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Not bad - rather good, actually...... sort of makes wishing this was in a humor, rather than a jokes section.....

Post 1

Sunday, February 6, 2005 - 4:22am

I've compared the song to the actual, and she even has the rhythm down to a T. Very well done.

Incidentally, I found out more about filk (I was not aware this was a formal music genre). In case anyone is burning with curiosity, you can see more details at www.filk.com. Here are some snippets.

(DISCLAIMER: Typos and grammatical errors are NOT mine, and I am not fixing someone else's sloppy work. Let them proofread their own damn site.)

WHAT IS FILK MUSIC?

Nothing can start an argument faster than trying to answer this question. The simplest definition is that FILK = Science Fiction folk music. It is a mixture of song parodies and original music, humorous and serious, about subjects like science fiction, fantasy, computers, cats, politics, the space program, books, movies, TV shows, love, war, death. . . You get the idea.

WHY CALL IT FILK?

Filk comes from a typo graphical error replacing the letter O in folk with the letter I (fOlk - fIlk). This famous typo happened in the late 1950s by Lee Jacobs.

WHY KEEP CALLING IT FILK?

After a few years the typo caught on as a way to distinguish folk music coming out of the Science Fiction community from music coming from other sources. Also, no better name has yet to be found.

HOW OLD IS FILK MUSIC?

Parody songs have been around as long as people have been singing songs. What we now would consider filks songs started at many of the first Science Fiction conventions (back in the 1920's?). For the longest time filks were just being sung in room parties at conventions with no structure or organization. It wasn't until the late 1960's did filk music move into having it's own organizations and function space area. Granted in the early days the function space was what ever filker's could find, Hotel lobbies, lady's rest rooms, and alike. But it was separate from room parties. The first convention dedicated exclusively to Filk music was held during the mid 1980's and now there are filk music conventions held around the world.

(Edited by Jennifer Iannolo on 2/06, 4:26am)

Post 2

Sunday, February 6, 2005 - 5:36am

Though not primarily a filk singer, my favorite parody singer is the late great Allan Sherman (whose work I reviewed here). The following song by him, however, is a filk song, sung to the tune of Has Anybody Seen My Gal? Its corny, but I like it, with no apologies.:-)

Eight Foot Two, Solid Blue

Last night I met a man from Mars, and he was very sad.
He said, "Won't you help me find my girl friend, please?"
So I asked him, "What does she look like?",
And the man from Mars said, she's

Eight foot two, solid blue,
Five transistors in each shoe,
Has anybody seen my gal?
Lucite nose, rust-proof toes,
And when her antenna glows,
She's the cutest Martian gal.
You know she promised me, recently,
She wouldn't stray,
But came the dawn, she was gone
Eighteen billion miles away.
Her steering wheel has sex appeal,
Her evening gown is stainless steel,
Has anybody seen my gal?
How I miss all the bliss
Of her sweet hydraulic kiss,
Has anybody seen my gal?
Lovely shape, custom built,
Squeeze her wrong and she says "tilt",
Has anybody seen my gal?
She does the cutest tricks, with her six stereo ears.
When she walks by, spacemen cry,
'Specially when she shifts her gears.
If she's found, rush like mad,
Put her on a launching pad,
Down at Cape Canaveral,
And shoot me back my cutie,
My supersonic beauty,
Send me back my Martian gal.

Post 3

Sunday, February 6, 2005 - 11:35am

I sing a filk to my wife. It�s from Lionel Ritchie�s LADY. It�s different every time. Lately it goes about like this:

Lady, I�m your knight in shining armor and you love me
You should come into my arms and�be whole.
My love, there are so many ways you should say you love me

(I�m working on another section she hasn�t heard yet):

You have gone and made yourself such a fool
There�s no other love like my love
And oh, we belong together
Won�t you remove that filthy thong?

It�s the small, endearing things like this that keep a marriage solid.

Jon

Post 4

Sunday, February 6, 2005 - 12:23pm

I really enjoyed this, it fits the tune of the original song and, better still, captures the spirit of Atlas Shrugged. That does remain one of my favorite fiction works. It is, frankly, one of the very few books I have read several times. Always manage to get something new out of it each time I do re-read it.

I also agree this would be more suitably presented as 'humor' instead of a 'joke,' but so be it, it was great, amusing and creative.

Thanks for brightening my day!

