Songs for Saturday: Of Shoes and Ships and Cats
She got the which of the what-she-did,
Hid the bell with a blot, she did,
But she fell in love with a hominid.
Where is the which of the what-she-did?
from The Ballad of Lost C'Mell.
I'm not quite sure how I managed to fall into the Cordwainer Smith rabbit hole this time, but all the evidence points to looking up something about light sails sometime on Tuesday. It might have been a chance reference to CD, carried on board Cosmos I: The First Solar Sail. In any case, it included a copy of Smith's story about light-sailing, "The Lady Who Sailed The Soul". It was the (somewhat loosely-coupled) inspiration for the first song I wrote after discovering filk: "The Shores of the Night". (If you're keeping score, that's where the "ships" part of this post's title comes from.)
And somehow from there I wound up on this radio play version of "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell", which starts with the song quoted at the top of this post. The "C'" in her name is a contraction of "Cat" (if you're still keeping score).
Cats appear in many of Smith's stories -- C'Mell herself appears in several of them. As far as I know, though, the only actual cats (as opposed to cat-derived underpeople) appear in the "The Game of Rat and Dragon" (audiobook version here). If you haven't fallen in love with The Lady May by the end of the story, you're obviously not a cat person and I'm very sorry for you.
Scattered through Smith's stories are dozens of little poems and scraps of song, like "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" (which, as far as I know, is the only one anyone has set to music -- that's what triggered this post). I've thought about it, but ...
And if you were still keeping score and wondering where the shoes from the title went, you'll find them in "Think Blue, Count Two" -- Lady if a man Tries to bother you, you can Think blue, Count two, And look for a red shoe.
As far as I can tell, only a small handful of filk songs have been written about Cordwainer Smith's stories. I've written two of them: "The Shores of the Night" and "A Talk With the Middle-Sized Bear" (from "" -- I wrote about it in Songs for Saturday, 2012-02-11. There is also "Scanners Live in Vain" by Zander Nyrond, and there are at least two versions of "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell", neither of which I can find lyrics to.
The Shores of the Night Copyright 1981-1984 Stephen Savitzky. CC by-nc-sa/4.0. Dedicated to Cordwainer Smith One night on my homeworld, adrift on a warm little sea, I sailed in a small boat, the wind in her sails blowing free. With a pale star above me to guide me past island and shoal, I never intended to sail with a star for my goal. Now my bright sails of silver have caught the sun's light, And I sail the wide ocean past the shores of the night. I once met a sailor, her eyes they were distant and gay. She spoke like a girl, though I saw that her hair had turned grey. She spoke of her home, far away in both distance and time, And she spoke of the stars that had stolen the years of her prime. She told me my home-world was an island in flight, And the blue skies above me, the shores of the night. Now alone on my ship, in the starlight the long watch I keep, Endless the sea without harbor, the night without sleep. My youth with my loves and my sorrows falls light-years behind; Silver sails in the wind from the stars fill my vision and mind. And somewhere past the darkness, I long for the sight Of blue skies above me, the shores of the night. Loosely inspired by ``The Lady Who Sailed _The Soul_'' by Cordwainer Smith. ================ A Talk With the Middle-Sized Bear Copyright Stephen Savitzky. CC by-nc-sa/4.0 You've had a rough journey; a hellish long day; There's a fire in your throat and an ache in your head And you long to be back in your own cozy bed. But the world you grew up in has vanished away. You're weary and sick and you're frightened by change When something wraps 'round you like a swirl of warm air For there's no place as comforting, gentle, or strange As the mind of the Middle-Sized Bear. For the Middle-Sized Bear is a creature most rare He'll feed you on honey and tea in his lair And you don't think you trust him, but maybe you'll dare Have a talk with the Middle-Sized Bear. He's clumsy, forgetful, ill-tempered, and shy; There's dust on his spectacles, gray in his fur; Sometimes he growls when you think that he'd purr, But he holds you so gently and just lets you cry. He says he's not clever, but sometimes he's wise, Sometimes he's so silent you can't tell he's there And he quietly kisses the tears from your eyes As you sit with the Middle-Sized Bear. For the Middle-Sized Bear is a creature most rare He'll sing you a song as he brushes your hair And they say it's a comfort just knowing he's there As you talk with the Middle-Sized Bear. There's a line in his journal that pierces your mask Though he says at the time that he's probably wrong; But he sums up your fears in a few lines of song, And answers a question you never would ask. A letter, a message, a voice on the phone, A scrap of a song coming out of thin air. Perhaps it's enough to know you're not alone As you talk with the Middle-Sized Bear. For the Middle-Sized Bear is a creature most rare He knows you don't love him, but he doesn't care And you think you could trust him, if only you'd dare Have a talk with the Middle-sized Bear.
