The examples are numerous –
From Paul Simon to Patti Smith using excerpts of poems in Horses, to Joni Mitchel, Sam Cooke and Van Morrison.
This topic is to explore the lyrical lyrics you love.
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Pretty much anything by Nick Cave. Dude is one of the true great writers of all time in rock.
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And to start out the discussion, one of my favorite originals.
The Celebration of the Lizard
written by Jim Morrison, performed on THE DOORS: ABSOLUTELY LIVE
(and a few other albums, but that’s my favorite performance - link is to most popular)
LIONS IN THE STREET
Lions in the street and roaming
Dogs in heat, rabid, foaming
A beast caged in the heart of a city
The body of his mother
Rotting in the summer ground.
He fled the town.
He went down South and crossed the border
Left the chaos and disorder
Back there over his shoulder.
One morning he awoke in a green hotel
With a strange creature groaning beside him.
Sweat oozed from its shiny skin.
Is everybody in?
The ceremony is about to begin.
WAKE UP
Wake up!
You can’t remember where it was.
Had this dream stopped?
The snake was pale gold
Glazed & shrunken.
We were afraid to touch it.
The sheets were hot dead prisons.
And she was beside me.
Old she is not… young
Her dark red hair.
Her white soft skin.
Now, run to the mirror in the bathroom,
Look!
She is coming in here.
I can’t live thru each slow century of her moving.
I let my cheek slide down
The cool smooth tile
Feel the good cold stinging blood
The smooth hissing snakes of rain…
A LITTLE GAME
Once I had a little game
I liked to crawl back into my brain
I think you know the game I mean
I mean the game called ‘go insane’
Now you should try this little game
Just close your eyes forget your name
Forget the world, forget the people
And we’ll erect a different steeple.
This little game is fun to do.
Just close your eyes, no way to lose.
And I’m right thre, I’m going too.
Release control, we’re breaking through.
THE HILL DWELLERS
Way back deep into the brain
Way back pass around my pain.
Back where there’s never any rain .
And the rain falls gently on the town
and on the heads of allÝ of us
And in the labyrinth of streams
Beneath, the quiet unearthly presence of
Nervous hill dwellers in the gentle hills around,
Reptiles abounding
Fossils, caves, cool air heights.
Each house repeats a mold
Windows rolled
Beast car locked in against morning.
All now sleeping
Rugs silent, mirrors vacant,
Dust blind under the beds of lawful couples
Wound in sheets.
And daughters, smug
With semen eyes in their nipples
Wait!
There’s been a slaughter here.
(Don’t stop to speak or look around
Your gloves & fan are on the ground
We’re getting out of town
We’re going on the run
And you’re the one I want to come)
NOT TO TOUCH THE EARTH
Not to touch the earth
Not to see the sun
Nothing left to do, but
Run, run, run
Let’s run
House upon the hill
Moon is lying still
Shadows of the trees
Witnessing the wild breeze
C’mon baby run with me
Let’s run
Run with me
Run with me
Run with me
Let’s run
The mansion is warm, at the top of the hill
Rich are the rooms and the comforts there
Red are the arms of luxuriant chairs
And you won’t know a thing till you get inside
Dead president’s corpse in the driver’s car
The engine runs on glue and tar
C’mon along, we’re not going very far
To the East to meet the Czar.
Run with me
Run with me
Run with me
Let’s run
Some outlaws lived by the side of a lake
The minister’s daughter’s in love with the snake
Who lives in a well by the side of the road
Wake up, girl! We’re almost home
Sun, sun, sun
Burn, burn, burn
Soon, soon, soon
Moon, moon, moon,
I will get you
Soon!
Soon!
Soon!
I’m the Lizard King
I can do anything.
THE NAMES OF THE KINGDOM
We came down
The rivers & highways
We came down from
Forests & falls
We came down from
Carson & Springfield
We came down from
Phoenix enthralled
& I can tell you
The names of the Kindom
I can tell you
The things that you know
Listening for a fistful of silence
Climbing valleys into the shade
THE PALACE OF EXILE
For seven years I dwelt
In the loose palace of exile,
Playing strange games
With the girls of the island.
