Thanks - I prefer your first suggestion, to contact the copyright owner directly, before publishing the novel. I, and increasingly more of us in future, it seems, are looking at platforms like Unbound where the readers are publishers, choosing books to back with pledges from £10. They won't know any more about all this stuff than we do.

I can't see editors bothering with the hassle of getting permission to use songs for new authors - it's probably a fast way to get the manuscript to the slush pile?

I never planned to sneak any lyrics in, of course; it would be a bit dumb to draw attention to them here, in that case. But I never knew so many other authors are inspired by songs and like to use them in their stories. For those who do, the blog is worth bookmarking as a useful resource.