Spider Dunstan’s Song Lyrics

After just a weeny amount of encouragement, I’ve finally decided that I will publish my novella “Spider Dunstan’s Teeth” after all. It’s a fairly simple little story about a couple of guys in Melbourne’s western suburbs in the early 1980s. Yes, there is an autobiographical element to it, but I hold the view that all writing is at least partly autobiographical, so there.

The heroes of the story - Micky and Leroy - find themselves in all manner of strife as they steal cars, go partying, do drugs and generally have a good time. The setting is an important element of the story, that period in the early 1980s holds fond memories for me and I’ve tried to convey some of those memories in the story. It seems to me now that life was somehow freer back then. That might be just the passing of time casting a sympathetic glow, but I know for certain that there was less political correctness for example. It was easier to say what’s on your mind without fear of being trampled by social justice warriors.



In any situation where a writer is trying to convey the feeling of a time past, there will be an effort made to give the reader a sense of that time as quickly as possible. There are some clumsy ways to do this and some more subtle ways. Being a clumsy type and intrinsically lazy, I took the option of including a short stanza from a relevant song at each chapter heading. For example on one chapter called “Transportation” where Micky and Leroy steal a car, I included a few lines of Gary Numan’s song “Cars”. The song was released in 1979 and seemed to convey in a few lines something about what was going on in the story.

I did this for each chapter heading, spending quite some time checking through half-remembered songs and making sure that each one fit within the timeframe (I mentally allowed myself the five year span from 1978 to 1983) and that each one was relevant to the chapter. It was a bit of an undertaking but I felt it was worthwhile. Music is such an important part of any time period and songs often create such a visceral reaction that I thought the time well spent.

I had a vague awareness of copyright laws and that lyrics were valuable intellectual property, but was also vaguely aware of “fair use” provisions and suspected that using just one or two lines would fall under those provisions.

I was wrong.

Today as part of my process before publishing, I was doing a final read through and checking on a couple of points (where did Footscray finish on the VFL ladder in 1983?) when I started to ponder my use of song lyrics and decided that a bit of research might be in order.

First of all, that vaguely remembered “fair use” is really a thing, but for song lyrics it’s very strictly interpreted. A song might only have 50 or 60 words and using a line or two can amount to using 20% of the whole piece. A little like lifting 70 or 80 pages of your favourite novel. Secondly, “fair use” doesn’t extend to use for artistic purposes. If I am writing an article on the view of women’s rights in Bob Dylan songs compared to Eminem songs, I could legitimately use portions of their lyrics to make a point and claim fair use, but if I just want to set the mood in my humble little story, I cannot.

Yeah but, I thought, I am unlikely to ever be noticed by the copyright holder, so it might just be ok. Anyway, it’s often better to ask forgiveness than seek permission.

Wrong again. This is one area where that old adage doesn’t apply. Many of the copyright holders own vast portfolios of songs and make their money by aggressively seeking out and prosecuting illegal use of their property. It seems that the bigger the name, the more aggressive the pursuit too. On my reading, a certain Liverpudlian four piece band that made their mark in the 1960s is especially known for seeking out transgressions.

It’s not cheap or easy either. I’d need to first off identify the copyright holder for each of the songs I want to quote, then write off to them asking permission, then wait for 2-6 weeks while they think about their reply, then simply agree to pay whatever they ask. For more famous songs, this will be a number that has four digits in it and for just about any song it will have three digits. The fee is also based on how many books I sell, so on the off chance that a few additional people decide to buy my book, I’d have to go through the process all over again.

So I have done a bit of reading on the subject this morning and the most common advice I found on using song lyrics is “don’t do it”. So I’ve taken them out.