Now I have come again
To the land of the fair, & the strong, & the wise.
Brothers & sisters of the pale forest
O children of Night
Who among you will run with the hunt?
Now Night arrives with her purple legion.
Retire now to your tents & to your dreams.
Tomorrow we enter the town of my birth.
I want to be ready.’
The above is frequently discussed as 7 poems related to each other. Great stuff.
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Mrs. Robinson
Simon and Garfunkel, Lyrics: Paul Simon
And here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson
Jesus loves you more than you will know
Woah, woah, woah
God bless you, please, Mrs. Robinson
Heaven holds a place for those who pray
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
We’d like to know a little bit about you for our files
We’d like to help you learn to help yourself
Look around you, all you see are sympathetic eyes
Stroll around the grounds until you feel at home
And here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson
Jesus loves you more than you will know
Woah, woah, woah
God bless you, please, Mrs. Robinson
Heaven holds a place for those who pray
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
Hide it in a hiding place where no one ever goes
Put it in your pantry with your cupcakes
It’s a little secret, just the Robinson’s affair
Most of all, you’ve got to hide it from the kids
Coo-coo ca-choo, Mrs. Robinson
Jesus loves you more than you will know
Woah, woah, woah
God bless you, please, Mrs. Robinson
Heaven holds a place for those who pray
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
Sitting on a sofa on a Sunday afternoon
Going to the candidates’ debate
Laugh about it, shout about it
When you’ve got to choose
Every way you look at it, you lose
Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio?
A nation turns its lonely eyes to you
Wooh, wooh, wooh
What’s that you say, Mrs. Robinson?
Jolting Joe has left and gone away
Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey
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A nice topic. I wonder about reposting lyrics here though, since they could be considered part of the IP of a song, if it’s not in the public domain.
I tend to focus more on the music and arrangements when listening. But also enjoy a good turn of phrase, whether it be in a pop, rock, rap, or other type of song. When I think of good song lyrics, I think of folks like Lennon & McCartney, Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits, David Bowie, Debbie Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie, Tom Petty, Roger Waters of Pink Floyd, Rakim of Eric B & Rakim, Hal David of Bacharach & David (who did all those great tunes for Dionne Warwick), Jimmy Webb (who penned some of Glen Campbell’s best songs), and other folks like that.
Jim Morrison and Paul Simon are certainly also up there, as are many other great artists I’m forgettin at the moment. And I also have quite a fondness for both George Harrison’s music and lyrics. I suppose these are the sort of folks that come to mind though because they’re what I listened to when I was growin up.
There is a general exception in copyright for the purposes of illustration, criticism, and scholarly discussion. Also for posting excerpts. This is not commercial use in any way. The question of whether it is an excerpt remains, depending on whether you consider it one example from a body of work (which I do) or whether you consider it by itself. As the IP of a song generally is concerned with performance, and we are only talking about lyrics, I think the body of work rule would apply.
Note that you might as well be concerned about the IP of GIFs reposted here as memes, particularly if from entertainment media recently produced or still in syndication.
Note that there are many existing lyric repositories. For convenience, I tend to use them as I don’t fully trust my ears (As Whoopi Goldberg’s character says in Jumpin’ Jack Flash while listening to the namesake song, “Speak ENGLISH, Mick”). If I wrote down what I heard, would it not be my interpretation?
Chelsea Monday
Marillion, Lyrics: Fish
Catalogue princess, apprentice seductress
Hiding in her cellophane world in glitter town
Awaiting the prince in his white Capri
Dynamic young Tarzan courts the bedsit queen
She’s playing the actress in this bedroom scene
She’s learning her lines from glossy magazines
Stringing all her pearls from her childhood dreams
Auditioning for the leading role on the silver screen
Patience my tinsel angel
Patience my perfumed child
One day they really love you
You’ll charm them with that smile
But for now it’s just another Chelsea Monday
Drifting with her incense in the labyrinth of London
Playing games with faces in the neon wonderland
Perform to scattered shadows on the shattered cobbled aisles
Would she dare recite soliloquies at the risk of stark applause
She’ll pray for endless Sundays as she enters saffron sunsets
Conjure phantom lovers from the tattered shreds of dawn
Fulfilled and yet forgotten the St. Tropez mirage
Fragrant aphrodisiac, the withered tuberose
Patience my tinsel angel, patience my perfumed child
One day they really love you, you’ll charm them with that smile
But for now it’s just another Chelsea Monday
[Hello John, did you see The Standard about four hours ago?
