Arlinda’s life was steeped in music. She was a teenager in 1960s Cleveland, the home of the weekly hit-parade Upbeat television show, where she was a professional dancer. 25 years later, the son of the show’s producer and a crew member David Spero, founded the Rock ’n’ Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland to recognize its place in the history of rock music in the United States. So, yes, music was ingrained in Arlinda’s very essence.

So I thought it fitting to name each chapter after a song and include epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter, with lyrics of that song that would resonate with the message of that chapter, and credit the performer of the song. Little did I realize that song lyrics are one of the most aggressively protected art forms. Cursory Internet research informed me that purchasing permission would cost about $50-300 per song, depending on how much of the song I would like to include. Trim trim trim away at the lyrics I did. I could get 6-line lyrics down to 2 lines and still encapsulate the heart of that chapter. With 45 chapters and most of the songs being 40+ years old, I calculated the bill to amount to about $3000. A large sum for a debut book, but I thought the artistic expression would be worth it.

I created a spreadsheet to track the copyright holder and contact information, song title, lyrics, song writer, performer, request date, status, and copyright fee. I then added a few columns for an alternate song in the public domain, the lyrics, song writer, and performer, just in case the original request came back with a fee closer to the $300 range. I found the song writer, copyright holder, and contact information by mining the ASCAP and BMI websites. To my surprise, copyright was often split amongst 2-6 copyright holders, but trudge on I did. Writing a personal request and showing how naive I am in the business would surely help them take pity on my project and give me a low rate for the anticipated sub 1k circulation of the book. Over the course of two nights, I emailed out all of the copyright permission requests.

By the next morning, responses were coming back. Some people said they do not represent the song, others were kicking my request up the chain of command. One of the copyright holders to “Jet Airliner” by Paul Pena, whom I knew from volunteering at CHAMP, blessed me with a $1 fee. Responses to more permissions request came in, referencing the name Hal Leonard. I would need to go to that publishing website to request the type of copyright permission I sought (all information in the original request). At the top of the request form announced that permission fees start at $300. Start at. The masthead for the website announces that Hal Leonard is “The world’s largest source for music publications”. I would not be one to disagree, because many of the email responses I received linked me to Hal Leonard.

Not only do songs have multiple copyright holders, but some responses noted that I would need to request permission from the associated recording studio as well. I’m not sure whether I would need to do that for every song, or only for the ones who had been magnanimous to suggest it. I’m not a copyright attorney, and this small project would not be able to bear the cost of one.

I could research pre-1929 songs, as they are now in the public domain. It was okay to reference some spirituals and folk songs in her early years, but as the chapters progressed through the years, the pre-1929 songs and lyrics became more archaic-sounding.

There is a workaround. Song titles are not copyrighted, cannot be copyrighted. So trim trim trim away I did, and cut out all of the lyrics, leaving just the song title and performer to begin each chapter, and a brief explanation in the Author’s Note about the abridged epigraphs.