NaBloPoMo stats: 1054 2019/11/#30--s4s-of-shoes-and-ships-and-cats.html# 43 2019/11/01--rabbit-rabbit-rabbit.html 1731 2019/11/02--s4s-memorials.html 1465 2019/11/03--done-since-1027.html 145 2019/11/04--i-ought-to-post-something.html 436 2019/11/05--how-to-makestuff.html 343 2019/11/06--yak-shaving.html 42 2019/11/07--thankful-thursday.html 438 2019/11/08--tempest-in-a-teacup.html 253 2019/11/09--s4s-music-for-cats.html 1844 2019/11/10--done-since-1103.html 638 2019/11/11--data-mining-the-dog.html 519 2019/11/12--shelves.html 87 2019/11/13--filler.html 55 2019/11/14--thankful-thursday.html 462 2019/11/15--meta.html 636 2019/11/16--s4s-river.html 1363 2019/11/17--done-since-1110.html 350 2019/11/18--modified-rapture.html 251 2019/11/19--childrens-grief-awareness.html 114 2019/11/20--wimpy-wednesday.html 60 2019/11/21--thankful-thursday.html 272 2019/11/22--farewell-to-rosie.html 688 2019/11/23--s4s-rambling-silver-rose.html 1289 2019/11/24--done-since-1117.html 272 2019/11/25--singing-lesson-report.html 180 2019/11/26--more-filler-i-guess.html 242 2019/11/27--thanksgiving-eve.html 259 2019/11/28--thankful-thursday.html 518 2019/11/29--yesterdays-recipes.html 1057 2019/11/30--s4s-of-shoes-and-ships-and-cats.html ------- 17106 words in 31 posts this month (average 551/post) 1057 words in 1 post today
[Crossposted from mdlbear.dreamwidth.org, where it has
comments. You can comment here, or there with openID, but wouldn't you really rather be on Dreamwidth?]
I'm not quite sure how I managed to fall into the Cordwainer Smith rabbit hole this time, but all the evidence points to looking up something about light sails sometime on Tuesday. It might have been a chance reference to CD, carried on board Cosmos I: The First Solar Sail. In any case, it included a copy of Smith's story about light-sailing, "The Lady Who Sailed The Soul". It was the (somewhat loosely-coupled) inspiration for the first song I wrote after discovering filk: "The Shores of the Night". (If you're keeping score, that's where the "ships" part of this post's title comes from.)
And somehow from there I wound up on this radio play version of "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell", which starts with the song quoted at the top of this post. The "C'" in her name is a contraction of "Cat" (if you're still keeping score).
Cats appear in many of Smith's stories -- C'Mell herself appears in several of them. As far as I know, though, the only actual cats (as opposed to cat-derived underpeople) appear in the "The Game of Rat and Dragon" (audiobook version here). If you haven't fallen in love with The Lady May by the end of the story, you're obviously not a cat person and I'm very sorry for you.
Scattered through Smith's stories are dozens of little poems and scraps of song, like "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell" (which, as far as I know, is the only one anyone has set to music -- that's what triggered this post). I've thought about it, but ...
And if you were still keeping score and wondering where the shoes from the title went, you'll find them in "Think Blue, Count Two" -- Lady if a man Tries to bother you, you can Think blue, Count two, And look for a red shoe.
As far as I can tell, only a small handful of filk songs have been written about Cordwainer Smith's stories. I've written two of them: "The Shores of the Night" and "A Talk With the Middle-Sized Bear" (from "" -- I wrote about it in Songs for Saturday, 2012-02-11. There is also "Scanners Live in Vain" by Zander Nyrond, and there are at least two versions of "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell", neither of which I can find lyrics to.
