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This site will not give full lyrics to songs without permission. Lyrics are copyright and songwriters should respect the copyright of others, they too will become copyright owners. It is true that many songwriters and record companies do not really object to their lyrics being published. It is a grey area. In fact freely publishing lyrics should be a good way of getting songs recorded by others - something which is desirable for a songwriter. Nevertheless the lyrics of a song are an essential part of the song itself so you can understand that some may wish to protect them. Those looking after the interests of The Beatles for example have been very active in seeking out even remote fan sites and prohibiting their publication of lyrics.
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Most of these lyrics illustrate themes on the Themes page of this site.
How strange it is that songs seem to need rhymes, whereas everyday language does not. I am not sure which is worse, a bad rhyme, or no rhyme at all. Either way, it stands out as a flaw in the lyric, whereas a good, elegant rhyme in a lyric passes unnoticed - and I think this is a good thing.
There is no doubt that, in order to achieve a rhyme, it is necessary to contrive the language in some way. The best rhymes are those which still allow the writer to say what he wants to, and better still, force the language to be more 'poetic'. A bad rhyme is not just a poor matching of words, but more importantly it is one which forces the writer to say something irrelevant. These can stand out as conspicuously contrived. The practicalities of adapting the language to achieve a rhyme may be either way round. Naively you would think that you write the first line of the rhyming pair first, and then think deeply how the subsequent rhyme can be achieved, but in practice the first line may be chosen especially to prepare for the forthcoming line which will rhyme with it. I suspect that this approach is better, and indeed it has been done since ancient times and even in hymns.
Sing a song of sixpence,
A pocket full of rye.
Four and twenty blackbirds,
Baked in a pie.
From Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye by Cole Porter, 1944:
Why the gods above me, who must be in the know
Think so little of me, they allow you to go.
From Cry Me a River by Arthur Hamilton, 1953:
Told me love was too plebeian
Told me you were through with me an'...
From That'll Be The Day by Allison, Holly, Petty, 1957:
When Cupid shot his dart
He shot it at your heart
So if we ever part, then
I'll leave you.
From Around and Around by Chuck Berry, 1958:
But they kept on rockin'
Going round and round
Yeah reelin' and a rockin'
What a crazy sound
Well they never stopped rockin'
Til the moon went down.
From I'm a Loser by Lennon; McCartney, 1964:
Of all the love I have won or have lost
There is one love I should never have crossed
She was a girl in a million, my friend
I should have known she would win in the end
From I'm a Boy by Pete Townshend, 1966:
One girl was called Jean Marie
Another little girl was called Felicity
Another little girl was Sally Joy
The other was me, and I'm a boy
From Maxwell's Silver Hammer by Lennon; McCartney, 1969:
P. C. Thirty one
said, "We've caught a dirty one."
Actually that whole song is full of interesting examples of contrived rhyming!
The last two songs illustrate an easy way to make a rhyme, that is to use a person's name (which is not important and can be chosen to suit the intended rhyme which follows).
From Rose Garden by Joe South, 1970:
Smile for a while and lets be jolly,
Love shouldn't be so melancholy
From You've Got a Friend by Carole King, 1971:
Winter, spring, summer, or fall,
All you have to do is call
From Sara by Bob Dylan, 1976:
Now the beach is deserted except for some kelp
And a piece of an old ship that lies on the shore
You always responded when I needed your help
You gave me a map and a key to your door.
From Walking on the Moon by Sting, 1979:
Giant steps are what you take,
Walking on the moon,
I hope my legs don't break,
Walking on the moon.
Music needs rhythm, and so the words should have a suitable rhythm to fit. The writer has a free choice of words and expressions to use so there should be no excuse for having words which do not fit the the rhythm of the music. Often it is clear that the lyricist has added an extra word which would not normally appear in speech (or prose anyway), and this is done for rhythmic purposes. I regard this as a good thing. There are some examples of lyrics where it would have been very easy to just add an extra word, but this has not been done. (Or similarly to leave one out). And of course the same thing applies to syllables too.
