Re: Rang decay & a random question

[buzzard@world.std.com (Sean T Barrett)]

>  And now the random question. Anyone know of a good place on the net to
>find lyrics to old tunes? I'm looking for the words to a late 50's/early
>60's tune called "Sea Cruise". Oo-wee, baby.

Here's what I do:

Pick some memorable phrase from the lyrics (assuming you
remember any of it at all) that you can't imagine anyone
ever using outside of those lyrics.

Go to http://www.altavista.digital.com

For your search, enter your phrase in quotes, e.g.:

  "these are words with a d this time"

It is best to search for a string of words that would
appear on one line of a lyric sheet (not across multiple
lines), due to possible problems with how they format the text.
(But you can try a multiline quote if you want).  Don't
capitalize any of the words, or AV will look for exactly
that capitalization.

The only problem is that you have to remember the words
precisely, word-for-word, and whoever typed them in needs
to have not misspelled them.


here are some sample results:

 "writing the words to a sermon"
   6 hits (i didn't check them all to see if they were full lyrics,
   but it's best to pick a line that's not from the chorus or first
   verse, as you may hit guitar tab or such that only has the first
   verse and chorus)

 "i don't know much about science"
   11 hits, only one of which was the song I was looking for

 "but my bee stung tongue"
   8 hits, most of which were the lyrics (note that the actual
   texts say 'bee-stung', but altavista does the right thing
   in this case), a couple were reviews quoting this phrase

Sean
PS:
  King Crimson, Elephant Talk
  The Beatles, Eleanor Rigby
  Lisa Germano, My Secret Reason
  Belly, The Bees