# Is there a definitive or official source for lyrics?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-or-official-source-for-lyrics/533802
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 25, 2010, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-or-official-source-for-lyrics/533802 "2010-03-25T21:31:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 13
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2010, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-or-official-source-for-lyrics/533802/1 "2010-03-25T21:31:51Z")
If a band doesn’t have lyrics on their website, isn’t there a place anywhere that has decent lyrics? Anywhere?
I was trying to figure out some words to a song the other day (_Smokin’ Bowl_ by the Real McKenzies), and did a lyrics search on Google. All the usual suspects came up: [lyricsondemand.com](http://lyricsondemand.com), [lyricsmania.com](http://lyricsmania.com), [mp3lyrics.org](http://mp3lyrics.org), [plyrics.com](http://plyrics.com)… The first one I checked had a few things that didn’t sound right, and I didn’t trust it because of misspellings and lack of capitalization. So I checked the next site. Same errors, also all lowercase. Ditto the next site. And the next one. And the next one. One site credited the lyrics to some dude named Justin. The others didn’t credit them at all.
I’m assuming here that somebody sat around the house one day, guessed at the words to the song, and submitted them to a website. All the other sites copied them. Is that pretty much it? Is there anyplace that actually verifies lyrics or gets them from the bands?
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### Author:  [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2010, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-or-official-source-for-lyrics/533802/2 "2010-03-25T21:51:22Z")
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:1, topic:533802”]
If a band doesn’t have lyrics on their website, isn’t there a place anywhere that has decent lyrics? Anywhere?
I was trying to figure out some words to a song the other day (_Smokin’ Bowl_ by the Real McKenzies), and did a lyrics search on Google. All the usual suspects came up: [lyricsondemand.com](http://lyricsondemand.com), [lyricsmania.com](http://lyricsmania.com), [mp3lyrics.org](http://mp3lyrics.org), [plyrics.com](http://plyrics.com)… The first one I checked had a few things that didn’t sound right, and I didn’t trust it because of misspellings and lack of capitalization. So I checked the next site. Same errors, also all lowercase. Ditto the next site. And the next one. And the next one. One site credited the lyrics to some dude named Justin. The others didn’t credit them at all.
I’m assuming here that somebody sat around the house one day, guessed at the words to the song, and submitted them to a website. All the other sites copied them. Is that pretty much it? Is there anyplace that actually verifies lyrics or gets them from the bands?
[/QUOTE]
Gah, the worst example of this I know of is a Steeleye Span song I one attempted to find the lyrics to - the long version of _Montrose_. All of the lyrics sites I could find were filled with horrible errors, ones that did not even make sense.
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2010, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-or-official-source-for-lyrics/533802/3 "2010-03-25T22:05:02Z")
I got a bad virus from a lyrics site. I had googled the song name +lyrics and clicked the link.
I saw the lyrics. Then Norton pops up with several quarantined files. It didn’t stop everything. Virtual Monde is nasty. Malware Bytes would clean it and it was back days later. I eventually had to format and reinstall windows.
I’d love to know the name of a lyrics and tabs site that is considered safe. I love music and enjoy looking at lyrics.
Wish I’d seen this before I got hit.
> [@](#):
>
> A new research report by U.S.-based antivirus software company McAfee has identified the most dangerous Internet search words that place users on pages with a higher likelihood of cyber attacks.
> [@](#):
>
> Riskiest terms: word unscrambler, lyrics, myspace, free music downloads, phelps, game cheats, printable fill-in puzzles, free ringtones and solitaire.
> **[What are the most dangerous search terms on the Internet? - CNN.com](https://www.cnn.com/2009/BUSINESS/06/10/Internet.search.terms/index.html)**
>
> If you like to search for "music lyrics" or "free" things, you are engaging in risky cyber behavior. And "free music downloads" puts 20 percent of Web surfers in harm's way of malicious software, known as "malware."
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2010, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-or-official-source-for-lyrics/533802/4 "2010-03-25T22:31:56Z")
Oh, spiffy.
That makes me want to find some kind of “official” site even more.
I wonder if these guys all pull from a common database somewhere.
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### Author:  [@PatriotGrrrl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatriotGrrrl)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-or-official-source-for-lyrics/533802/5 "2010-03-25T23:05:41Z")
How about [LyricWiki](http://lyrics.wikia.com/Main_Page)? There, at least the obvious errors get fixed.
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### Author:  [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2010, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-or-official-source-for-lyrics/533802/6 "2010-03-25T23:15:20Z")
Cool site, **Grrrl**! Thanks for pointing it out. Doesn’t have the particular song I’m looking for, but I’ll definitely be using it in the future.
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2010, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-or-official-source-for-lyrics/533802/7 "2010-03-25T23:16:57Z")
A Wiki would be a good source. The most accurate lyrics are posted by fans from the album’s liner notes (cd booklet). Otherwise, it’s a matter of posting what they “think” they hear. At least with a wiki, others can correct any errors.
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### Author:  [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)
#### Post date: [March 25, 2010, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-or-official-source-for-lyrics/533802/8 "2010-03-25T23:47:18Z")
😃 The wiki covers just about everything. They’ve done a great job. I’m keeping this site bookmarked.
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### Author:  [@Rrose\_Selavy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rrose_Selavy)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2010, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-or-official-source-for-lyrics/533802/9 "2010-03-26T01:03:07Z")
> [@aceplace57](#):
>
> 😃 The wiki covers just about everything. They’ve done a great job. I’m keeping this site bookmarked.
I’d hoped but do a search and you might find this too often:
> [@](#):
>
> Unfortunately, we are not licensed to display the full lyrics for this song at the moment. Hopefully we will be able to in the future. Until then, how about a random page?
yes many lyrics sites are laden with Malware , and lyrics searches are obviously big businesss on the web but most sites are illegal as lyrics are often heavily protected by copyright restrictions and the real expense of displaying them legally seems too much to have a free definitive extensive legal site..
eg:
[http://lyrics.wikia.com/Queen:The\_Night\_Comes\_Down](http://lyrics.wikia.com/Queen:The_Night_Comes_Down)
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### Author:  [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2010, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-or-official-source-for-lyrics/533802/10 "2010-03-26T01:10:09Z")
Phelps? As in Fred, or Michael?
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### Author:  [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2010, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-or-official-source-for-lyrics/533802/11 "2010-03-26T16:12:07Z")
> [@Rrose\_Selavy](#):
>
> Yes many lyrics sites are laden with Malware , and lyrics searches are obviously big business on the web but most sites are illegal as lyrics are often heavily protected by copyright restrictions and the real expense of displaying them legally seems too much to have a free definitive extensive legal site..
A moment of silence please for [Lyrics.ch](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Lyrics_Server) and the earlier lyrics archive at uwp.edu.
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### Author:  [@FalconFinder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FalconFinder)
#### Post date: [March 26, 2010, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-or-official-source-for-lyrics/533802/12 "2010-03-26T22:08:29Z")
Thanks for dredging up that painful reminder… I do so miss Lyrics.ch and remember when it was taken down. ☹
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### Author:  [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)
#### Post date: [March 27, 2010, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-definitive-or-official-source-for-lyrics/533802/13 "2010-03-27T01:54:23Z")
> [@FalconFinder](#):
>
> Thanks for dredging up that painful reminder… I do so miss Lyrics.ch and remember when it was taken down. ☹
I knew the guy who started the Lyrics Server at UWP, which was the precursor to Lyrics.ch. He did it to try to get enough traffic to force the university to upgrade their connection (which was a 56k line at the time).