Ron Tobin
Philosophers Guild

Post 5

Sunday, February 6, 2005 - 5:53pm

I sometimes hear wierd drek in music, but does anyone get something randish from S&Gfkl's lines?

I always read the S&G figure as someone like the Strikers who's intellect's not seen or respected by a mindless world and ends up despised and exploited by a looting society. The Boxer to me was always Atlas, leaving and letting all the burdens just crumble behind.

I dunno. Besides, I liked the extended Concert In Central Park version.

Oh, while I'm writing for the first time, let me say Hi to everyone. Just thought I'd drop by on this point as the Boxer's one of my fave'rite songs.

Oh, and a bit elated wishes for happy 100 viz. Ayn Rand!

Post 6

Sunday, February 6, 2005 - 6:47pm

I have always thought that our cultural atmosphere is characterized by "The Sound of Silence." This great song of Paul Simon's can easily be interpreted in terms of Objectivism if one is so inclined--and I am.

Post 7

Sunday, February 6, 2005 - 6:50pm

Apocalypse,

I don't know about The Boxer but Paul Simon had at least a passing familiarity with Ayn Rand as she was mentioned in an early Simon and Garfunkel song:

A Simple Desultory Philippic

(Or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission)

I been Norman Mailered, Maxwell Taylored.
I been John O'Hara'd, McNamara'd.
I been Rolling Stoned and Beatled till I'm blind.
I been Ayn Randed, nearly branded
Communist, 'cause I'm left-handed.
That's the hand I use, well, never mind!

I been Phil Spectored, resurrected.
I been Lou Adlered, Barry Sadlered.
Well, I paid all the dues I want to pay.
And I learned the truth from Lenny Bruce,
And all my wealth won't buy me health,
So I smoke a pint of tea a day.

I knew a man, his brain was so small,
He couldn't think of nothing at all.
He's not the same as you and me.
He doesn't dig poetry. He's so unhip that
When you say Dylan, he thinks you're talking about Dylan Thomas,
Whoever he was.
The man ain't got no culture,
But it's alright, ma,
Everybody must get stoned.

I been Mick Jaggered, silver daggered.
Andy Warhol, won't you please come home?
I been mothered, fathered, aunt and uncled,
Been Roy Haleed and Art Garfunkeled.
I just discovered somebody's tapped my phone.

Post 8

Monday, February 7, 2005 - 11:28am

No, no, no. If you want a connection to Rand, then it has to be S & G's tribute to Frank Llyod Wright.

"So long, Frank Lloyd Wright"

So long, Frank Lloyd Wright.
I can't believe your song is gone so soon.
I barely learned the tune
So soon
So soon.

I'll remember Frank Lloyd Wright.
All of the nights we'd harmonize till dawn.
I never laughed so long
So long
So long.

CHORUS
Architects may come and
Architects may go
And never change your point of view.
When I run dry
I stop awhile and think of you

So long, Frank Lloyd Wright
All of the nights we'd harmonize till dawn.
I never laughed so long
So long
So long.

Post 9

Monday, February 7, 2005 - 2:38pm

Sorry guys: S&G = Elevator Music.

I'd like to think FLW would not have appreciated a 'tribute' couched in such pap - he preferred the drama of Beethoven to the blandishments of folk music. :-)

Post 10

Monday, February 7, 2005 - 9:40pm

Mr. Cresswell - I should bring to your attention that someone pretending to be you is posting idiotic statements about Simon & Garfunkel on this thread, labelling their music as "elevator pap." As someone who ran a one-man campaign against realelevator pap on state radio for the many years I worked there, I think you should expose this imposter before he writes something even more idiotic�in praise of Rush or Wagner for instance�& does irreversible damage to your reputation.

Concerned Linz

:-)

Post 11

Tuesday, February 8, 2005 - 11:41am

Rodney,

I must confess that until you raised it I had always assumed the "sound of silence" was venerating silence.

However, having now read the lyrics, the exact opposite is in fact true. The song is actually criticising others for not been outspoken, but silent and mindless.

Great song, eh!

"The Sound of Silence"

Hello darkness, my old friend,
I�ve come to talk with you again,
Because a vision softly creeping,
Left it�s seeds while I was sleeping,
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence.

In restless dreams I walked alone
Narrow streets of cobblestone,
�neath the halo of a street lamp,
I turned my collar to the cold and damp
When my eyes were stabbed by the flash of
A neon light
That split the night
And touched the sound of silence.

And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people, maybe more.
People talking without speaking,
People hearing without listening,
People writing songs that voices never share
And no one deared
Disturb the sound of silence.