Example:
From Smash the Mirror by Pete Townshend, 1975:
Actual:
Can you hear me
Or do I surmise?
That you fear me
can you feel my temper rise
(rise rise rise ......)
Suggested:
Can you hear me
Or do I surmise?
That you fear me.
Feel my temper rise
(rise rise rise ......)
Comment:
I am reluctant to criticise that genius, Pete Townshend, especially as he is also great with rhythms and rhymes, AND, Ann Margret sings this perfectly, slipping in that little 'can you' unobtrusively. Taking out 'can you' would change the meaning quite significantly because it would change from being a question to a command, but I think I am perfectly happy with that idea. It's a SONG, and in my opinion rhythm and rhyme should take some precedence over subtleties of meaning.
Incidentally, while considering these words I think that the choice of the word 'surmise' is a touch of genius, because it prepares for the rhyme, but in particular it has exactly the right meaning intended.
Surmise (verb): Form an idea or suspect that or that something may be true, but without proof or certainty.
That is to say, mismatch of rhythm between the words and the tune.
Crocodile Rock by Elton John and Bernie Taupin, 1972:
The word 'crocodile' is fitted into a single syllable!
Crocodile Rocking is something shocking when your feet just can't keep still
Rule Britannia (trad).
The word 'first' is fitted into five notes!
When Britain fir-ir-ir-ir-irst at heaven's command
A more contemporary example:
Big Girls Don't Cry by Bob Crewe and Bob Gaudio, recorded by The Four Seasons, 1962.
Bi-ig girls do-ont cry-yi yi
Intelligibility is more a matter of performance than songwriting, but by considering unintelligibility we can draw some conclusions about songwriting. One is: How much do the lyrics matter? Sometimes it is the general tone of the vocal sounds which matters more than the meaning.
Some performers have been persistently unintelligible and yet have been highly regarded singers
It is said that Mick Jagger bit off the tip of his tongue during sports, (while at school I believe). He is supposed to have once read an interview with Fats Domino who said "You should never sing out the lyrics too clearly".
Other singers who have often been unintelligible are Chuck Berry and Jimi Hendrix. There is clearly a greater likelihood of unintelligibility when the singer has a strong accent which we are not familiar with.
The song Wooly Bully is a good example of an unintelligible song where the meaning of the lyrics simply do not matter. (Written by Domingo Samudio and performed by Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs, (the singer is Domingo Samudio himself)).
Another example astonishes me, 1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be) written and sung by Jimi Hendrix. I have been familiar with this song for over 40 years, I like it, and have heard it many times. Some of the words were unintelligible but I did not care. What matters is the vocal as a form of sonic art. Therefore I was astonished to discover some of the lyrics only recently, and having seen them I think I was better off not knowing (smile).
From 1983... (A Merman I Should Turn to Be) written and sung by Jimi Hendrix, 1968.
Giant pencil and lipstick-tube shaped things
Continue to rain and cause screamin' pain
Sometimes called "mondegrines", these are mis-heard lyrics. The subject is quite fun, and the word's origin is itself amusing.
American writer Sylvia Wright coined the term in her essay "The Death of Lady Mondegreen,"
"When I was a child, my mother used to read aloud to me ...
Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh, where hae ye been?
They hae slain the Earl O' Moray,
And Lady Mondegreen."
The actual last line should be "And laid him on the green".
It has been said that mondegreens are better than the original. Well, perhaps that is sometimes true, and it is that aspect which I wish to consider here. I have certainly been delighted by some lyrics, as I perceived them, only to discover that I had heard it incorrectly, but in these cases my misheard version was better than the original. Here are some examples:
From The Runner, by Sheila Ferguson, performed by The Three Degrees, 1978.
Actual:
I`ve got this need eating away at my soul
An insurmountable need that i just can`t control
Mondegreen:
I`ve got this need eating away at my soul
It's an animal need that i just can`t control
From Long Live Love by Chris Andrews, performed by Sandie Shaw, 1965.
