Apparently what I do in times of political and social turmoil is stress-write stubborn Star Wars hope songs, so here’s another one that I threw together with unusual speed and am now releasing into the world for catharsis. Because why not make all the songs about ships about spaceships instead?
Also, even though I don’t have another in-universe write-up prepared, this song is still a spiritual successor to my other Rebellion filk that I wrote a few years ago, so definitely imagine a similar narrative for this one – a song that emerged in the hangars and halls of Rebel Alliance amongst the pilots and other freedom fighters that called them home, becoming cultural tradition and a rallying cry all wrapped into one.
This one required a LOT of squinting at Wookiepedia articles and [gasp] doing actual calculations to figure out Star Wars distances. Please appreciate the fact that this is the first filk I’ve had to pull out a calculator for.
As always, I’m giving blanket permission to anyone with a better voice than I have who wants to record this. Just make sure to tag me so I can go listen to it!
Corellian Spacers
Farewell and adieu to you Twi’lek ladies
Farewell and adieu you Rylothean maids
For we have been recalled all back to Corellia
And in our return we must not be delayed
[CHORUS]:
So we’ll rant and we’ll roar like Corellian spacers
We’ll rant and we’ll roar in the hyperspace glow
Until we make docking at Centerpoint Station
From Ryloth we’ve one-twenty parsecs to go
[CHORUS]
I’m the daughter of smugglers and true merchant traders
The stars call my blood and among them I roam
But I was born by the old Coronet spaceport
And now the Five Brothers are calling me home
[CHORUS]
We’ll head to the core and nudge the ship spinward
Head onward past Christophsis’ crystal green mines
We’ll keep our course coreward and true to the Run lanes
And soon we’ll be passing the Middle Rim line
[CHORUS]
Past Radnor and New Cov and Allanteen’s shipyards
Onwards past Denon’s great city so wide
Through to the Colonies and on to the Core worlds
‘Til betwixt the Twin Worlds our good ship will glide
[CHORUS]
Now let us drink up ‘til our mugs are all empty
Drink up that good whiskey, I’ll spot you a glass
Here’s to the health of all of us spacers
And here’s to the health of my true hearted lass
So I want to draw your attention back to these wonderful people for a sec, and their latest CD. And the Star Wars feels. All the Star Wars feels. This is great in person as well, but that backing track really hits the spot.
Coruscant is Palpatinople
It was Coruscant, now Palpatinople
The Jedi are gone, Palpatinople:
How will “Palpatinople” get the boot?
That’s up to Han, Leia, and Luuuuke…
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
Bright light sabers gonna take their toll
Gonna take their toll on me.
Got a whole lot of cargo sitting in the hold
So get those moorings free.
There’s a thousand plastic troopers waitin’ out there
Got a Wookie with less sense than hair.
And I’m just a scoundrel with flair to spare.
“Viva Mos Eisly” by Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff, a song for Han Solo.
Raised on the desert, scoured by the sand
Sand so shifting you can’t make a stand
And the suns sink slowly ‘til they can’t be seen
Another bad season on Tatooine
“Tatooine,” a Luke Skywalker song by Benjamin Newman set to the tune of “Tillman Co.” by Dave Carter.
Docking Bay 94, that’s where we’re gonna meet
and they’ll take me, take me, off of the dune sea.
See my family is gone and there’s nothing left for me
on this wasted, wasteland, they call Tatooine.
“Docking Bay 94″ by Aurelio Voltaire, a song for Luke at the beginning of his journey.
I started writing this a month or so after The Force Awakens came out and didn’t finish it until now. Whoops. At least I got it done before Episode VII hits theaters?
As always, if anyone with actual musical talent wants to record this, I’d be very, very grateful.
Oh I once was a princess
But my lands are long gone
The planet I came from
Was called Alderaan
I was taught and was raised there
To rule it with pride
With justice and kindness,
The Force on our side
The Empire was unjust
And so I rebelled
But the Empire caught me
Had me tortured and held
Still I told them nothing
And as Alderaan cried
I clung to the knowledge
Of the Force on my side
I learned it much later,
My torturer then
He’d once been my father
Once been a good man
A Jedi of power
Who they’d prophesized
Would bring cosmic balance
The Force on his side
I have a twin brother,
They split us at birth
And hid him away on
A dry barren earth
But his destiny found him
And his childhood died
To his fate he departed
The Force on his side
We took on the empire
And against them we won
I took on a husband
And we had a son
I held him close to me
And as he opened his eyes
I saw a bright future
The Force on our side
But my son he grew older
And grew angry, afraid
The darkness seduced him,
The light he betrayed
Like my father before him
He kills and he tries
To smother all goodness
Bend the Force to his side
I’ve felt my love slaughtered
Struck down by our son
I’ve felt so many dying
A whole system gone
My brother has left me
He stares at the tides
In search of some answer
From the Force on his side
But me, I’m still standing
I’m here fighting still
Though I stand alone now;
Fear I always will
I’ve seen planets crumble
I’ve watched empires fall
And I have to wonder
If there’s a light side at all
