For space is wide and good friends are too few.
I like comics and spaceships and cats-es
and I’m barely holding the panic in
I’m afraid of eye contact and taxes
bartender, please extra gin
“Extra Gin” by the Doubleclicks, or the most personally relatable drinking song the brain mod has ever encountered.
My voice is dying and my fingers are sore, but I’ll leave you with this one. It’s one of those poignant space songs that filk is known for, and it makes me remember the good things about humanity.
Salomé’s waiting tables, platter in hand
While Deborah smokes the courthouse from her mind
Naomi keeps her daughter close ‘little longer than planned
And Leah’s still a lover to the blind
We are all sisters and sinners, trying to unwind
We are all sisters and sinners, girls, by our own design
“Sisters & Sinners” by Leslie Hudson, a song for the oft-overlooked and misunderstood ladies of Christian and Jewish lore. Leslie says in the song description that the idea came to her one day when she “mused what it might be like to stumble across a pub in limbo frequented by ladies of Biblical traditions.”
Step by step, we walk in the darkness!
Wink and blink, we squint at the light!
Black and blacker, loving our starkness!
Knock on your door on Halloween night!
“Undertakers from Hell” by Alexander James Adams. ‘Tis the season…
It’s not done until it’s told,
It’s not told until it’s written,
If I’m brave and if I’m bold,
I can challenge what’s forbidden,
For nobody gets to tell me
That I’ll never be the one.
When they ask you what befell me,
Say my story is not done.
“My Story is not Done” by Seanan McGuire, 2015 Pegasus Award winner for Best Filk Song. It’s performed here by Seanan, Amy McNally, Brenda Sutton, Bill Sutton, Teresa Powell, Dr. Mary Crowell and Judi Miller.
I don’t need you to rescue me
I just need you to care
I’d like to think you think of me out there
You were my companion
Just as much as I was yours
I was the girl who waited…
I’m not waiting any more
“The Girl Who Waited” by the PDX Broadsides, a message from Amy Pond to the Doctor.
Another space filk with a bit of a stealth TAZ flavor. My words to a traditional tune, sung by me and @howtotrainyournana
Lyrics:
Oh planetfall, I long to reach you
Away, across the cosmos
Oh planetfall, I long to reach you
Away, we’re bound away
Chasing hope and starlight.The darkness comes, but we keep flying
Away, across the cosmos
The darkness comes, but we keep flying
Away, we’re bound away
Chasing hope and starlight.Our world is gone, there’s no returning
Away, across the cosmos
Our world is gone, there’s no returning
Away, we’re bound away
Chasing hope and starlight.But we will build a home together
Away, across the cosmos
But we will build a home together
Away, we’re bound away
Chasing hope and starlight.
I never thought that I could hold you forever
Always knew deep down you’d have to go home
I can be grateful for these bright years together
And I know you miss the salt sea foam
If you hurry, you can still catch the tide, my love
If you hurry you can still catch the tide.“Still Catch the Tide” by Talis Kimberley, performed here by Seanan McGuire with Michelle “Vixy” Dockrey, Tony Fabris, S.J. Tucker, and Amy McNally. Lyrics are available here.
This is one of my favorite songs to sing along to when I want to be Sad About The Sea (a specific emotion that I experience with alarming regularity.)
If you want a selkie song with a happy ending, check out “The Maiden and the Selkie” by Heather Dale or “Glass Half Full of the Sea” by Benjamin Newman.
She puts on sealskin with a steady hand
Beast at sea, woman on land
She puts on sealskin, the color of foam
She knows what’s next: going home
“Sealskin” by Batya Wittenberg, performed here with the able assistance of Gary Ehrlich (guitar) and Joshua Kronengold (vocals), is the story of “Still Catch the Tide” rearranged to the tune of another Talis Kimberley song about a shapeshifting woman with a human lover: “Velvet” (lyrics and audio here).
… and it owes its existence in no small part to Bob Kanefsky’s “Velvet Tide” (lyrics here), which is a comedic song that takes the story of “Velvet” and rearranges it to the tune of “Still Catch the Tide.”
(Series: Filksong Genealogy)
Oops, oops, extravagant curses,
Adding new verses to a tired old song
Oh well, you can’t be too picky
Magic is tricky and apt to go wrong.
“Oops” by Echo’s Children, a song written for a role-playing game. Almost all the verses detail events that actually happened over the course of the campaign.
“Protocol (C-3PO’s Lament)” by the Doubleclicks, a troublingly relatable song about everyone’s favorite anxiety-laden protocol droid.