Fished a young chick out of The Old Father
Blond hair, blue eyes. She said she wanted to be an actress or something
Nobody knows where she came from, where she was going
Funny thing was she had a smile on her face
She was smiling, what a waste]
Catalogue princess, apprentice seductress
Buried in her cellophane world in glitter town
Of Chelsea Monday
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A Mission In Life
Stan Ridgway
Sue, turn out the lights
It’s time to close up––we’re through
Gotta clear it out
So let’s drink up, it’s past two
Girl, don’t push 'em out
They can walk out on their own
How many times I gotta tell you, Bob
You gotta drink up and go home
I don’t run a business
Just to talk to you all day
Clear out the backroom, Sue
Stack up the chairs
Who broke this glass?
No one really cares
Go take the trash out
And vacuum the stairs
What do I
Pay you for?
And don’t forget to sweep up
The glass off the floor
Once I had plans
To fix up this place
A room where you could go to
And meet people with taste
They’d talk and they’d laugh
And forget the rat race
And I’d be just like one of those guys
With the moustache and face
Hey, help me pick up this case
Hey, I’m really sorry I blew up then
I’ve had no sleep
I’ve been up all night with my wife and brother-in-law
You know, Pete
At times, this world can seem
Just like a cold icy ball
But don’t let that discourage you
'Cause you’re young––take that call
And if it’s my wife
Just try and stall
I was just wondering
How you get home
Do you have a boyfriend?
Or do you live alone?
I’m going your way
If you’re going mine
No, I feel fine
But before you go
Let me just pass on one thing
You’ve got a mission in life
To hold out your hand
To help the other guy out
Help your fellow man
That’s why I own this bar
They’re thirsty outside
I give 'em oceans to drink
Then they drown in the tide
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I can’t address this topic without thick irony. But if you want a high word count…Aesop Rock:
[Aesop Rock (Busdriver):]
Yeah, no, I understand what you’re saying, but… is it sexier than torture?
(Shah, yeah, Los Angles)
(Under the cellulite laden thigh of the night)
(Yeah, oh shoot, lemme see if I can finish this)
(Okay, let’s go, yeah)
(We can make this better)
(We can make this better)
(We can make this better)
[Busdriver:]
Under the cellulite laden thigh of the night
I slip miniature mantras between my cries and gripes
Jewel-flavored crystals in the red, blue, and white stripes
While crowds throw numbers at me like The Price is Right
And downtime is never met with an overjoyed grin
Cause sleep and death have always been conjoined twins
You’d rather lick the red gills of pop art
Than your cement-filled pock marks
The withering tendrils from my wrought heart
Reach for a Benadryl like it was a lost ark
Cause my average day is for the body of aegis, they’re prompting these sieges
We cry to these seniors, living inside of splotchy Adidas
Serving consecutive sentences
My corrective lenses is ruby quartz
Yet my vision ain’t worth a jiggling of booty warts
Circumstances trap writers like Kathy Bates
Under a decolorized happy face
So my car ain’t covered in candy paint
But still the nanny state can’t fix the diaper rash
I’m pinging this on a cyber cast
Questioning news items playing pattycake with Ira Glass
The fact that this pony show’s racist
Stirs the colloquial cake mix and charges the homeostasis
Of all the homies who await us like we some Smokin’ Joe Fraziers
But my unchecked whining’s like some ceremonial plate shift
…
Source: AZLyrics
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For finding depth and meaning in minimalism, few can compare to Journey on this journey:
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I’m obviously not a copyright attorney. And this is not a subject I’ve delved into that much before. But it appears from the info on the US Copyright office site that lyrics are indeed intellectual property protected by copyright…
There are also no rules on how much of a work you can legally use under the fair use exception (when it’s applicable).
