This is x-posted from the Forum entry I just made: http://songmeanings.com/forum/topic/71300/

I just want to leave a note of thanks to the administrations and community who started and are keeping SM alive.

I just logged back in last night and discovered the full list of lyrics I had transcribed over the years (dating back a decade), which not only led to me on a dangerous iTunes spree to recover all that I had loved but lost between numerous computer break-downs, but also brought back many fond memories of a thriving community back in a day when crowd-sourcing was but a notional practice without a name. Because of the many people who lend to the community their time and energy to transcribe and comment on the music that they love, the paucity in archiving/ documenting music is partially filled.

SM doesn't seem to be as sparkly or as popular as other sites like Genius thesedays, but I really cannot think of any other sites that can quite claim to have contributed to the centralisation and proliferation of English lyrics online. I know this intimately because I see many lyric sites with lyrics ripped off from here hook, line and sinker--importing the many idiosyncracies, mistakes, misheard words and notations that SM contributors have.

So thanks again, SM, for this amazing and wonderful resource over the years.

Someone noted at Rosebuds' "Blue Bird" entry that the lyrics all over the internet for the song are inaccurate.  I'd hazard that most of the lyrics everywhere are wrong simply because many other sites use engines to collate new lyrics on the internet, many originating from transcription at SongMeanings by its users.  So when the lyrics are wrong here, the bad gene gets carried through.  

To correct this in the past, users could readily edit the lyrics in the SM database, but the many licensing agreements that now govern many lyrics prevent edits from going through.  Instead, what we get is a note informing us that the correction has been submitted to the lyrics' owners for approval, even though SM is unable to guarantee that anything will come out of it.

This. Sucks.

I don't check this site often for comments, so if you're eager to have amendments made--other than leaving a comment at the lyrics' page, please drop me a Private Message. Thanks much!

Sometimes I wish admins wouldn't go correcting whole chunks of lyrics while bypassing original transcribers. I get that the main point is that lyrics reflect accuracy, but some of us have a certain philosophy towards transcription that unilateral corrections do not reflect. Besides, not all of us are inactive at updating our lyrics; maybe this is partly due to a system lacking a messaging system that allows readers to get in touch with posters directly. Especially important when some lyrics gain so much response that it's hard to tease the corrective messages from the interpretive ones. Just a thought born from my petty disbelief. /whine

I just realised that some lyrics that I copied and pasted directly from some artistes' websites are lacking punctuation which I never get down to adding (e.g. Bowerbirds songs). The funny thing is I'm usually somewhat fussy about punctuations when it comes to my own transcription, but when lyrics are available I find providing them verbatim more honest on my part. (Does that even make sense? Hmmm...)

I'm a big follower of the music blog My Old Kentucky Blog that focusses mainly on American indie artistes. The exercise in transcribing lyrics of songs by artistes featured there are my way of adding to the knowledge base lacking in the scene, and hopefully also help to put these acts on the radar. Unless readily available, lyrics are transcribed to the best of my listening comprehension, and depend largely on user input for verification to improve accuracy.