Newsgroups: alt.music.lyrics,alt.answers,news.answers Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!panix!news.mathworks.com!uhog.mit.edu!news.mtholyoke.edu!news.umass.edu!news2.near.net!howland.reston.ans.net!news.cac.psu.edu!news.tc.cornell.edu!www.geo.cornell.edu!news.alias.net!myriad.pc.cc.cmu.edu!enigma.jpunix.com!netcom.com!dhalgren From: dhalgren@netcom.com (David Filippi) Subject: alt.music.lyrics Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) Message-ID: Followup-To: alt.music.lyrics Sender: dhalgren@netcom12.netcom.com Reply-To: dhalgren@netcom.com Organization: frolick and gambol, ltd, west coast office Date: Fri, 21 Apr 1995 20:43:29 GMT Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Expires: Fri, 26 May 1995 20:43:29 GMT Lines: 248 Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu alt.music.lyrics:10105 alt.answers:8803 news.answers:42437 Archive-Name: music/lyrics-faq Posting-frequency: monthly, around the 21st Last-modified: Sat Apr 6 14:00:00 PST 1995 Frequently Asked Questions for alt.music.lyrics by David Filippi Last revised: 6 Apr 1995 ----------------------------- Subject: Table of Contents 1. WHERE CAN I GET SOME? 2. FREQUENTLY REQUESTED LYRICS 2.1. REM LYRICS ARE AVAILABLE AT: 2.2. BLINDED BY THE LIGHT... 2.3. HOTEL CALIFORNIA 2.4. STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN / OTHER LED ZEPPELIN LYRICS 2.5. AMERICAN PIE 3. HOW TO POST A REQUEST 3.1. HOW TO POST LYRICS 4. ABOUT alt.music.lyrics 4.1. IS a.m.l GATEWAY'D TO ANY MAILING LISTS OR FTP SITES? 5. LIST OF PUBLICALLY ACCESSIBLE MUSIC SITES 6. SEND COMMENTS, CONTRIBUTIONS, etc., TO: Subject: 1. WHERE CAN I GET SOME? * * * Please try ftp.uwp.edu or one of its mirrors for lyrics, in the * * * directory /pub/music/lyrics/[first letter of artist's name]/[artist]. * * * If you know of any other sites, please e-mail me (reply to this article.) The canonical lyrics archive, hereafter "uwp". A uwp mirror. It's in Germany -- North Americans should try uwp first. Another German music site -- the above href is the English language home page. Contains a link to the following mirror of uwp: A mirror of uwp. ftp.sunet.se/pub/music/lyrics/ *NO LONGER IN SERVICE.* A pointer directs inquiries to "uwp." An alternative source for many popular lyrics. Joe Bethancourt's SCA, Celtic, Filk, and Folk collection. Here's an example of how to get the lyrics for Beck's "Loser": (By the way, the Spanish -- "Soy un perdedor" -- means "I'm a loser.") ftp ftp.uwp.edu cd pub cd music cd lyrics cd b cd beck get loser ------------------------------ Subject: 2. FREQUENTLY REQUESTED LYRICS ------------------------------ Subject: 2.1. REM LYRICS ARE AVAILABLE AT: Or, send mail to fables@lynchburg.edu with "send lyrics" in the body of the message. You will be mailed an entire lyrics archive. For lyrics to a specific song only, place "send lyrics." in the message body. Michael Stipe can be difficult to understand. There are reports that he no longer recalls the original words to some of his songs and must sing "sound-alike" lyrics in concert. This is probably intentional, for some artistic reason or another; and it probably happens all the time (Phish reportedly follows the traffic in rec.music.phish and modifies what they sing to play head games with their audience.) So, it's not the end of the world as we know it. Post your misheard lyrics here in alt.music.lyrics. And relax. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.2. BLINDED BY THE LIGHT... Wrapped up like a goose in the middle of the night Held up by a ...deuce... another ruler in the night ...douche... ..."dooshent"... Slapped up by a dude... Knocked up by... The lyrics according to the liner notes in Greetings From Asbury Pary, N.J., Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band: And she was blinded by the light Cut loose like a deuce another runner in the night Et cetera. Nobody seems to know for sure, and the song has been recorded (differently?) by various artists. