Sometimes our readers request we publish the words to popular songs from the past or present.
People recall this was done years ago in the Young Co-operator’s pages.
During our newspaper’s 70th anniversary, several readers reminisced how they checked the Favorite Songs column for lyrics they liked, memorized the words and then practised their vocal talents while doing chores.
In our anniversary insert in 1993, we published their stories. One woman from Major, Sask., said she sang these songs while milking cows and it helped to relax the animals. (“The cows lay down, chewed their cud and looked forward for my next appearance and singing.”)
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Our reporter Mary MacArthur recalled cutting out the words and putting her crumpled piece of paper to good use. “It was during the silage-making season and for two weeks I drove the tractor back and forth across the silage pit and belted out the words to Candy Man over the engine of the little Massey-Ferguson 65.”
Song lyrics don’t appear now in our paper, for several reasons.
The YC pages have been replaced by KidSpin, which appears every second week in Western People magazine.
The space is smaller and aimed at a young audience; there is a lot of material, especially art and stories done by our talented young readers, leaving little room for lyrics.
The main barrier, however, is copyright. Western People managing editor Michael Gillgannon explained: “Printing song lyrics without permission violates the copyright law… (and) getting permission can be quite time consuming. Many song publishers insist on payment, in fact.” Even publishing Christmas carols is a challenge. We can only publish those in public domain, he said.
Alas for the cows and silage pits.
People are left to hum the unknown parts of songs they like.
