I just came across an article in The Guardian about a company called Lyrics Culture (follow the link so I don’t have to quote the whole thing). Their idea is simply to stick lyrics on T-shirts and clothes and sell them. So? So not much, except for one thing. They have come to an agreement with the publishers and are actually paying the songwriters for the right to use the lyrics. I’ve often said that lyrics were the untapped goldmine of the music world. So it’s nice to see someone come up with a way of using them. But without wanting to be a killjoy, it’s worth pointing out two things…

The article bills this as, “Could jeans save the music industry?” I quote: “My goal is to save the music business,” owner Hanna Rochelle Schmieder told the Associated Press, full of humility. “This is about generating new revenue streams for musicians. The record companies take a piece of the tour and the merchandise, but they can’t take a piece of this.”

The idea of one-off T-shirt sales saving the music industry is almost laughable. Also, if you look at the catalogue, you’ll only find clothes from the most popular songs in the world - hardly the people that are short of a few pence to buy a T-shirt. Plus, the idea that record companies “can’t take a piece of this” is disingenuous as the record companies are the ones that made these tunes huge in the first place. Instead of the record labels, it is their publishing companies that will get a slice of the pie.

Still, fair play to Ms Schmieder! It’s a good idea, and she’s playing by the book. Check her site here.

By the way, on a similar line, you’ll find a famous quote from Elvis Costello in our Lyric Goodie shop too.

I was on Wikipedia and happened to fall into the Eurodance and Europop pages. Yup, Haddaway, Snap! 2 Unlimited, Capella and all that jazz. It was nice to see that CB Milton’s “It’s a Loving Thing” - a song I co-wrote - was listed as the sixth most “Notable Eurodance Song”. OK, it’s hardly the most scientific listing, but I’ve always liked that song - in particular the slightly ambiguous lyrics in the second verse…

There are so many stories to tell about that period that I wouldn’t know where to start. CB, for example, is about the only singer I’ve ever known who drove a little yellow sports car before he even released his first single. He was doing very well for himself singing in clubs. And what a singer he was! I saw him once throw his microphone away and sing “Redemption Song” at an Amsterdam theatre. Who needs amps with a voice like his?

Anyway, 1994’s “Loving Thing” was one of his biggest hits alongside “Open Your Heart” (which I also co-wrote with Peter Bauwens and Phil Wilde). We were on a roll by the time it was being written, having done a lot of work on 2 Unlimited. But CB was something else. We could combine the hard dance vibe of the day with his stunning soulful voice. It’s a dream gig in a way: a guy that really digs heavy electronic dance but can sing his ass off. So as writers, we could do almost anything.

I’ve often been asked about the second verse, so here it is.

2 girls in a lonely town wonder what’s in store
They had dreams of running around, but one don’t run no more
In other days, with other boys, she’d laugh and walk on by
But whereas once she never loved, she knows that she will try
It’s a loving thing

The whole song is basically about the changes that love can make in life, even if they are slightly bittersweet in this verse (a girl losing her best pal to a bloke). Looking at it now, I wonder why I used the word “whereas”, which is an unusual choice. I think now I’d simply put, “Even though she’d never loved, she knows that she will try…” Ah, retrospect!

I still think it’s a cracking song though and wonder why it hasn’t been covered by one of the younger groups. I think it could really build someone’s career all over again. Who do you think would do “It’s a Loving Thing” justice?

This is a last-minute notice for anyone in Belgium. One of my longest-standing writing partners, Perry Rose, will be doing a special show on Tuesday 19 and Wednesday August 20 in the town of Huy. He has been given a carte blanche to invite a few people on stage with him (and a second night to fit them and all the audience in). So Perry being Perry, he has invited some of the best singers he’s gigged with over the past 15 years or so. This includes Bai Kamara Jr, Jil Caplan, Sacha Toorop and Marie Warnant. I’ve seen him do this sort of thing before. It makes for a great show. Get more details on the Huy Art Festival.

Check Perry’s music on iTunes.

Israeli Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres has turned up in an unusual place: songweavers.com. The distinguished president of Israel wrote a few lines of lyrics called “Ray of Hope” last year, and invited musicians from around the world to add music. So far, some 57 songs have been created. My personal favourite is a simple rendition done by The Fallen. Check it out on SongWeavers. Other composers include Sadri Ghandehari from Tehran, Iran.

I can’t think of many presidents that have written lyrics. And it is poignant that Peres has continued his constant search for peace through lyrics in addition to his considerable presence as a political figure. Peres won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994 alongside Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin for their role in the Oslo accords between Palestine and Israel (which subsequently fell apart unfortunately). He also heads the Peres Center for Peace which works towards reconciliation through economic cooperation.

