipment to record a song, and consequently it sounded a bit rubbish.

Richard and I catch-up over email every so often and while he acknowledged the existence of the song, he didn’t really express whether he liked it. Maybe it wasn’t his style.

“No no, I only enjoy Death Metal and Brutal Death Metal”.

For a while now I have wanted to record a new version of the song, so one night this week I knocked together a new version and arrangement. First, some caveats:

* I only spent about 20 minutes writing this; this is no *Bohemian Rhapsody*.
* I played all instruments and recorded all the vocals myself.
* It was recorded in an evening. This was no huge production, no huge recording, and no week-long mix.
* This is just a bit of fun to throw a new spin on the song.

Alright, enough excuses, download it below:

* [Ogg](https://www.jonobacon.com/files/freesoftwaresong/jonobacon-freesoftwaresong2.ogg) (*4MB*)
* [MP3](https://www.jonobacon.com/files/freesoftwaresong/jonobacon-freesoftwaresong2.mp3) (*3MB*)
* [Flac](https://www.jonobacon.com/files/freesoftwaresong/jonobacon-freesoftwaresong2.flac) (*25.3MB*)

Also, for the fun of it (and for you Kareoke and podcast YouTube video fans), here is the song without the vocals:

* [Ogg](https://www.jonobacon.com/files/freesoftwaresong/jonobacon-freesoftwaresong2-instrumental.ogg) (*3.9MB*)
* [MP3](https://www.jonobacon.com/files/freesoftwaresong/jonobacon-freesoftwaresong2-instrumental.mp3) (*3MB*)
* [Flac](https://www.jonobacon.com/files/freesoftwaresong/jonobacon-freesoftwaresong2-instrumental.flac) (*24.9MB*)

I would love to see some comedy Kareoke videos and mixes on YouTube from the instrumental cut. Could be fun. 🙂

This song is licensed as [Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/) so feel free to share it, remix it, even sell it, just provide attribution to me and this blog entry first.

Flame away!