Yes, I know, Stephen King makes it look so easy with his habit of using song lyrics in his novels. But here’s a head’s up: He’s a bestselling author, so most musicians are going to be more than okay with granting permission. And he’s got money, and plenty of it, if he needs to pony up some cash. Odds are if you’re reading this you don’t fall under either category. I know I don’t.
So…can you quote song lyrics in your novel or short story? The short answer is “No.” Song lyrics are copyrighted. Quoting any copyrighted material requires permission, though there is something called the “fair use” clause. Now, for a 85,000-word novel, quoting a sentence or two likely falls under “fair use.” For music, however, where the entire piece is a few verses long, the prevailing wisdom is that you will need permission from the publisher to quote as little as a single line. Even attribution of the lyric and copyright to the songwriter/artist is not enough. And we live in an increasingly litigious society.
Of course, there are exceptions. If a song is in the public domain, then copyright law no longer applies. Here’s a handy dandy list of songs in the public domain as of Jan. 1, 2022.
Another exception would be common expressions used in lyrics. For example, if a song included the lyric, “People like him are a dime a dozen,” and you wrote something like, “Joey was like that song, TITLE, where people like him were a dime a dozen,” you should be okay, because that’s a common expression, not something unique to the author. You can also mention any song title without fear of reprisal, because titles, whether a book, movie, or song, cannot be copyrighted.
You can also imply a song lyric. I’ll use my story, “Goulaigans,” which appears in Heartbreaks & Half-truths as an example. The story is set in much fictionalized Goulais River, a small town in northern Ontario on the shores of Lake Superior. Here’s a snippet of the dialogue (and if you’re unfamiliar, or just want a reminder, here’s a link to Lightfoot’s song).
Laura’s body washed up on shore three days later, about a mile from the old Donaldson place.
“Whatever happened to Superior not giving up its dead?” Tucker asked me. We were sitting in my cabin, sipping on twelve-year-old whiskey. Now that Laura was gone, we could be friends again. Or at least pretend to be.
My mind replayed the lyrics to the Gordon Lightfoot song, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. It was a favourite on the radio up here, seeing how the Fitzgerald sank in 1975, not ten miles from Whitefish Bay.
“I think that’s only in November,” I said. “It’s August…there was no fella with a beard, was there?”
And on that note (clever, don’t you think, the musical reference?), I’ll sign off.
Hi Judy,
Thanks for the post. Most informative.
I wonder, where does the writer stand when it comes to parody?
For instance, if I have a character sing [just] the two lines: “Lamplighters//lazy as the corn in sun” in a context where it is clearly intended to parody two lines from the chorus of Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Born to Run’ (i.e. which properly would start with the word ‘tramps’), clearly I am relying on the existence of the original to generate a humour beat. So does that fall foul of copyright?
Thank you.
Jack, that is a great question. I did a quick Google and this is what I read: Under U.S. Copyright Law, a parody can be considered a “derivative” work protected from copyright infringement claims by the fair use doctrine. … Parodies of works protected by copyright in the U.K. require the consent or permission of the copyright owner” unless they fall under three different exceptions.
Here’s a link to an online discussion: https://support.google.com/youtube/thread/8570496/how-can-i-avoid-copyright-claims-on-a-parody-song-i-wrote?hl=en
Bottom line is it might not be worth it…thanks for asking!
Great post, and very useful.
Thanks Ellen
Yes, it never hurts to ask, eh? Louise Penny (okay, yes, famous writer, but she wasn’t always) attributes Margaret Atwood’s poetry to Ruth Zardo, the (maybe) mad poet of Three Pines. And the permissions are clearly presented on the copyrights page.
One time I was at a Louise Penny event when someone in the audience asked, “Have you ever thought of publishing a book of Ruth’s poetry?” Louise graciously explained why not.
Susan, not sure, but poetry might fall under the “fair use” clause — and of course, Louise was a CBC darling long before she was published and may have known Atwood through that. Though I do know Ruth’s poetry is Atwood’s.
I quoted a verse from the poem Hard Song by Barry Dempster in Heartbreaks & Half-truths and asked his permission — but I’ve known him for years.
Thanks for stopping by!
Thanks for the reminder and for the link to songs in the public domain!
That is a handy link, Kathleen! Thanks for reading.
I wrote to a publisher and got permission once, but the story, alas, was never published. The lyrics were in the Natalie Sleeth song, Hymn of Promise. Titles are fair game, in music and in everything else, and you can do a lot with those.
Yes, Kaye, I mention that titles are fine. And you can always contact a publisher — this is more a head’s up for folks who just didn’t know.
Not alive was probably the biggest factor, Kaye. Still, worth knowing that it might be worth trying if it’s super important to your story.
Hi Judy: I’ve often wondered about this. Thank you.
Hi Judy: I’ve often wondered about this. Thank you.
Glad it helped Carolanne. I know as anthology editor, I’d get stories with music lyrics and have to reject them.
I was surprised how easy it was to get that permission, but she’s not alive and she’s not a rock and roll star.