A UK body that promotes reading skills has just released two figures that are quite interesting. In surveys, the “National Year of Reading” found that 90% of people found that reading lyrics helped them gain a full appreciation of music and that 50% felt they are less accessible than just five years ago.

The first is hardly news. As reported here regularly, the phrase “song lyrics” is regularly in the top 10 amongst Internet searches- and that’s not including individual song titles. That they are less accessible is a bit stranger, but a number of clues come from the survey itself…

I think it could be argued that lyrics have never been more accessible. But the survey’s finding echo what I have said here many times: must lyric sites suck. To be more precise, most lyric sites copy the lyrics of others sites. So the mistakes of one site are replicated across the web. There is very little quality control, and hardly any of the lyric sites offer any information about the actual lyricists (who actually wrote the words to “Hey Joe” or “Like a Virgin”? Hendrix and Madonna are not the right answers).

This explains the following:

62% of respondents felt that despite the huge variety of websites storing lyrics, they find these sources unreliable and often incorrect

But lyrics are about emotion. And the survey also looked at what people feel about the words of songs.

* 47% found being in love brought the words to life
* 39% said reading lyrics meant more to them when falling love
* 29% found they meant more when breaking up with a loved one
* And 23% saw wisdom in words at weddings

This is cute, if hardly a major insight. Speaking about the results, Honor Wilson-Fletcher, Director of the National Year of Reading said: “The artists who write lyrics have something to say and our survey shows that audiences want to be able to read and appreciate them properly. This is great news! The Year of Reading is all about making the most of every form of reading – and lyrics are clearly pretty high up the list of desired ‘reads’ – so the least we can do is try and make sure they are as widely available as possible. Our findings suggest that lyrics form a really significant backdrop to all our lives, so let’s celebrate this.”

I couldn’t put it better myself. For the full report, visit the National Year of Reading.

Nope, it’s not the song by David Bowie (which is ripe for a cover, I’d say). The new single from Glasgow band Babygod, “Time”, is being seriously tipped at the moment. I must admit that just like it says in the lyrics (click through to read them), I came across the band when I was “killing time” on the web. Whatever. An interesting track with a rather stylish video.

Time Babygod

Everybody knows how to talk like a magazine these days
Everybody knows how to look like the TV
We can all make the sound of what we hear all around
It’s monkey see, monkey do

Waiting by the TV, next to the TV, in front of the TV
Just to pass the time
Just passing the time, just filling the time, just killing the time
The time we’re living through

Everybody’s into psychology these days
They’ll tell you what it means when you dream
Or try to find a fix in your blinks and your ticks
And give a new name to the same old pain

The seven signs of aging, the five signs of healthy hair
Are they signs from the sky? Tablets from Sinai?
Commandments for an ideal life? Holy Moses!
And god knows you’re worth it

Time, the rock around your neck
Time, the rocks around the sun
Time, we rock around the clock
Time, round and round till we all fall down
Every last one

In the zoo there are animals with skins and coats
In different cuts and colours
The roar is the bark is the screech is the song, it’s all one
But where have all the rare ones gone?

There is no time, no time like now
And every second of the second hand
Is a pane of glass to a grain of sand
Pre-owned, disowned, long since dethroned, ragged and boned

Time, the rock around your neck
Time, the rocks around the sun
Time, we rock around the clock
Time, round and round till we all fall down
Every last one

Words & Music: Copyright Gerry Campbell 2008

An unusual amount of “content” in these lyrics by today’s standards. The first verse opens well, although by the time we get to the verse about the zoo, I’m losing the plot a bit. I also like the line about time being a “rock around your neck”, although it it not explained or expanded. It does tie in nicely with “rock around the clock”, however.

The issue of homophobic reggae lyrics is back in the news yet again, with an announcement that the German government is considering blacklisting homophobic lyrics from Jamaican performers. Artists such as Elephant Man and TOK are under scrutiny.

Censorship is always a touchy issue - but no less touchy than the protection of minorities. So why do I think the idea will fail?

The blacklist is intended to include media that glorify war and violence and incite hate. I can already see the resistance being put up by the games industries, some of whose titles are very borderline in terms of violence. Is it very PC, for example, to be revelling in the realism of blowing a soldier’s brains out in the WWII game “Call of Duty” when Europe is littered with graveyards of poor slobs that suffered just that fate?

