Filk Music: Grass Roots Music for the Space/Computer Age

The term “Filk Music” originated from a typographical error. According to Lee Gold in her essay AN EGOCENTRIC AND CONVOLUTED HISTORY OF EARLY “FILK” AND FILKING, Copyright March, 1997 which originally appeared in the ConChord 12 Songbook. “. . . Lee Jacobs, a LArea fan who had died shortly before I entered fandom. Back in the 50s, he’d submitted an essay to SAPS (Spectator Amateur Press Society) entitled “The Influence of Science Fiction on Modern American Filk Music” about supposed science fiction incidents in folk song, which was a straight-faced analysis of a number of thoroughly filthy “dirty songs,”

taking various metaphors in them as if they were meant literally.” http://fanac.org/Fan_Histories/filkhist.html

I first encountered Filk music in 1981 when my first husband brought home a bunch of gamers for a long winded AD&D game. He wanted to attend a convention being held in St. Louis. Since he had just graduated from Surgical Tech training, and had only been working a few months and I had a new baby (our youngest son), we were pretty much broke. We managed to scrape up enough money to send him, and I stayed home with the kids. When he came home, he brought two guests and 5 scratchy boot-leg tapes of some very different music. The tapes were Skybound, by Leslie Fish; Crystal Memories by Cynthia McQuillan; Song for the Old Religion & the Faerie Shaman by Gwydion Penderwyn; and something about a bardic circle by Jim Alan of Circle Network.

I’ve always loved music, and I enjoy making noises that I refer to as music; although family members and friends may have a different opinion of the sounds I produce. These five tapes opened up a whole new world for me. Here were people who enjoyed making music, recording their music, playing with others who were not professional musicians, were not associated with a school or church (or at least not necessarily) who were having FUN with music.

During the remaining two years of my under-graduate studies at a near-by college, and well into my earning years there-after, I continued to pursue an interest in this genre. I attended as many science fiction conventions and gatherings of the Society for Creative Anachronism as I could manage; always seeking out the “filk-sing” or the “bardic circle”. Depending on how many people were there and how skilled they were, sometimes I would sing, other times I would only listen. When I started graduate school and became a school librarian, my available time prevented continuing to attend such gatherings. I still followed the medium, however, as best I could. I purchased tapes/CDs by my favorite “Filk Artists”; I took music lessons; I continued to write compositions of my own. Recent discovery that many of my favorites are placing recordings on YouTube was absolutely tremendous!

My favorite (and possibly the most famous) filk writer/singer is Leslie Fish. Leslie writes on a broad spectrum of topics ranging from silly songs about Star Trek to protest songs to pagan spirituals. Her best known work is “Hope Eyrie”, a paean to the landing of the Eagle on the moon. She has produced 14 “albums” (for want of a better word), and numerous odd ditties which cannot be found on any formal recording. (If anyone can come up with a copy of “The Last Vampire” I’d love to have it.) Leslie has a voice that might best be described as a whiskey alto, but can range up toward the top of second soprano. She plays “Monster”, her 12-string guitar. For more information, check out her web page at http://lesliefish.com .

My next favorite is Suzette Haden Elgin. Elgin no longer filks, I’m sorry to say. She still writes, however; turning out wonderful non-fiction dealing with linguistics and communication. By asking very nicely and sending cash, I was able to get all of her filk tapes. Two my favorite titles are “Dragons, Cows and Kudzu” and “Industrial Strength Songs and Stories”. Her filks were wonderful for singing with my children because they couldn’t be beat for story telling and lessons taught, as well as being clean enough my kids wouldn’t get in trouble for singing them at school. Her singing voice is a sweet alto, and she plays a standard guitar. Her webpage may be found at http://www.sfwa.org/members/elgin .

No list of filkers would be complete without mentioning Julia Ecklar. Julia writes science fiction, and has a nearly professional musical background. She covers a lot of Leslie Fish’s filk classics, but also has some excellent compositions of her own. My favorites of her work are “Ladyhawk” (inspired by the movie) and “One-man magical show”. She has a blog at http://jecklar.livejournal.com You can find samples (and the opportunity to purchase) of her music at http://www.prometheus-music.com/divine.html . “Lullaby for a Weary World” is so apropos for our current times.

A lesser known artist, but one of my personal favorites, is Diana Gallagher. No filk collection is complete without “Wolf”, the musical chronicle of a dragon who follows a little girl home (sung with her daughter) or that all time classic “Anatomical Docking Maneuvers”, otherwise known as “Zero-G Sex”. She also turns out some incredible fine arts featuring little dragons and beautiful likenesses of her daughter. She plays guitar, has a lovely singing voice and great stage presence in person. You can find out more about her at http://www.dianaggallagher.com/biography.htm .

For an all-round sampling of filk music, visit the Virtual Filk-sing at http://www.prometheus-music.com/eli/virtual.html . It’s not for everyone…this grass-roots, off-key and sometimes off-color genre of folk music. It’s a little bit of a lot of different things-science fiction, musical parodies, spoofery, political commentary, reverence, irreverence, a love of earth and a yearning for that final frontier, space…but always it will boldly go…sometimes where it shouldn’t have gone at all; but with such a cheery insouciance ya gotta love it.