Brasklapp

Finally finished (as much as they can ever be) one of my more long-running filk projects: "Come Forth Thou Fandom's Ghod", based on Carl Michael Bellman's Fredmans sång 32: Afton-Qväde, more commonly known by its opening line "Träd fram du Nattens Gud". (YouTube, one of many.)

( Come forth Thou Fandom's Ghod, the Mundane pain to lessen, )

For those interested, you can find Martin Best's rendition of Paul Britten Austin's translation of Bellman's original text on YouTube.

Thanks to jophan and thnidu for linguistic advice and comments!

I have a couple of ideas for long and ambitious filks lying around, but then thette walked by me and talked about the Swedish children's song "Jag är en liten undulat" ("I'm a small budgerigar", YouTube). That led to the following:

Jag är en liten sf-fan
som läser lite minsann
för dom jag bor hos
för dom jag bor hos
dom läser inte
Dom ser på film varenda dag
men det vill jag inte ha
för jag vill hellre
ja mycket hellre
läsa Heinlein och Russ

The melody is taken from "Med en liten tulipan" (text Sven Paddock, melody Jules Sylvain). Note that the version in the YouTube is in Norwegian – it's a popular song there as well.

A legendary Swedish poem and ballad is Frans G Bengtsson's En ballad om franske kungens spelmän ("A Ballad of the French King's Musicians") from 1923. Bengtsson himself described it as "scholarly but incomprehensible", which I guess has contributed to its popularity. According to tradition, it was written on a bet to include the word "transsubstantiate" in a poem.

The poem turned popular enough that it has two different melodies written for it: one by Gunnar Turesson (YouTube) and one by Per-Martin Hamberg, made famous by Karin Juel. I try to sing it to Hamberg's melody, though nowadays Turesson's melody is the most commonly used, and is the one I first heard. Apart from that, Evert Taube wrote his own parody of the ballad in En ballad om Frans G. Bengtssons spelmän (YouTube), with yet another melody, and I've incorporated references to his song as well.

( A Ballad of the Interfilk Musicians )

A while back, the Swedish TV show Så mycket bättre sent an episode centered on Jenny Berggren of Ace of Base. One of the songs that were re-worked there was The Sign, and it made me really listen to the lyrics of the song. Then I heard the phrase "Don't bite the sun", matching the rhythm of the song. Indeed, I found the song's theme and mood fits Tanith Lee's story very well.

For anyone interested in doing this one, I believe Lisa Nilsson's mostly acoustic version (in Swedish) can be a good alternative approach to the song's melody.

( Don't Bite the Sun )

Today, it is exactly one hundred years since Joe Hill was murdered by the state of Utah, to some degree for the crime of filking. Salt Lake Tribune has a wonderful site documenting the events.

So last year I filked his songs "The Rebel Girl" and "It's a Long Way Down to the Soup Line". This year, I have written some new filks, and also found some old filk, based on songs written by Joe Hill.

Back in 1981, the Swedish fan, translator, and author Gunnar Gällmo was angry at Swedish sf publisher and author Sam J Lundwall due to crappy pay, so he wrote a song, first published in the fanzine Fanytt (edited by Swedish BNF Ahrvid Engholm). It's based on "Svarta präster", the Swedish translation of Joe Hill's most famous song, "The Preacher and the Slave" (which is itself based on "In the Sweet Bye and Bye").

( Plankstek )

(I've done a few minor changes for better singability compared to Gunnar's first version.)

Of course, "The Preacher and the Slave" is an excellent song, so Kate Gladstone wrote a fabolous set of new lyrics for it as well, called "Brand Name Bullies". Lyrics and recording can be found on the FilkArchive. The good thing about these is that I can skip filking that song with a clear conscience.

Instead I have filked Joe Hill's "There Is Power in a Union", based on the old spiritual "There Is Power in the Blood".

( There Is Power in a Fandom )

But once I started to explore Joe Hill's songs again, I found another great idea for a fan-topical song, this time in celebration of our own brand of community-focused and -run cons. It's based on Hill's "Nearer My Job to Thee", based on "Nearer, My God, to Thee".

( Nearer My Con to Thee )

Feel free to replace Swecon with the name of another con that's important to you. "Kollektinbug" goes back to the old fan classic The Enchanted Duplicator. No insult intended to cosplayers, who I often have found to the wonderful people, but they tend to value other types of events and interaction than I do.

I do have a third Joe Hill filk, though this came about when I talked about the planets with my daughter, and decided to write a song about the planets. I wanted to write a reasonably short one, but when digging up for melodies I hit on Joe Hill's "The Tramp", based on the American Civil War Song "Tramp! Tramp! Tramp!", and ended up writing a far too long song.

( Planetsången )

It has proved to be quite the hit in my family, though I'm not that happy with the two last verses—they are a bit overlapping. I can recommend not singing every single chorus, unless one wants a pizza song.

One of Bellman's songs that I've kept an eye on for filking for a while now is Fredmans Sång 7: Till Kärleken och Bacchus (Youtube). It is also probably the greatest example of Bellman as a Dirty Old Man. Once I realised what should go together with Roscoe, the song was quite easily enfilked.

Note: the Bellman site I use for texts appears to have database trouble right now; the notes and the comments are available, but not the actual lyrics. I hope it gets resolved soon.

( Sf och Roscoe )

It's time for Wårldcån in 2017! Which must be celebrated with a song!

When they pulled into Spokane town in time for Sasquan con,
We had high hopes that they would bring, the Worldcon some new fun.
We had been to Swedish parties, and some Norwegian too,
And expecting something sim'lar, but no idea on what they'd do

( The Finns are banned from Worldcon, everyone. )

Ttto of "Banned from Argo", if anyone missed it.

ETA: Switched "play" to "stay" in the sauna verse. Fits better with Finnish culture.

Written for Lars-Olov Strandberg, the Grand Old Man of Swedish fandom, the only Swede to ever has been Guest of Honour at a Worldcon, and the rock on which Swedish fandom has rested since its start in the mid-50s, on the occasion when he has finally stepped down from his last organised commitments in Swedish fandom.

Based on Gustafs skål by Carl Michael Bellman.

||: Strandbergs skål!
Till främste fan som Norden äger:
Aldrig snål,
Han byggde fandoms läger. :||
||: God och glad,
Han fejdens röst föraktar;
Han betraktar
Och beaktar
Fandoms alla blad :||

||: Sådan fan
Är värd att gästa världskongressen
Alltid sann,
I fanac städse bjässen :||
||: Lars-Olov
Har aldrig svikit fandom;
Av sin visdom
Gav han lärdom
Efter vårt behov :||

Notes and text.

A month or two ago, thette mentioned that there were two villages named Flarken just outside her home town of Boden. With a name that's so similar to Fryken, the idea of a girl with two bodies took hold, and merged with the classic Swedish dansband song Fröken Fräken, written by Thore Skogman for Sven-Ingvars (YouTube).

( Fröken Falder ifrån Flarken )

filkerdave is getting over to Sweden (and Finland) for Archipelacon. He said he wanted to sleep on the (early morning) ferry, missing that the con doesn't start in Mariehamn but as soon as the ferries leave the harbours in Helsinki, Stockholm, and Turku.

As I tried to explain that to him, I accidentally placed a few words to the tune of Dan Andersson's Helgdagskväll i timmerkojan (YouTube - one of many).

( Our Con on the Way to the Con )

(Sadly, Wissting didn't have space for the guitar in the car.)

ETA: Wrote another verse pair.

ETA: Some final editing, and notes.