I'll never forget a guy in my dorm who once monopolized the dot-matrix printer for hours printing out all ZZ Top's lyrics. Not tablature and lyrics. Just lyrics.
And then we were *immediately* frustrated to learn that most of them were in fact not published by the original writers but by some superfan in a Cleveland basement with a hearing impairment. 😜
They will never understand the level of social capital one would have by possessing both a DSL modem and a CD-burner back in the days of Napster in the late 90s/early 2000s
The fact that IMDb existed in all of its simple HTML glory was amazing. That, and viewing previews on Apple QuickTime before they showed up in theaters was sooooo cool
Yeah, and it took 5 minutes for the page result to load over the dial-up 56k modem. Rotary Dial Phones were still a thing. Kids don't even know how to dial a rotary phone.
The nostalgia! You're absolutely right! The early days of the internet were thrilling, and being able to look up song lyrics online was a game-changer!
One of the earliest and few posts I made on Usenet was a lyrics post of a Smashing Pumpkins song that had just released in 1994, so this claim absolutely resonates with me
We used to text ChaCha to have someone else look up song lyrics on the internet and text them back to us. Texts were character limited though, so sometimes you had to ask for one verse at a time
I remember being so excited that some bands put them in the plastic cassette tape containers of their albums. I would reverently unfold all 8-10 folds and read all the liner notes and lyrics. Ahhh, musical heaven ❤️
Now omg! google first page, found 4,356,709, then you scroll, and it ends on page 28, saying now FOUND 278! and of these 278 we get bombarded with the same 5 sites! This is no internet anymore! bubbles
It was for keeping in touch when we were travelling in the summer as a phone call was extortionate as soon as you crossed a border.then, later on, things like p2p so you didn't have to buy all your music again.
Sometimes I feel like the internet is USELESS. That’s what it means to be a fan of Japanese bands that are interesting to 15 people around the world I guess
It’s hard to find lyrics. Especially on my native language or AT LEAST in English
Or you look up song meanings and there's always a comment like "The singer is expressing how they're secretly homosexual and struggling with drug addiction."
It was only then that I discovered that the lyrics to Blinded by the Light are "revved up like a deuce, another runner in the night", not "wrapped up like a douche".
Same! Between the source books for the Marvel RPG from the late ’80s and the internet, I know so much more about every member of the West Coast Avengers than anyone should, and I've never read the comic.
I'm a young people, and looking up song lyrics was what blew my mind when I first gained access to the internet lol. If anyone remembers what their first internet experience was, then they might understand 😭
Oh my goodness, I bought all my favourite stuff on PureTacks, but your Digital Rights file could get corrupted, so you’d have to redownload them regularly. But then that company went bankrupt.
Bonfire bought them out and honoured the purchases. For a while I could redownload them. Then Bonfire bit…
I was more excited to be able to talk to and forge relationships irl with all sorts of writers. First via usenet groups and then on commercial BBS like Cix. Many of my first writing work came that way, as well as interesting discussions with people that would have otherwise been unreachable.
Until as recently as last year I thought the lyrics to Shake It Off was "the fella over there with the alligator hair." Even looked up what alligator hair was thinking it was a new hairstyle. Honestly it never occurred to me to look up the lyrics.
"Big ol' Jeb had a light on" by the Steve Miller Band and
and "Wrapped up like a douche" by Manfred Mann's Earth Band, will always be the correct lyrics to me
I thought it went " wrapped up like a douche in the middle of the night" 🤣🤣 seemed like a rough night to get through. I truly do ever want to memorize the "actual" lyrics lol, I believe the versions you and I know, are superb
Honestly I still am, I use iTunes for that very reason today. Kids today will never understand the struggle. Remember when they got the lyric machine at the record shop?There was a line every time I went.It’s nostalgic and I get kinda melancholy.Time has flown by so fast you’d think it’s got wings!
My sister and I had a binder that we kept song lyrics of hundreds of songs. Like, it was ridiculous. Some of them were printed out once we realized we could print them in the library at school, but a lot of them were hand-written.
I didn't get excited until 2012 when I joined Facebook. Since then I have 2 FB accounts with nearly 5K friends on each, and an Instagram account. Now I have jumped from Twitter ( before "Leon" Musk destroyed it!) After 2 weeks, I have over 300 followers.
Does anyone else remember the early 90s #R.E.M. mailing list dedicated to figuring out and transcribing their lyrics? I think I still have the archive somewhere on an old floppy disc. @remhq.bsky.social @remlyrics.bsky.social
I remember my brother playing gangsters paradise, over and over again, writing the lyrics down.
I used to play it fast and loose though, just making similar sounds. That's why I was singing "like a bat outta hell I'd be gone with the money, gone." To Meatloaf. Having no idea I was saying it wrong 😅
Broooooo lol ask jeeves was still the shit, and yahoo I truly thought would have been as fly as Google. But nope lol I still do want the AIM sounds on my phone.
Comments
https://www.kissthisguy.com/
https://youtu.be/LucfKdukf10?si=auF1fn9e99cKmz49
OH NO THIS IS NOT A SONG
“My mom has boobs,
I read it in a magazine, nooooo.
Ba ba ba Benny & The Jets.”
“Where have I seen that actor before?”
Down the rabbit hole 🕳️
It’s hard to find lyrics. Especially on my native language or AT LEAST in English
(Who else B lined for Smells Like Teen Spirit and still doesn't understand the lyrics?)
Galileo, Galileo …’ 😳
https://classicmarvelforever.com/cms/
Bonfire bought them out and honoured the purchases. For a while I could redownload them. Then Bonfire bit…
Do miss group transcription though.
It's only going to get worse with AI.
and "Wrapped up like a douche" by Manfred Mann's Earth Band, will always be the correct lyrics to me
*...wrapped up like a douche, another roamer in the night...*
I always thought that part of the song was about a real creeper
Of Fred's two feet
Standing in a chow line
Good Times!
Revved up like a deuce
Another runner in the night
I used to play it fast and loose though, just making similar sounds. That's why I was singing "like a bat outta hell I'd be gone with the money, gone." To Meatloaf. Having no idea I was saying it wrong 😅
~me singing along to Van Halen as a kid and also well into my 20s~