The Shores of the Night Copyright 1981-1984 Stephen Savitzky. CC by-nc-sa/4.0. Dedicated to Cordwainer Smith One night on my homeworld, adrift on a warm little sea, I sailed in a small boat, the wind in her sails blowing free. With a pale star above me to guide me past island and shoal, I never intended to sail with a star for my goal. Now my bright sails of silver have caught the sun's light, And I sail the wide ocean past the shores of the night. I once met a sailor, her eyes they were distant and gay. She spoke like a girl, though I saw that her hair had turned grey. She spoke of her home, far away in both distance and time, And she spoke of the stars that had stolen the years of her prime. She told me my home-world was an island in flight, And the blue skies above me, the shores of the night. Now alone on my ship, in the starlight the long watch I keep, Endless the sea without harbor, the night without sleep. My youth with my loves and my sorrows falls light-years behind; Silver sails in the wind from the stars fill my vision and mind. And somewhere past the darkness, I long for the sight Of blue skies above me, the shores of the night. Loosely inspired by ``The Lady Who Sailed _The Soul_'' by Cordwainer Smith. ================ A Talk With the Middle-Sized Bear Copyright Stephen Savitzky. CC by-nc-sa/4.0 You've had a rough journey; a hellish long day; There's a fire in your throat and an ache in your head And you long to be back in your own cozy bed. But the world you grew up in has vanished away. You're weary and sick and you're frightened by change When something wraps 'round you like a swirl of warm air For there's no place as comforting, gentle, or strange As the mind of the Middle-Sized Bear. For the Middle-Sized Bear is a creature most rare He'll feed you on honey and tea in his lair And you don't think you trust him, but maybe you'll dare Have a talk with the Middle-Sized Bear. He's clumsy, forgetful, ill-tempered, and shy; There's dust on his spectacles, gray in his fur; Sometimes he growls when you think that he'd purr, But he holds you so gently and just lets you cry. He says he's not clever, but sometimes he's wise, Sometimes he's so silent you can't tell he's there And he quietly kisses the tears from your eyes As you sit with the Middle-Sized Bear. For the Middle-Sized Bear is a creature most rare He'll sing you a song as he brushes your hair And they say it's a comfort just knowing he's there As you talk with the Middle-Sized Bear. There's a line in his journal that pierces your mask Though he says at the time that he's probably wrong; But he sums up your fears in a few lines of song, And answers a question you never would ask. A letter, a message, a voice on the phone, A scrap of a song coming out of thin air. Perhaps it's enough to know you're not alone As you talk with the Middle-Sized Bear. For the Middle-Sized Bear is a creature most rare He knows you don't love him, but he doesn't care And you think you could trust him, if only you'd dare Have a talk with the Middle-sized Bear.
NaBloPoMo stats: 1054 2019/11/#30--s4s-of-shoes-and-ships-and-cats.html# 43 2019/11/01--rabbit-rabbit-rabbit.html 1731 2019/11/02--s4s-memorials.html 1465 2019/11/03--done-since-1027.html 145 2019/11/04--i-ought-to-post-something.html 436 2019/11/05--how-to-makestuff.html 343 2019/11/06--yak-shaving.html 42 2019/11/07--thankful-thursday.html 438 2019/11/08--tempest-in-a-teacup.html 253 2019/11/09--s4s-music-for-cats.html 1844 2019/11/10--done-since-1103.html 638 2019/11/11--data-mining-the-dog.html 519 2019/11/12--shelves.html 87 2019/11/13--filler.html 55 2019/11/14--thankful-thursday.html 462 2019/11/15--meta.html 636 2019/11/16--s4s-river.html 1363 2019/11/17--done-since-1110.html 350 2019/11/18--modified-rapture.html 251 2019/11/19--childrens-grief-awareness.html 114 2019/11/20--wimpy-wednesday.html 60 2019/11/21--thankful-thursday.html 272 2019/11/22--farewell-to-rosie.html 688 2019/11/23--s4s-rambling-silver-rose.html 1289 2019/11/24--done-since-1117.html 272 2019/11/25--singing-lesson-report.html 180 2019/11/26--more-filler-i-guess.html 242 2019/11/27--thanksgiving-eve.html 259 2019/11/28--thankful-thursday.html 518 2019/11/29--yesterdays-recipes.html 1057 2019/11/30--s4s-of-shoes-and-ships-and-cats.html ------- 17106 words in 31 posts this month (average 551/post) 1057 words in 1 post today
[Crossposted from mdlbear.dreamwidth.org, where it has
comments. You can comment here, or there with openID, but wouldn't you really rather be on Dreamwidth?]