Fools said I, you do not know
Silence like a cancer grows.
Hear my words that I might teach you,
Take my arms that I might reach you.
But my words like silent raindrops fell,
And echoed
In the wells of silence

And the people bowed and prayed
To the neon God they made.
And the sign flashed out it�s warning,
In the words that it was forming.
And the signs said, the words of the prophets
Are written on the subway walls
And tenement halls.
And whisper�d in the sounds of silence.

Post 12

Tuesday, February 8, 2005 - 12:28pm

What a pity Paul Simon consciously abandoned melody later, figuring that the future belonged to "rhythm." Although I liked a few of his early songs, I like hardly anything else by him (as songs).

A few quibbles with your quote. (However, I must commend you for correctly showing he says "sound," not "sounds"--until the last verse.)

And no one dared

should be (I think)

No one dares

The line

In the wells of silence

should be (I think)

In the well of silence

This

signs said

should be

sign said

Finally,

flashed out it�s warning

should be

flashed out its warning

(This last is an editorial matter only, of course. The same goes for it�s seeds earlier.)

(Edited by Rodney Rawlings on 2/08, 12:51pm)

Post 13

Tuesday, February 8, 2005 - 12:52pm

Here's a bit o' fun:

Try singing the words of "Amazing Grace" to the melody of "Gilligan's Island".

Also, try singing the words of Gilligan's Island, to the melody of Amazing Grace!

BUT WAIT; THERE'S MORE!

Try singing the words to "House of the Rising Sun" to the melody of "Amazing Grace" OR "Gilligan's Island"!

And now try putting the words to any of the three, to the melody of any of the other two!!
Repeat this until you giggle with blasphemous delight, and/or are curled into the foetal position on the floor in some corner of a room!

*LMAO*

WELCOME TO... SONG HELL... or is it Heaven?

(Bwah hah hah hah hah)

(Edited by Danny Silvera on 2/08, 12:54pm)

Post 14

Tuesday, February 8, 2005 - 4:34pm

Rodney,

I got the lyrics from a web site. Song lyrics are often not written with grammar in mind, especially if taken from the musicians original notes.

On the other points you are wrong as I just listened to the song through and the lyrics are accurate.

Do you want me to e-mail you a copy? It seems that you do not have the song to hand.

Post 15

Tuesday, February 8, 2005 - 4:54pm

I'll listen to my CD--you may be right. I was just going by memory.

I do not think many lyrics on the Net are taken from the songwriters' MSS--most of them are from hearings and are usually partly mistaken. Which doesn't stop them from being copied and recopied all over the web, of course.

(Edited by Rodney Rawlings on 2/08, 5:00pm)

Post 16

Tuesday, February 8, 2005 - 6:00pm

As long as we've gone off the subject of filk music and on to song lyrics, has anyone ever noticed that the Tom Jones song Delilah foreshadowed the Nicole Simpson murder? Eerie, isn't it?

Delilah

I saw the light on the night that I passed by her window
I saw the flickering shadows of love on her blind
She was my woman
As she deceived me I watched and went out of my mind
My, my, my, delilah
Why, why, why, delilah
I could see that girl was no good for me
But I was lost like a slave that no man could free
At break of day when that man drove away, I was waiting
I cross the street to her house and she opened the door
She stood there laughing
I felt the knife in my hand and she laughed no more
My, my, my delilah
Why, why, why delilah
So before they come to break down the door
Forgive me delilah I just couldn�t take any more

[insert trumpet solo here]

She stood there laughing
I felt the knife in my hand and she laughed no more
My, my, my, delilah
Why, why, why, delilah
So before they come to break down the door
Forgive me delilah I just couldn�t take any more
Forgive me delilah I just couldn�t take any more

Post 17

Tuesday, February 8, 2005 - 6:24pm

I created a nonsense filk on a well-known Wagner tune and posted it somewhere on SoloHQ if anyone is interested. I only mention this because I was complicit in diverting this thread!

(Marcus, I listened to my CD and conclude that I was probably wrong about "well of silence," but right on the others except that it may be actually "No one dare"--I don't hear "dared." Anyway, a very stirring song.)

Post 18

Wednesday, February 9, 2005 - 5:41am

Rodney,

That's sounds like a very interesting idea for a filk. Would you be able to post it here as well, or at least post a link to it?

Post 19

Wednesday, February 9, 2005 - 7:12am