June 09, 2005

Curious George: Best lyrics sites? I often have to find lyrics so I can transcribe (or at least learn) songs that my guitar students have requested. Everything from Hillary Duff to Harry Chapin or Third Eye Blind (that's just this afternoon). A Google search usually results in a heapload of crap (poor formatting, spelling, inaccurate, etc.). Any suggestions or discoveries?
posted by Jerry Junior 19 years ago
  • Hillary Duff? Third Eye Blind? Obvious: This is a good thing. Just tell them you couldn't find them. Then slip them something that might actually educate them. Dylan?
  • Oddly, I would think that guitar tab sites would be good for your purposes. I find they give me good results when I look for folk or country lyrics, so I check them first when they come up in the search results.
  • Is it bad form if I point out that this is JJ's second post in a single day?
  • Get the rope.
  • The first one didn't count, because no one commented on it cept me.
  • I mostly go with Google, type in the name of the song in quotes, open a relevant cached page 'coz the Google cache tends to be fast, rinse, repeat if necessary. That sounds obvious, but I am wary of how a tiny amount of google-fu can make the difference between a crappy search and a productive one.
  • I don't think that anyone needs to tell Jerry Junior to educate his students on Dylan. But, for you others, you might want to consult The Book of Bob.
  • That's great, bernockle. Of course there is always this, which has strange variations (I think this is the definitive text). But I bet your link has some stuff not found on the Sony site. Over all, given my recent past history and reputation I should have known better than to ask such a stupid loaded question. I'll have to keep wading through the dregs of the internets to get my Hillary Duff lyrics.
  • Is it bad form if I point out that this is JJ's second post in a single day? My understanding is that it is OK to ask a question even if you have a link on the front page. But I catch hell for it every time so maybe it's not worth it. Next time I'll wait.
  • Of course, neither site has the lyrics to the alternate take of "Jokerman," which are absolutely astounding. I downloaded it once (it was very fuzzy) and promptly lost it when I bought a new computer right after that. I probably only heard it five times, but it was magical.
  • I have a line on that, bernockle. Indeed it is wonderful. Infidels is how I got into Bob.
  • /derail
  • I find that after judicious use of adblock and "Remove it Permanently" extensions for firefox as well as the proxomitron that most of the shitty www-download-mp3s-free-lyrics-cellphone-ringtones.com type sites are adequate. Oh, and be sure to use a popup blocker as well. It's a damn shame that olga.net removed their lyrics. Back in the day that would have killed both birds(transcribing/lyrics) with the same stone.
  • The OS X.4 Lyrics widgets are working not to bad. Go figure.
  • It's a damn shame that olga.net removed their lyrics. OLGA can still be found - at least, I know we had a full copy of it on our home computer for a couple of years after the site shut down. I doubt we still do but I bet there are people out there who have it.
  • I know we had a full copy of it on our home computer for a couple of years after the site shut down. I doubt we still do but I bet there are people out there who have it.

    That's a good point. I remember making my own copy of it several years ago on several dozen floppies. Maybe I should look in the usual places one would go to find copywritten material available for download.

    Also I just remembered that this other website I frequent has a user-run internet radio station and they use this site's lyrics database. Seems free of a lot of the BS you typically find in google search results for lyrics. You can also upload lyrics and make comments and corrections if you care to create an account there.