Hi, Cruiser -
There are tips for posting lyrics in the FAQ, but here are some more.

First, check to see if the song or a related song has been posted.
Up in the QuickLinks dropdown menu at the top of this and most Mudcat pages, you'll find a link to Old Advanced Forum Search. The page that comes up will have our three main searcvh engines. The old search on top is good for searching by message title or by the poster's name. The Filter searches by thread title, and the SuperSearch searches the text of messages (but the superSearch has not been updated since Summer 2005, so it won't find new messages. Supersearch also searches the current edition of the Digital Tradition, so you'll know if the song is in the DT.

If there is an existing thread on the song, post your lyrics there (if we don't have the song or if your lyrics are better or different). It's generally best if all the information on a song is in the same thread.

Try top remember to put ADD and the song title in the "Subject" box of your message - the message title can be different from the thread title, and it should be ADD: plus the song title if you're adding lyrics. If you forget, don't worry - we'll change the message title when we see lyrics. You'll see many examples of lyrics posting in the Everything Malvina! thread - and if you have Malvina Reynolds lyrics, that's a good place to post them. If you're posting lyrics to correct a DT entry, your message should have CORRECTION: plus the song title, and should include full lyrics, not just lines correcting the mistakes.

Lyrics should have the title on top, and the songwriter name on the second line in parentheses. Then double space, and then post the lyrics, single-spaced with a double space between stanzas.

After the lyrics, double space and tell us where you got the lyrics, and give us any background information you have - source and background information are very important.

The JoeClones and I clean up lyrics that aren't properly labeled or formatted, and I do my best to index them so they can be found. Dick and Susan, the DT curators, cruise the Forum for lyrics, and "harvest" the ones they wantfor the DT. If a song has been harvested, it has harvesting birdie ^^ marks on it. If it's passed by because we already have it, it gets the dreaded three-wing birdie ^^^ - that third wing means it's redundant.

Dick and Susan prefer well-documented lyrics of traditional songs that we don't already have, and it's better if you can submit a tune with the lyrics. Send tunes to me, joe@mudcat.org - in ABC, MIDI, or Noteworthy format, or send me a scan in any graphics format -files smaller than 1 MB, please. If really necessary, I can find somebody top transcribe notation from an MP3 or RealPlayer file.

Don't be disturbed if your song remains unharvested for a year, or even five years. Your song is in an indexed song database the moment you post it, available for use, comment, and corrections from everyone who comes here. Mudcat takes ALL the lyrics people want to post (within reason), but the Digital Tradition picks and chooses. The DT usually stays away from pop songs, but not completely. Your post of "Time" probably won't make it into the DT, but lots of Mudcatters are 60's folkies who will enjoy seeing that song and remembering the beautiful young woman with long hair that they enjoyed that song with. (well, actually, I remember a guy in the dorm named Rudy who played that song over and over until I got tired of it - but I liked Rudy, so it brought back good memories.

So, anyhow, I hope that helps.
Hope old Rudy's doing OK, too - he's a priest in Nebraska now. Haven't seen him since I dropped out of the seminary in 1970. Thanks for the memories, Cruiser.

-Joe-