Brasklapp

Well, California for five days, including the days of arrival and departure. But my long-postponed trip to Consonance is finally coming through. Though I expect to be both extremely busy and extremely jetlagged through the entire thing. Leaving at Thursday, being a guest at the con for Friday through Sunday, and then departing on Monday will likely have that effect.

Lets see if I can manage to write a con report afterwards. Was far too long since I wrote one.

It was a long time since I last wrote here, and even longer since I posted a new filk song.

But it's time for Bellman, and in English! It even connects with the old Filk Tradition of doing relatively straight adaptions of Scandinavian ballads (see also: Mary O'Meara and A Flower and a Hufflepuff).

One of Bellman's most enduring songs is Fredman's Epistle n:o 72 (Youtube), commonly known by its opening words "Glimmande nymf". There is a translation to English by Paul Britten Austin, available on Spotify, but like many of his translations I think it removes too much of the gutter nature in Bellman.

Because this is very much a song about physical love and sex, and so it fit very well with the relentlessly smutty urban fantasy series Good Intentions by Elliott Kay. Then I realised that the events in the first version of epistle 72, written 19 years earlier (Youtube), and which is far more bawdy and comic, fit perfectly to a specific scene in the first book. Technically the song is thus a big spoiler, but the scene pretty much flies past and doesn't really play a big role in the larger narrative.

( Glimmering nymph: smoldering eyes )

On November 19th 1915, Joe Hill was murdered by the State of Utah for the crime of filking.

When I sat down to write something for this year, I knew I wanted to bring something from my experiences of the Dublin Worldcon. Not necessarily the con itself, but to bring in a theme of Swedish filk, where fandom isn't a great and wondrous thing, but where we together work to make it so. I then found Joe Hill's Down in the Old Dark Mills. As is my wont lately, I have borrowed liberally from both the original song—Down by the Old Mill Stream (Youtube)—and Joe Hill's lyrics.

( How well do I remember… )

I guess my new lyrics went a different direction than I first intended, but I still think the theme of the new and the old fandom is something worthwhile.

All my Joe Hill filks.

Continued discussion with thette yesterday about Good Omens and Common Metre led to the following two songs being written, usable with any CM melody.

Ineffable Husbands

My husbands were ineffable
and camp it was their sign
They went through fire without fear
convinced that this is fine

A sword it is a useful tool
to lighten up the way
to slay the lion chasing you
and rebel, as they say

The International Express Man

He was unarmed, but touch'd by none
as he walk'd through the room
he pass'd the strife and pass'd the guns
and brought the sword of doom

He tugg'd the sleeve of Sable's arm
and ask'd for his receipt
and Famine he turn'd on his charm
receiving scales so neat

By river Uck a sinking swan
is given Chalky's stare
And the brave delivery man
the crown gave in his care

Now nearly finish'd with the route
a message still was key
"I love you" written he walk'd out
Said simply "Come and See"

Well, that didn't take long.

Because of course Crowley of Good Omens needs a Eurovision Song Contest filk, here is the English version of "Jag är ond", though it's not really a translation, more a new and separate filking of the "It Hurts" (Youtube), performed by Lena Ph at the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest.

( Nobody but me, could know the way I feel )

Yes, the chorus has only changed a single line.

I discovered the English carol "The Holly and the Ivy" thanks to Heather Dale's album Perpetual Gift. The similar phonetics with Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy then had a natural outcome after a dive into various fan wikis.

( The Holly and the Ivy, Are both from Arkham gone )

Note that my set of lyrics fit poorly with Heather's way of singing at times, other versions are easier to follow along with, if you don't already know the tune. And if you want to sing "Harley" instead of "Holly", feel free to go ahead.

I haven't written much lately, and those songs I did write were a bit varied in quality or were quite narrow in their topics. But here is an English translation of a Swedish folk song and jazz standard: Visa från Utanmyra (notation), with modern lyrics by Björn Lindroth, written in 1963 and most famously recorded by Monica Zetterlund (Youtube).

Content warning: the song is about rape and rape culture.

( Only one time I saw that man )

Right now my translation has focused on faithfulness to the original, and I'd be happy to receive comments, both on singability and the appropriateness of some of the lyrics.

The tune itself is known from the 18th century, as Olof von Dalin wrote a set of lyrics to the tune then. That one is wholly unrelated to Lindroth's text.

thette has been much more into TV series than books for a while now, and one of her favourites lately has been Legends of Tomorrow, which she appreciates partly through its sheer campiness. Then she showed me the ending of the season 3 finale with Beebo, leading to no less than three songs about that cuddly giant bear.

( Beebo cuddles )

That song didn't quite capture the sheer camp and silliness of the scene, so I wrote another one.

( En vänlig nalles blåa fot )

But thette and I had recently talked about "Jolene" by Dolly Parton, which led to yet another one, more closely based on the Swedish parody "Brolin" by Spirella Girls (Youtube), about a woman whose husband ends up following the then football world championships rather than caring about her.

( Beebo )

I've got quite the backlog of filk songs written this year that I haven't posted (I'm sadly behind on a lot of fannish stuff). This is another example of what can be called a double-parody: Swedish comedy group Galenskaparna did a skit and a song based on Amsterdam by Jacques Brel, called "Under en filt i Madrid" (Youtube). Swedish acafan Jerry Määttä had posted a photo of himself on a roof in Marseilles, with the subtitle "Orakad och höjdrädd på ett tak i Marseilles". All that meshed together with Swedish fan history into this new filk.

( Uppå ett tak i Marseilles… )

I haven't been posting many new filks lately. Partly because they've been one-offs, partly because I'm holding their publication because of $REASONS. However, this year's TAFF delegate was my friend Johan Anglemark, and he described assisting previous year's TAFF delegate John Purcell busking for TAFF at Armadillocon. It melded with what has become my favourite old Swedish filk song, "Brev ifrån Andersson", that describes an old trufan assisting a neo to get started in fandom and publish their first fanzine. It is to the tune of "Rosa på bal" by Evert Taube (Youtube).

( Think doing fanac with John Purcell )