When they started having science fiction conventions a long time ago, some
fans would gather around and sing songs. This
was ‘Fan Folk Singing’. At one
convention, there was a typographical error (typo) where ‘folk’ became
‘filk’, and the name stuck.
In most cases, at least that I’ve seen, filk is usually parodies (funny or
not), but can also be new music as well as words.
There are many talented people that write their own music instead of
using established tunes. Those are the ones that are remembered most.
There are filk conventions around the country that are dedicated to filk
singing only. One of those is in
Ohio Valley Filk Festival, another in San Francisco called BayFilk.
Filk can be purchased on tape or CD, and finding it seems to be easier
than I thought. I used to buy most
of mine from Tales From the White Heart, a science fiction bookstore in
Baltimore. A check on Google.com
for filk came up with many sources.
Some very good performers are Leslie Fish, Tom Smith, Frank Hayes, Julia
Ecklar. The group Golden Bough does
more folk then filk, and like the folks mentioned before also write their own
music.
When I used to run the Friday Night Filksing at the
Shore Leave conventions in Baltimore, I would schedule people like Roberta Rogow,
Greg Baker, Howard Weinstein, On The Mark, and Peregrynne.
Most of these people (like FreeFall) used to come up with new words for
existing songs, and all of them were quite entertaining.
On The Mark does not do filk, but some of their music falls very much
into this category. One of their
songs dealt with a failed star academy pilot, who in helping tow others save
inhabitants of a dying space station becomes ‘Some Kind of Hero’. They also did one about a generic state song called ‘Your
State’s Name Here’. I remember
one Roberta had created with a group in a filk class that dealt with the lone
Russian cosmonaut on Mir when the Soviet Union disbanded.
He sat up there wondering if he would ever come home.
The song of course was done to ‘The Man That Never Returned’.
And Greg gave us a true scientist’s view of things with ‘Genomes on
the Range’. There was another
performer (whose name I wish I could remember) that gave us a story of a space
station (some station of the future) inhabitant who was ‘Making Love, Weighing
Nothing at All’.
Our friend, Thomas Atkinson, showed that there is
more than one idea that works with any particular song.
He started with a filk song written by Leslie Fish.
(This song told the story of a crew similar to the original series
Enterprise crew who got a little carried away while on shore leave.
They then became ‘Banned From Argo’.
This song became so very popular that everyone wanted to hear it.
Unfortunately, as the years went on, Leslie got tired of playing it.
So those people who have been around filk a long time would silence the
‘Neos’ when they would request it.) At
any rate, Thomas managed to fond about 15 existing songs (filk and otherwise)
that worked with the melody of ‘Banned From Argo’, including the theme from
Gilligan’s Island. He then
performed these songs to the ‘Banned from Argo’ music, or performed the
‘Banned From Argo’ words to the other tunes.
It was quite interesting.
It was Greg Baker that made the comment, “There is
nothing more frightening than a filker with a word processor”.
If you look over some of the songs in this online book, you will know
that his statement is all too true.
Venture Forth. Enjoy.