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The lyrical Web
There are hundreds of sites on the Web that feature song lyrics. A recent cyber-tour of a number of these destinations revealed an extraordinary range of material from the sublime to the ridiculous. Whether representative of the former or the latter category, each site examined has something to offer that makes it worth a "look see."
LyricsFreak (http://www.lyricsfreak.com/) is one of the best lyrics sites because of its advance-search feature and its wide coverage. Search for artists with the name Frank and you will find the lyrics of both Frank Sinatra and Frank Zappa. Scan the top-100 list of artists and you'll note Dolly Parton is on the list, along with Pink Floyd. Or browse artists alphabetically under the letter "N" and you'll discover Nat King Cole and Nine Inch Nails. Perhaps you like interesting tidbits of information with your lyrics. If so, try Songfacts (http://www.songfacts.com/) which is devoted to "song meanings, lyrics and trivia." Songs from 1933 to the present are included. As you explore this site, you are directed to interesting categories of songs, such as "protest songs" (http://tinyurl.com/ywkty5), "songs inspired by books" (http://tinyurl.com/mhmbu), "songs inspired by cars" (http://tinyurl.com/2yltle) and "TV show theme songs" (http://tinyurl.com/2x7fwx).
Perhaps camp songs are more your speed. The ultimatecampresource Web site (http://www.ultimatecampresource.com/) has a page devoted to them at http://tinyurl.com/yjz4zc. As stated on the page, most camp songs can be sung loudly and off key. On this page you'll find the lyrics to classic camp songs, silly camp songs, songs in a round and songs with motions. The page boasts more than 400 in all, including "The Sophisticated Row Row Row Your Boat," which ends "Existence is merely an illusion" rather than "Life is but a dream."
And then there are folk song lyrics. The Folk Music of England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales and America (http://www.contemplator.com/folk.html) site features "lullabies," "songs of home," "songs of war" and "songs of the sea." Also included are songs of "true love, sad and tragic love," as well as "false love, unrequited love, and the battle of the sexes."
Of course as always when surfing the Web, you really can get drawn into the topic at hand. You may find yourself doing foolish things, like trying SongTapper (http://www.songtapper.com/), where you can find musical lyrics by tapping the rhythm of the song's melody on your space bar. So what did I end up doing? I wasted close to 15 minutes trying to get the darn site to recognize "Yellow Submarine" while it kept telling me that I had tapped in "We all live in a convict colony," which is based on the Beatles' song. I wrote my own lyrics at Greg's Country and Western Song-Writing Machine Web site (http://www.kraftmstr.com/songwriter/index.html). And, I spent a chunk of time reading people's postings of misheard lyrics on the Archive of Misheard Lyrics site (http://www.kissthisguy.com/).
Did I really need to know that some guy's friend thought that the Eagles were singing "Lice in the Vaseline," rather than "Life in the fast lane?" I guess I did.
—Gemma DeVinney, University Libraries