Concerning the homophobic lyrics, Volker Beck, the leader of the Green Party parliamentary group, called on large Internet music sellers to already begin removing the CDs in question from their sales inventory. “Those in Jamaica who invoke hatred should not earn money with their music in Germany,” he said on Thursday in Berlin according to a report on DW-World.

The danger with these schemes is the difficulty of fixing the line between valid artistic expression and incitement to hate or violence. Who is going to draw that line? Something tells me this initiative will not get very far.

There were red faces galore the other night at the Swiss TV channel SRG during the Germany-Austria Euro 2008 match. Someone had the bright idea of subtitling the national anthems. Unfortunately, that someone was using an outdated lyric book, as the German anthem came with the words, “Deutschland, Deutschland Uber alles… (Germany over all)”. Yep, the infamous first verse which was amputated after the second world war for being too invasive (the anthem has since been reduced to the third verse).

According to Associated Press, “The full anthem was written by poet Heinrich Hoffmann von Fallersleben in 1841, and expressed a yearning for unity in a splintered nation.” It was particularly dear to the Nazi’s hearts, who were hurting after the embarrassment of the First World War. The third verse is a call for “unity, justice and liberty for the German fatherland” - an altogether more PC sentiment.

What’s funny is that it is based on a tune by the composer Haydn who was… Austrian (just to add insult to injury).

But I have to ask: if it’s so embarrassing to subtitle national anthems, should we be singing them at all?

A perfect pop band (Superbus) playing a perfect pop tune (”Heart of Glass”). It doesn’t get much better than this on a rainy Friday. But what about the words?

Once I had a love and it was a gas
Soon turned out, had a heart of glass
Seemed like the real thing, only to find
Mucho mistrust - Love’s gone behind

Once I had a love and it was divine
Soon found out I was losing my mind
It seemed like the real thing, but I was so blind
Mucho mistrust - Love’s gone behind

Well, it’s pop music isn’t it? Easy to remember, easy to sing. It’s interesting to note that the expression “Heart of Glass” is not in the chorus. The only thing I can knock is the “mucho mistrust” phrase, which is quite a mouthful if you’re in a hurry (or foreign).

Apart from that, we are close to pop perfection. What do you think?

The funny thing is that Blondie were largely known as a New Wave band, and this track was added to the album “Parallel Lines” just to add variety. “We didn’t expect the song to be that big,” according to composer and guitarist Chris Stein. “We did it as a novelty item… It’s not selling out, it’s only one song.”

To check more Superbus tracks, visit

My, my how times change. This item covered in journals such as Forbes and the International Herald Tribune, no less, is an indication of two things. The first is the importance of words. The second is the increasing number of women in armies around the world. The story they are covering is the announcement of the US Army’s West Point military academy to accommodate the many women that have attended it - and died in action. PC? A fair tribute? Here’s what I think…

The army has traditionally been the reserve of men. But perhaps starting with armies such as Israel and later Iran, women have been taking a far greater role over the past few decades. But what to do about army songs such as “Alma Mater” and “The Corps”. After attending the funeral of a female, Superintendent Lt. Gen. Franklin “Buster” Hagenbeck felt that singing, “Guide us, thy sons…” was a little inappropriate. At a ceremony commemorating the 30th anniversary of women being admitted to West Point, he listened as the female alums sang lyrics that included, “We sons of today, we salute you.”

So Hagenbeck has been considering changing expressions such as “the men” to “the ranks” and “we sons” to “the corps”.

It doesn’t seem much to ask for the contribution women are being asked to make, and doesn’t change the core message. I salute the idea.

If you’re fast, you can probably catch the music biz chat show that goes out live from the pretty island of Malta. Thursday at 19.30pm GMT (20.30pm Europe) you can watch the latest edition of new music industry TV chat show “Let’s Talk Music”, co-sponsored by SongLink. Hosted by Tony Moore, this week’s show is on the subject of Artist Management, with special guests Ann Barrett, Lionel Martin, soul diva Kym Mazelle (singing live) and others. To watch it live go to One TV and click the PC logo top right of screen to open the player.

The New York Times ran a short piece about the then 16 year-old Gail Renard who snuck into the bed-in organised John Lennon and Yoko Ono in Montreal in 1969. At one stage, she witnessed some 50 people sing “Give Peace a Chance”. Choirboys included Timothy Leary and Allen Ginsberg as well as Petula Clark. Lennon handed Renard a lyric sheet of the song when leaving, saying “one day they will be worth something”. At an upcoming auction, Sotheby’s has estimated the something to be in the region of $400-600,000. This is a hefty chunk. But it must be pointed out that at most auctions of this kind, lyrics only rarely meet the estimates. It’s the actual authors’ rights that bring in the money.