Sun of Vulcan grant that I may be restored
I do not seek nor understand, what I am fighting for
Have you always wanted to hear a heartfelt song about Pon Farr? Would you like some genuine, vintage, archival quality Spirk content? Yes, yes you would.
“Sun of Vulcan,” by Debra F. Sanders & Cynthia McQuillin
Lyrics below the cut, since they’re not readily available online. Thanks to @aaaaaicantthinkofaname for the transcription!
Generals ain’t easy to love and they’re harder to
hold
They care more about the next battle than diamonds or gold
DeathStar destroyers and Amazon Heroes
And Dora Milaje are proof
You may not understand her, an’ she might die young
But she’ll shake the world to it’s roof.
Mamas, raise all your princesses up to be Generals
Instruct them in tactics and honor and pride
How to stand fast when they’re on the right side.
Mamas raise all your princesses up to be Generals
‘Cos they’ll take on the world and they’ll fight like a girl
To save the ones that they love
Generals take lovers who know that they go where they have to
Where the troops need them, and where the foe gathers to fight
Empires tremble when they take the field and then Fall in their moment of triumph
Cause they don’t know surrender, and if they retreat
The trap it leads into holds tight
Mamas, raise all your princesses up to be Generals
Instruct them in tactics and honor and pride
How to stand fast when they’re on the right side.
Mamas raise all your princesses up to be Generals
‘Cos they’ll take on the world and they’ll fight like a girl
To save the home that they love
Seven’s my favourite daughter
I know what’s best
I will protect her
You and your kind
Will be slaughtered
If you stand in the way
Of my favourite daughter
“Favourite Daughter” by Leslie Hudson, a chilling duet for Janeway and the Borg Queen. I got to see Leslie Hudson perform this live with Dr. Mary Crowell, and it was amazing.
I got the replicator malfunction blues
It messes up whatever I choose
Chief come and fix it and don’t be late
We never had this trouble on Deep Space 8
It’s driving me crazy, and I’m losing weight
And I got those replicator malfunction blues
“Replicator Malfunction Blues” by Chris Conway, a song about the trials of living on a certain space station.
Do you think the song “Pioneers Over c” by Van Der Graaf Generator could be considered filk? It’s prog rock rather than folk, but it is about the first astronauts to surpass the speed of light, who then find themselves sort of disconnected from time. I suppose it’s more like speculative fiction in song form than science fiction fandom, though. Idk, that’s why I’m asking y’all.
It is if you want it to be! Because definitions are made up and only exist as long as they are useful to us. I definitely thing filk is a genre doesn’t ever need to sound folk-ish, it just often does because 1) it evolved out of the 60′s folk movement and 2) it’s an easy style to write and perform in for amateur musicians. But heck, there’s rap filk, there’s no reason there should be prog rock filk…except that prog rock typically requires at LEAST six musical instruments and electricity, and so is more conducive to staged concerts than song circles.
….but there’s plenty of filk on concert stages, with electric instruments, with the extensive arrangement, rehearsal, and setup you get in prog rock. I saw a prog rock band at a con, and while it wasn’t billed as filk, being at a con makes you basically filk.
As for whether it’s science fiction fandom music – if you’re in the science fiction fandom, and feel like it’s relevant, and you like it, it’s science fiction fandom music. That’s why songs about cats and Shakespeare are considered filk, even though they have heck all to do with science fiction. They might be pretty far removed from Star Trek, but a whole bunch of people like all of those things, and that unites them. Fandom is about the people, more than the content, in the end.
Anyway, I’d say a case can be made for calling it filk, and if you want to make that case that’s fine by me. It’s a few steps removed from what I might suggest as some kind of archetypal filk song, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t one. It’s like how a dachshund and a wolfhound are both dogs. They’re just very different dogs, and you just have to be aware that traits of most dogs do not necessarily apply to these dogs. If filk had a real dictionary definition it would have a dozen subdefinitions, and one of those would probably say “songs about science fiction concepts” and that’s this!
(And yeah, I know it was forever ago, sorry we’re bad at answering messages!)
Tumblr managed to eat your ask as I was replying to it, but the gist of it was that you were wondering if we had the lyrics to “Farewell Mother Russia” by Debra Sanders and Kathy Mar, since you couldn’t find them anywhere, and couldn’t hear all the words in the recording on YouTube.
I haven’t been able to find any lyrics online – I’m sure they’re written down in a songbook somewhere, but wherever it is, it hasn’t been digitized or transcribed. (If anyone does have the lyrics lying around somewhere, please let us know!)
That said, I was able to transcribe most of the words from the online recording. There’s just one word in the chorus I can’t quite catch – if anyone knows what it is, or has any corrections to my transcription, absolutely chime in!
I am the navigator of the Starship Enterprise,
And I am honor-bound by oath to guide her through the skies,
But greater than that honor is the pleasure that I feel
Each time I stop to realize that all my dreams are real.
[chorus:]
Farewell Mother Russia, I rise to meet the stars
And take my balalaika song beyond the moon and mars,
Though somewhere Mother Russia is white with winter snows,
I help to forge that starry trail, and go where no man goes.
Oh I have seen an entity who tortured me with rage,
And I have known an alien plague that cursed young men with age,
But I’ve discovered joys as well, and made a friend or two,
Drunk vodka, yes, and told some tales when every trek was through.
[chorus]
Forgive me sweet Irina, I never learned to love,
My eyes were always turned toward the starry skies above,
But if I had another chance to do what I must do,
Beside me on the Enterprise would be no one but you.
