Filk Singing Camaraderie
A talking blues TTTO "Alice's Restaurant"
I was going to write - I was going to write a lengthy thesis (with footnotes and detailed quotations, and 8x10 colored glossy photos with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one telling what each one was) on why I like filking. But then I realized that Debbie - Debbie Ohi - was right: it all boils down to the camaraderie. So I didn't.
Instead - well, instead we was having a chat on filkhaven, and during that chat I heard Rob Wynne define “filk” as “the folk music of Science Fiction fandom.” I thought about that and the more I thought about that I realized it was fine. I mean, it was a very fine definition. That definition is a functional one, and - as I am an old coot - I mean I am old for my age, and that is old - it reminded me of another. Another definition I mean. I remember the folk-revival of the 1960’s and its songs. And how those songs were associated with the activism of the 1960’s. And before that the songs of the 1930’s. And how those old old songs that were associated with the antifascist movements of the late 1920’s and 1930’s. And how the anti-fascist movement folks said that the fascists had all those armies and modern weapons of war, but the movement folks had the good songs.
It got me to think. It really did get me to think. I mean - here are all these songs. All these songs people have thought up over the years. I mean not just years! But decades! Centuries! Years of decades! Centuries of years! Years of centuries! And new ones all the time. And one weekend, on a park bench, I tried to see if some songs were filk songs and some were not. And I can’t sort them out. No way! I tried to say - well, this one’s a filk song, but that one isn’t. And maybe yes, and maybe no. I was going crazy on the park bench in the park trying to see if some song - say a song like Alice’s Restaurant - was a filk song or not.
So I gave up. And then I came to the realization, that maybe - just maybe - Rob might be right. So now I don’t worry - too much about whether a song is a filk song or not. But then if filk isn’t about songs, what is it about? And then I thought about all the other songs and what they were about. And then, then, I came to the realization that since the other songs were all about camaraderie and people - the dreamers and the rebels and all the people who nobody can really classify or even should ought to classify. Well, then, just maybe, so was filk about people and friends and why, why it was all about - camaraderie! And then I had an idea - an inspiration. So, someday, when you are at a science fiction convention, or maybe, if you are really daring … maybe just about anyplace with a park bench or a couch or a bed and you are sitting on it - well …
Wouldn't be great - I mean - wouldn't it be just fine - if one person - just ONE PERSON - stood up and said "Camaraderie!" and sat down. They would think she was nuts. But if two people. Yes, TWO PEOPLE, stood up and said, together, duet-wise, with glissandoes, "Camaraderie!" they might think that something was going on. And if three -- yes, THREE PEOPLE - all at once - sang, sang in three part harmony "CAMARADERIE!" -- well, they just might think it was a ... a Movement!
And yes ma'am, I think that's what it just might be. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Filking Movement. Just think about that.
So we’ll wait a bit - until after 10pm on this Saturday night - and set set a spell until it comes around again on this fine chronometer -10pm on this night - and then we’ll sing, in complete and full camaraderie - until the morning dawn breaks.
So will you wait? And we’ll sing it - sing filk - with feelin’!
I was going to write - I was going to write a lengthy thesis (with footnotes and detailed quotations, and 8x10 colored glossy photos with circles and arrows and a paragraph on the back of each one telling what each one was) on why I like filking. But then I realized that Debbie - Debbie Ohi - was right: it all boils down to the camaraderie. So I didn't.
Instead - well, instead we was having a chat on filkhaven, and during that chat I heard Rob Wynne define “filk” as “the folk music of Science Fiction fandom.” I thought about that and the more I thought about that I realized it was fine. I mean, it was a very fine definition. That definition is a functional one, and - as I am an old coot - I mean I am old for my age, and that is old - it reminded me of another. Another definition I mean. I remember the folk-revival of the 1960’s and its songs. And how those songs were associated with the activism of the 1960’s. And before that the songs of the 1930’s. And how those old old songs that were associated with the antifascist movements of the late 1920’s and 1930’s. And how the anti-fascist movement folks said that the fascists had all those armies and modern weapons of war, but the movement folks had the good songs.
It got me to think. It really did get me to think. I mean - here are all these songs. All these songs people have thought up over the years. I mean not just years! But decades! Centuries! Years of decades! Centuries of years! Years of centuries! And new ones all the time. And one weekend, on a park bench, I tried to see if some songs were filk songs and some were not. And I can’t sort them out. No way! I tried to say - well, this one’s a filk song, but that one isn’t. And maybe yes, and maybe no. I was going crazy on the park bench in the park trying to see if some song - say a song like Alice’s Restaurant - was a filk song or not.
So I gave up. And then I came to the realization, that maybe - just maybe - Rob might be right. So now I don’t worry - too much about whether a song is a filk song or not. But then if filk isn’t about songs, what is it about? And then I thought about all the other songs and what they were about. And then, then, I came to the realization that since the other songs were all about camaraderie and people - the dreamers and the rebels and all the people who nobody can really classify or even should ought to classify. Well, then, just maybe, so was filk about people and friends and why, why it was all about - camaraderie! And then I had an idea - an inspiration. So, someday, when you are at a science fiction convention, or maybe, if you are really daring … maybe just about anyplace with a park bench or a couch or a bed and you are sitting on it - well …
Wouldn't be great - I mean - wouldn't it be just fine - if one person - just ONE PERSON - stood up and said "Camaraderie!" and sat down. They would think she was nuts. But if two people. Yes, TWO PEOPLE, stood up and said, together, duet-wise, with glissandoes, "Camaraderie!" they might think that something was going on. And if three -- yes, THREE PEOPLE - all at once - sang, sang in three part harmony "CAMARADERIE!" -- well, they just might think it was a ... a Movement!
And yes ma'am, I think that's what it just might be. The Science Fiction and Fantasy Filking Movement. Just think about that.
So we’ll wait a bit - until after 10pm on this Saturday night - and set set a spell until it comes around again on this fine chronometer -10pm on this night - and then we’ll sing, in complete and full camaraderie - until the morning dawn breaks.
So will you wait? And we’ll sing it - sing filk - with feelin’!