Comments | joyeuse13: Question for Filkers

joyeuse13

Question for Filkers

Mar 01, 2009 20:59

What is the most quintessential filk song you can think of? One that is typically representative of the genre, but accessible to non-geeks (ie, not too many "in-jokes" that you won't get if you haven't read the book or whatever)?

filk, geek culture, music

Comments 17

quintessential? sffilk March 2 2009, 02:29:22 UTC

non-geek? "Hope Eyrie" - everyone can understand the first manned moon landing.

Re: quintessential? joyeuse13 March 2 2009, 04:59:56 UTC

You know, that's perfect. It's a bit long, but maybe I can play just one or two verses.

Re: quintessential? sffilk March 2 2009, 16:46:20 UTC

Well, you could use the Julia Ecklar youtube version, which is all of 4 minutes.

Re: quintessential? joyeuse13 March 2 2009, 16:46:56 UTC

Yes, that's the one I was looking at. In a 20 minute presentation, four is a lot of minutes to use on one song.

kd5mdk March 2 2009, 05:02:53 UTC

I would figure "Banned from Argo". While it does require some awareness of the original material, EVERYONE is familiar with at least the bare outline of Star Trek.

Of course, its accessibility may be limited by polite company.

joyeuse13 March 2 2009, 05:15:42 UTC

You over-estimate "everyone." Trust me, my class will not get the references. (Not only are they non-geeks, many of them grew up in other countries than the US.)

celticdragonfly March 2 2009, 16:41:23 UTC

Never Set The Cat On Fire

joyeuse13 March 2 2009, 16:43:58 UTC

Hah. Don't want to scare them, though!

fugazi2112 March 2 2009, 22:11:49 UTC

Tom Smith's Rich Fantasy Lives does a great job of not only being a great filk song itself, but of describing fandom in general, without being overbearing.

joyeuse13 March 2 2009, 22:27:01 UTC

Ah, that's a good suggestion. I'll check it out.

surrdave March 3 2009, 00:12:41 UTC

Along those lines--songs about the way filkers look at the world--"Dumb Dumb Dorothy", "Where the Magic Is Real", "Wind from Rainbow's End".

joyeuse13 March 19 2009, 12:42:09 UTC

The first verse of "Wind from Rainbow's End" really does capture the early geek experience...but the ending strongly reinforces the stereotype that geeks live in their heads and consciously avoid the real world (and possibly can't tell the difference), which is part of what I'm trying to knock down!

Thread 9