Actual:
We meet every night at eight
And I don't get home till late
Mondegreen:
We meet every night at eight
And I don't get home too late
Also in the same song, two versions appear on lyrics sites:
True love must be the greatest thing
I know now I sing and sing
Of the moon and stars above
True love must be the greatest thing
I know now why singers sing
Of the moon and stars above
Clearly someone has misheard it, but in this case I think the second of these is actually correct and MUCH better!
From Barbados, performed by Typically Tropical, 1975.
Actual:
I look up at the sky and I see the clouds.
I look down at the ground and I see the rain go down the drain.
Mondegreen:
I look up at the sky and I see the ground.
I look down at the ground and I see the rainbow down the drain.
The great principal reason for mondegreens is unintelligibility! But as listeners we like to have some words in our head with which to sing the tune to ourselves and if we do not know the real words, then at least in the short term, anything else will do. (This reminds me of the ancecdote that when Paul McCartney heard the tune of Yesterday in a dream, he filled in any random substitute words temporarily). The words we put in place may be very personal to ourselves.
Well, for a start some poetry is not rhythmic and may not rhyme, so for the purposes of this discussion I will not consider that, because I am assuming that song lyrics should be rhythmic and should rhyme. Nevertheless, of that poetry which does posess these qualities, usually it is not suitable for use as song lyrics. It is not easy to see why.
Robert Burns wrote poetry, and some of it was fitted to an existing tune, but many of these were intended as song lyrics in the first place, and probably targeted at a particular tune at the time of writing. Ae Fond Kiss (above) is such an example.
Let's consider a poem which adheres to a proper metre, and rhymes, and ask whether it is appropriate for use as a song lyric, and if not, why not.
From The Darkling Thrush by Thomas Hardy, 1900:
I leant upon a coppice gate
When Frost was spectre-grey,
And Winter's dregs made desolate
The weakening eye of day.
The tangled bine-stems scored the sky
Like strings of broken lyres,
And all mankind that haunted nigh
Had sought their household fires.
My conclusion is that it would be suitable as a song of a certain type. There are some folk ballads which resemble the style of this. The reason it would not work as a modern pop song is that the pace is too slow. It is too indirect and demands too much patience on the part of the listener.
Perhaps that gives a clue to one of the essential differences between poetry and modern songs, conciseness. But the era should be considered too. In a comparison of traditional poetry with modern songs, the old poets seemed to try to take a small concept and elaborate it with copious language. The other extreme is the modern pop song which takes a complex concept and expresses it in very few words. This is also partly a comparison of modern life with the ancient. Older songs were much more verbose, notably the old folk ballads whereas contemporary poetry (which nowadays is "performance poetry") can be very concise. Rap!
Another important feature of modern pop songs is the subject material. Most are about love!
There are many sites on the web which publish lyrics, but as soon as you venture into this territory you get into the seamy side of the internet. This is not just because lyrics sites are a lucrative commercial enterprise, but also, most are to some extent of questionable legality, inevitably disreputable. Many lyrics sites load their site heavily with advertising. A song lyric might easily be only 500 bytes of data, but these sites present lyrics with large amounts of graphical advertising and the page of lyrics for just one song might easly have a total download size of hundreds of times the size it needs to be.
The thing which I particularly object to is that some lyrics sites do not even credit the songwriters at all and usually lyrics are classified by performer, or album etc. That is quite the wrong approach. There is only one song, but it might be performed my many artists. Songs should be listed by TITLE!
Those lyrics sites which do give songwriter details can be one of the few places on the web where that information can be found.
There are many such sites and can easily be found
using a search engine. Beware of advertising and popups!
I will list only sites which I have found to be good and which DO list
the songwriters.
MTV:
www.mtv.com/lyrics
International Lyrics Playground:
http://lyricsplayground.com
This site lists songs by their title, which is how it should be.
Metrolyrics
http://www.metrolyrics.com
Has songs listed by title with A-Z index and acknowledges songwriters.
DigitalDreamDoor
www.digitaldreamdoor.com
Has songs listed by title with A-Z index and acknowledges songwriters.
LyricsFreak
www.lyricsfreak.com
Acknowledges songwriters, but unfortunately songs are listed by artist not title (with A-Z index).
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