Brasklapp

My wife has been collecting t-shirts, following Supernatural and been active in Gishwhes for a couple of years now. When I was hanging up her t-shirt with the text "Be Weird" after washing it, the following came stuck in my head, ttto Go West by the Village People.

( (Together) We will go our way )

Another new filk of mine, this one a Harry Potter one. I've been exploring a bit of the Swedish nerdy music scene, and that led to listening to some of the songs by The Swedish Shortsnouts (Facebook link), a Swedish wizard rock band. What struck me was the way they had picked up some of the social and environmental awareness that is found in Swedish punk, but they hadn't picked up the slavery analogues with the house elves (or they had, but I missed it). That merged with Cornelis Vreeswijk's masterful song Somliga går med trasiga skor about walking with broken shoes.

( Somliga går utan strumpor och skor )

(Cornelis did a version in Dutch as well, Waar ga ja heen, picking up some of the same themes as the Swedish lyrics but going in a different direction. And for those who recognise the melody, Cornelis apparently adapted the melody from The House Carpenter, though the lyrics has no relation.)

I sat down with another go at The Kencyrath Tune, and finished another lyrics triplet. I also decided to change the title to "The Dream-Weaver's Song".

To the tune of Hårgalåten and based on the Kencyrath series by P.C. Hodgell (tagmeth).

( Gerridon a man of pride was he )

( On the original song and the legend )

The Swedish fan Peter Ekberg made a joke based on Tolkien and the classic Swedish TV show Macken, which led to me writing a filk based on the show's theme tune.

( Balroys och Balrogers hål )

Another Swedish fan, Anna Gable Frimodig, proposed changing "Moria" to "ett djup" for better scansion, and it can also be used instead of "hål" in the verses as well, especially as it fits better with the Swedish Tolkien translations. No matter what, I recommend doing lots of practice before attempting to sing this.

Last update, I mentioned that I hadn't been writing many new filks. Since then, I've written three new ones, though two of them were spur-of-the-moment filks.

First one was mostly written as a lark, when a fellow fan in the Facebook group "F Is For Filker" complained about his gloves being stolen to the tune of "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away" by The Beatles, leading to a flurry of gloves-themed Beatles filk. This was my contribution, to the tune of "All You Need Is Love".

( All You Need Is Gloves )

The second one was written after a fellow Swedish fan retold her encounter with a large spider in her bedroom, and the phrase "the spider's in the jar" had lodged itself in my brain. To the tune of "Whiskey in the Jar".

( The Spider's in the Jar )

(Yes, she had improvised a flame thrower to kill a spider at an earlier date.)

The last one was a long time coming. I've followed PC Hodgell's (tagmeth) Kencyrath series for a while now. A while ago, I noted the similarities between the opening legend about Gerridon and Jamethiel and the Swedish Hårga legend, where the devil starts to play and makes all the youth of Hårga dance until they die. One of the most famous Swedish hambo tunes is associated with Hårga and the legend, but it took me a while to finish the lyrics. I'm thinking of maybe writing another set of verses as well, but the current lyrics covers the opening legend nicely.

The traditional tune of Hårgalåten (sometimes also spelled Horgalåten) has several sets of lyrics associated with it, but the most famous one was written by Lennart Hellsing. There are lots of Youtubes of this one, e.g.: Elina (including a basic English translation in the description); Åsa Jinder (instrumental jazz); Kebnekajse (progressive rock).

( The Kencyrath Tune )

Another instafilk, based on a comment on the Filker Facebook group. Based on Tim Spencer's song "Cigarettes, Whiskey, and Wild Wild Women", but I learnt of it from Cacka Israelsson's Swedish version "Cigaretter, whiskey och vilda kvinnor" (YouTube)

( Filking, F-bombs and surly poems )

I have a low-key long-term project to write filks in as many big-name fandoms as I can. One of the larger missing pieces had been Doctor Who, but during dinner I hit upon a good idea: singing about K-9 instead of the Doctor, and basing it on Änglahund by Hasse "Kvinnaböske" Andersson (YouTube; there is an English version, "Angel Buddy" too, but it's not as good).

( Får man ta hunden med sej i sin TARDIS )

A short Swedish filk, ttto "Blinka lilla stjärna" ("Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star"). Its opening line is stolen from one of the staff at Upptech, a science centre that my daughter visited some years ago with school. I never got a handle on how to continue the song, until I saw English Chris Malme's filk of the song. It inspired me to get the following combo of borrowed and translated material:

Brinn du stora gasklot där
nu så vet jag vad du är
luftens refraktion den gör
stjärnan blinkar och förför
men planeten som är när
för mitt öga stadig är

(This is the second filk by Chris that I have translated to Swedish. The first one was Rymden är stor.)

This is another filk in need of further polishing, it's in sort of singable state, especially if I get a backing track, but I sure would like the words to flow better in the verses.

For some while I have thought about basing a filk upon "Bohus bataljon", a merry Swedish march from 1940 with a great and fun text. (YouTube as song; Instrumental YouTube with the I17 military band.) While checking my bookshelf for more books to possibly write filks about I found Grunts by Mary Gentle, and I knew I had found the perfect match.

The choruses are usually sung twice with a whistle part between each repetition.

( They were fighting Agaku )

Notes:

The zoological improbabilities are all directly from the original song. "On Canaan's happy shore" is a line from the song that lent its melody to "John Brown's Body", that lent its melody to a Swedish drinking song that is referenced in the same spot in the original text.

Two rather silly filks inspired by reading Phoenix Ascendant by Ryk Spoor.

First one is rather silly, to the tune of the theme song from Pinky and the Brain. It also contains some spoilers for the books, but nothing major (especially if you have read the previous parts closely). It's probably rather nonsensical if you haven't read at least one of the books.

( They're Aran and Tobimar )

The other one is even more silly, and based on Blitzkrieg Bop by The Ramones. I cannot vouch for its singability either. For an introduction to Poplock, see my earlier filk about him: Demon, Dragon, Phoenix, Toad.

( The Poplock Bounce )