Lyrics Site

May 19, 2004 1:18 PM

I need a good lyrics site, something reliable that doesn't want to spam me with popup ads, doesn't want to install spyware all over my computer, doesn't want to give me worthless e-coupons. Googling for lyrics always leads me to slimy dens of crap. Any recommendations for lyrics sites that play nice?
posted by jdroth to Computers & Internet (9 answers total)

This has been asked a couple of times: 1, 2, 3.

Consensus seems to be just googling the lyrics works for most, particularly after installing a pop-up killer (and I would add that often viewing the google-cache of those sites is less painful than the sites themselves).
posted by gleuschk at 1:37 PM on May 19, 2004

(Also, don't take my word for it on that "consensus" -- there are several other recommendations in the threads.)
posted by gleuschk at 1:38 PM on May 19, 2004

Response by poster: Thank you, kind glueschk, for pointing out the previous threads. I read AskMe religiously, yet I've somehow managed to miss three previous threads on this very subject? Yikes.

What we need around here is an AskMe FAQ in which very-frequently asked questions like this (and "can you recommend a good bike?", etc.) are kept updated. Then bozos like me won't post a fourth question on the same subject! :)
posted by jdroth at 1:43 PM on May 19, 2004

My reccomendation (not very popular since it was down for a very long time) is Songmeanings. It's a great idea for a website (every song has lyrics and a message board where you can talk about the song's meaning.) Unfortunately, much of the comments are in the "This song Rules/Sucks" vein. Only google-type ads, no pop-up, and fast loading.
posted by ALongDecember at 1:53 PM on May 19, 2004

Sometimes if the top match for a lyric search is one of those known sites with a ton of pop-ups, I'll simply copy the url and paste it into a unix terminal window I have open. Lynx (or Links) will quickly open up the page without any pop-ups or graphic clutter. Maybe a roundabout way, but it works for me.
posted by gluechunk at 3:20 PM on May 19, 2004

I like Chordie, because of the smooth reformatting of the scraped content, and the transposition tools.
posted by mwhybark at 6:19 PM on May 19, 2004

I agree, Googling does seem to work wonders, the #1 response is nearly always the one I end up going to. Haven't had any problems with popups or sluggishness though, but I use a proper Web browser (ohh, sneak attack!)
posted by wackybrit at 6:31 PM on May 19, 2004

I had this same problem -- I wanted lyrics, quickly, and without ads. My solution was to create an Instiki on my own box that would house the lyrics. This way I only have to look up the lyrics once.

There's not much on there now, but I figure if I have bunch of people working on it, it should grow quickly. So have at it!
posted by pealco at 9:19 PM on May 19, 2004

Evil Lyrics is an amazing plugin for most media players that automatically finds (by scraping most of the wellknown sites on demand), displays, sorts, saves, and manages lyrics for you as songs are played. Fucking brilliant - my fave new piece of software in yonks.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 2:24 AM on May 20, 2004