In an article for The Fader, music rights attorney Erin M. Jacobson also says that posting lyrics online is probably infringement, unless it has been cleared or licensed by the copyright holder, or is in the public domain. This applies to individuals and also to lyrics hosting sites like you described above.
Some more info on how musicians and music authors get paid for their work…
What about the commercial, for profit lyrics compilation sites I just cited above? AZLyrics, Genius, Lyrics.com, Songmeanings, etc. etc. etc. They’d surely receive legal attention about 8,000,000x sooner than this discussion, yet they have operated for 10 or 20 years…?
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I was thinking the same thing. Has Google paid ASCAP fees to every artist in the history of man for posting their lyrics?
See commentary from others on this regarding sites with lyric repositories. The IP space is complex, particularly when dealing with music, performance and media. Because musicians can derive income from playing recordings over the air, others performing covers (except non-profits, which is why the Girl Scouts are allowed to sing campfire songs, but the restaurant has their folks sing their own Happy Birthday song at your table), and the recording industry has its own people - RIAA and others - that try to assert other “rights”.
Like if you buy a song on an album, for years cassettes had a surcharge to pay for the “rights” if you did a needle drop to your cassette.
ASCAP is an intermediary that collects fees for copyright for artists in the US. The entire industry changes as tech changes and various groups, labels, promoters, and others try to get their piece of the pie.
The general thinking though, is if the use is non-commercial - as in the forum as opposed to the commercial side of headphones.com - and that it is in a context of a discussion about the lyrics, which is precisely what we are doing here, that this is exempt from any of the IP issues.
I also am not an IP attorney - but had been a professional involved with aspects of production and services to publishers in online, CD and print media in the scientific, technical, medical and education space. Now if you managed to post your performance of some of those lyrics, you might be in a different story, even if we critique your E above High C.
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My local dad rock cover band did a live Facebook gig from our rehearsal space on the night before New York state shut down due to COVID in March 2020. Just something to keep people’s spirits up and maybe attract 20 viewers.
We were SHOCKED – more than 2,000 people watched globally. It was a free show, obviously.
I received a warning from ASCAP a few days later about copyright infringment. I muttered, “F*ck off,” under my breath and ignored it. 
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I don’t see much wiggle room in the US Copyright office’s position on this. Song lyrics are protected according to them. And the copyright holder has the sole right to license, reproduce, and distribute them. That all seems pretty clear.
It also seems fairly clear that lyrics hosting would not fall within “fair use”. And I think it would be hard to argue fair use for a topic like this as well, since it doesn’t really seem to fit any of the definitions provided by the Copyright office. This is just my (uninformed) opinion though based on a simple reading of their docs.
I’d leave it to the informed copyright lawyers here, as they’ve been going at it hard since computer MIDI synth files began to circulate way back in the 1980s. They then destroyed public good will and severely damaged the music industry by going heavy against Napster and suing teenage downloaders 20 years ago. If they are fine with online lyrics sites…they see no legal avenue forward nor profit in hunting them…
Here’s another dimension, as Genius sued Google in 2019 over “stealing” its lyrics database. If the words are independently copied down as heard, they may or may not match the singers actual words or intent. Even the lyrics sheets/books in albums sometimes differ from the words in the actual song. Therefore, databases vary. See the Kingsmen’s “Louie, Louie” lyrics controversy of the 1960s. Beware of the link below, Smithsonian magazine also reproduces those horrid and dangerous lyrics.
Some lyrics websites now embed HTML code so it’s hard to copy-and-paste out the lyrics.
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Please go to YouTube and watch “Benny Lava” (Buffalax).
Let me know what you think the Copyright Office would say.
I have no idea what the Copyright office would say. If the song is an example of a parody though, then it might possibly qualify as a fair use exception. Maybe. Beyond that I dunno.
This is something that could change though. And based on the attorney’s opinions I posted above, they are not all fine with it.