Worn Out Filksong

When someone creates a really good filk song, it gets sung, and sung, and sung... until the point where the artist might not like it any more. This is true with Leslie Fish who many years back wrote a wonderfully funny song called 'Banned From Argo'. The song told a tale of a starship crew (loosely based on the Enterprise crew) that just caused tons of trouble when they had shore leave on planet Argo. The song became so popular that even 20 years after its creation, audiences still request it. The problem is that Leslie won't perform it anymore because she wants to do newer material. (Its almost like going to Paul McCartney and requesting him to sing 'I Want to Hold Your Hand'.)

When songs do get tired, someone always finds a way to rejuvenate them, or at least the music, by writing new words. One can pick any number of songs where many songs have been written based on the tune of the original.

At one convention, our friend Thomas demonstrated how many songs actually scanned to (had the same syllables and could be sung to the same tune as) 'Banned From Argo'. I think he came up with about 15 (and he said he wasn't really trying). You could sing the words from 'Banned From Argo' to a number of tunes, and then sing the words from these other tunes to 'Banned From Argo', and he did.

This song asks and answers the question of what one does with an over-used song. It also gives a small bit of insight into what filk writers go through to come up with a song.

To the tune of

What Do You Do With a Drunken Sailor?

Performed by

FreeFall, Iteration 3

Worn Out Filksong

By Brian Dean, Shirley Dean, James Kratzer

What do you do with a worn out filk song,

Change the words and sing it.

What do you do with Banned From Argo,

Change the words and sing it real low,

Duck from the things the audience throws,

During the performance.

Way Hey let's change Born Again,

Way Hey we'll impress the Fen,

If they hate it then,

we'll hide at the convention.

We'll find a story that we like and tell it,

We'll just sing it, we won't yell it,

Even if we can't spell it,

We'll get it down on paper.

Once we have the story that we want to tell,

We'll create the words to make it flow well,

I hope when we're done it won't sound like hell,

when we try to sing it.

What's another word to rhyme with orange??

Don't we have a word that rhymes with orange??

Can't we find another word but orange??

to use in this chorus.

Dump these words and write a new line,

I know one that will sound 'so fine',

We'll fit it in if we have enough time,

in between the verses.

We'll all work till we finish this song,

I hope it doesn't turn out all wrong,

If it does we'll work until its

early in the morning.

Practice the thing till we know all the words,

Keep on working, Hey, what were those words,

Screw it all up and sing the old words,

Friday night at Filksing.