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.3. HOTEL CALIFORNIA The word in question is "colitas." It's something to eat. Complete lyrics may be found at: ------------------------------ Subject: 2.4. STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN / OTHER LED ZEPPELIN LYRICS You can find them on ftp.uwp.edu. So quit asking. Want more info? Send mail to listserv@cornell.edu with the phrase "INFO ZEPPELIN-L" in the message body. Follow the instructions of the reply. ------------------------------ Subject: 2.5. AMERICAN PIE It's by Don MacLean; and it was reportedly inspired by the death of Buddy Holly. The lyrics are on uwp -- beginning to detect a theme here? ------------------------------ Subject: 3. HOW TO POST A REQUEST If you've tried the lyrics ftp sites above with no luck, you can ask the readers of the group for help. Make your subject line look something like this: REQUEST: Santana lyrics to "Oye Como Va" If you are feeling pedantic, add the word "request" to your Keywords line. Some people like to add an "Obligatory Lyrics" line to their posts: ObLyrics: "My red, is so confident he flashes trophies of war and ribbons Of euphoria. Orange is young full of daring but Very unsteady for the first go-round." -- jimi hendrix This gives folks who aren't able to answer your request some compensation for reading your post. But you don't have to if you don't want. Don't sweat it. ------------------------------ Subject: 3.1. HOW TO POST LYRICS If you are responding to a request, please take the word "REQUEST" out of the subject line (and the rest of the header!) Make your subject line look something like this: LYRICS: to "Hall of Heads" by They Might Be Giants Please cite the source of your lyrics (i.e. best guess, FTP site, album insert, song-book, Usenet post) if you can remember it. If your newsreader allows it, check to see whether someone else has posted the lyrics in question, before you try. This saves on effort and bandwidth -- also the reason, incidentally, for this FAQ. ------------------------------ Subject: 4. ABOUT alt.music.lyrics The original newgroup message can be found at: Since most sites don't honor netcom control messages, you are probably reading the group courtesy of someone else's booster newgroup. Thanks, folks. (Can't get alt.music.lyrics? Contact your news admin!) FROM THE NEWGROUP MESSAGE: For your newsgroups file: alt.music.lyrics Discussion of song lyrics. Charter: This group is for posting of non-copyrighted/public domain song lyrics; for discussion of song lyrics, and for posting of original lyrics for comments and criticism. While excerpting copyrighted lyrics for the purpose of discussion ("fair use") is encouraged, posting of copyrighted lyrics in full is discouraged. END OF NEWGROUP MESSAGE Why all the skirting around the issue? Well, I don't want to encourage illegal activities. One poster to a.m.l accused me of wanting to create a forum for bad original lyrics and mutual back-patting, "sort of like alt.lesbian.feminist.poetry." Actually, I'm more worried about copyright issues. Usenet is largely a text-based medium (apart from occasional MIME files) and is well-suited for the posting of lyrics. I can't imagine that the record companies would object to our copyright violations either -- give up all that free publicity? If you disagree, I wouldn't mind hearing about it via e-mail, but don't expect me to argue with you. ------------------------------ Subject: 4.1. IS a.m.l GATEWAY'D TO ANY MAILING LISTS OR FTP SITES? Beats me. Probably not; and it probably should be. ------------------------------ Subject: 5. LIST OF PUBLICALLY ACCESSIBLE MUSIC SITES The following two sites are "indices" to other sites -- far too many to include in this document. Lots of them have lyrics. The Ultimate Band List -- Main Page: Internet Underground Music Archive: ------------------------------ Subject: 6. SEND COMMENTS, CONTRIBUTIONS, etc., TO: David Filippi This file is copyright 1995 by David S. Filippi. All rights, except those under the category of "fair use" and "personal use," are reserved. -- FISH APHRODISIAC - and it's you they'll love. dhalgren@netcom.com