Filk (in Swedish)

[kjn]

En kort diskussion om en halvkänd svensk sf-fan med mer än lovligt unkna åsikter ledde till krav på en roligare fandom, och då såg jag mig nödsakad att bidra med följande, inspirerad av Woody Guthrie's This Land Is Your Land.


Ditt hem är fandom
Mitt hem är fandom
Med SFSF
och Fanaclistan
Med få fanzine
Och många bloggar
Fandom byggs av dej och mej

Jag gick på Norra Agnegatan
Mitt mål var Västerlånggatan
Med en väska fylld av böcker
Fandom byggs av dej och mej

Ditt hem är fandom…

Jag satt på Orvars och sen på Williams
Tog en öl på Pipes of Scotland
Och fans kring bordet satt och snackade
Fandom bryggs av dej och mej

Ditt hem är fandom…

Fylld av råkraft och skrivarlusta
Med skrivmaskinen, och knyckligt papper
En text mej nådde från nätets nejder
Fandom skrivs av dej och mej

Ditt hem är fandom…

En ensam fan där försökte hindra mej
En stor skylt han bar, "dom är fakefans"
Men skyltens baksida den var tom och tyst
Den skylten fylls av dej och mej

Ditt hem är fandom…

Jag gick från Linköping till Uppsala
Från Göteborg till Nacka, Stockholm
Av fannisk ånga drevs jag till Gävle
Fandom drivs av dej och mej

Ditt hem är fandom…


ETA: Originalsången har ändrats på flera mindre ställen i syfte att öka sångbarheten.

Comments

[canyonwalker.livejournal.com]

Slightly off topic, but This Land Is Your Land was one of the first songs I could sing. My mother taught it to me and my sister on her acoustic guitar. We would sing it over and over as we played in the yard. A few years later, in school, one of our music teachers enjoyed playing it on the piano. The arrangement she played was fantastic. I've never been able to find a recording with sound as rich as she played on the schoolhouse piano.

[kjn]

Yeah, I've understood it's one of those songs that are very much part of the American consciousness.

[canyonwalker.livejournal.com]

I don't know how widely appreciated This Land Is Your Land is today. I actually doubt that most Americans know it beyond maybe recognizing the refrain. I learned it at my mother's knee because she was a folk guitar player (hobbyist level) in the late 60s and early 70s when the song enjoyed a surge in popularity amongst the folk movement. I don't think I heard it performed anywhere mainstream after the late 70s.

The song resonated with me as a young child because it painted pictures in my mind of places I could go one day. Now, decades later, I have traveled the length and breadth of the country, from California to the New York Island, from the redwood forests to the Gulf Stream waters. I have seen literally every sight described in the lyrics. And it still brings a tear to my eye to sing it.

[kjn]

I think the song has become less appreciated not so much because of the song but because the musical landscape has changed. At least it has done so in Sweden, and I imagine America was maybe 10 or 15 years earlier in this trend (though my mother sounds very much like yours - plays several instruments as a hobby and has sung in choirs her entire life).

Anyway, didn't Pete Seeger and Springsteen perform it at Obama's first inauguration? *checks YouTube* Yes, they did.

[canyonwalker.livejournal.com]

I was not aware that Pete Seeger and "The Boss" played it at Obama's inauguration until I tried another YouTube search myself earlier today and found the link, probably around the same time you did. In case anyone is interested, it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytItUIoq2Wc.

I agree, the song itself has done nothing wrong to fade toward obscurity. It is simply that tastes have changed. In the US, folk music in general gets little attention nowadays outside of a narrow subculture that still admires it. Occasionally there is a hit recording that attracts attention more broadly to the genre, but that attention fades quickly. In addition, the very minimal tune of Guthrie's recording and sheet music is out of style. It's fine for young children's piano recitals (do a YouTube search on the song title and that's most of what you'll find) but it's not going to make compelling radio music.

I am curious, since you seem reasonably familiar with this song, how well known is it in Sweden?

[kjn]

Not that well, really, though a Swedish translation ("Det är är ditt land") made quite a splash 10 or so years ago. (Mikael Wiehe, a quite famous Swedish songwriter, artist, and socialist, received death threats and attempts at arson from some neo-nazi group, his response was to organise a Live Aid-style gala against racism, where his translation featured prominently.) I knew about it, and had read a little about Seeger and his history when I saw he had died.

Yeah, you speak exactly about the changed musical landscape. Music is changing from something you do to something you listen to, or perhaps better put, the music landscape is changing from one made up of participants (to various degrees) to one of artists and audience (drawing with a very broad brush and realising this is a continuum).

[canyonwalker.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've lamented (so far only to myself) how music-- and other forms of lively expression-- are changing from participator activities to spectator activities. This subject deserves an entire blog entry unto itself so I won't go into depth here.