Filking, filksongs, filkers

At this point, you may be saying to yourself, "What the heck is this 'filk' stuff, anyway?" The best answer I know of is, "Filk music is what happens when science fiction fans get their hands on instruments." Sadly, that definition, while accurate, is also somewhat less than informative...

What it is

Etymologically: The word "filk" itself was originally a typing error. Exactly where and when this typo first appeared isn't entirely clear, since there are at least two distinct claimants to this particular "prize". Whenever it occured (and it couldn't have been less than 30 years ago), all parties agree that someone was trying to type "science fiction folk music", and the typist slipped so that it came out "science fiction filk music". SF fandom being what it is, this "filk" neologism was immediately adopted and put to ever-wider use.

Musically: Filk music is predominantly vocal material with acoustic guitar accompaniment. Acoustic guitars certainly aren't the only instruments used by filkers, however; among other things, you can also find autoharps, zithers, electronic keyboards, bodhrans (Celtic drums), one or two orchestra-type harps, and the occasional 3-ring binder and/or bag of M&Ms for percussion. That said, acoustic guitars are commonly available, fairly easy to learn & play, sound just as good if the power goes out, and can be transported with little difficulty, all of which may explain why guitars do make up the vast majority of all filkish instruments.
The bulk of all filksongs are new lyrics written to pre-existing tunes, somewhat like what Allan Sherman or "Weird Al" Yankovic are noted for. But unlike the works of Sherman or Yankovic, it should be noted that humor is not necessarily the primary driving force behind the writing of filksongs. Indeed, there are even a significant number of filksongs referred to as "ose", an musical style which Jane Mailander has aptly defined as "the kind of songs you must never listen to on a cold, rainy Sunday afternoon, or you will kill yourself".
Filksingers, as a group, are notorious for their lack of musical ability; they are well aware of their reputation, as indicated by the chorus of "All of the Filkers Are Singing" (Lyrics: Mark Bernstein, to the tune of "Banks of Sicily"):

So belt out whatever note suits you
The rest will join in, each one in his own key
And it's fare ye well, all vestige of harmony
All of the filkers are singing.

This reputation is not entirely groundless, as filkers tend to be egalitarian to a fault, refusing to discriminate even on the basis of ability. On the other hand, there are a sizeable number of filkers out there who are quite good at what they do, and these performers are highly sought after as guests at conventions and such.

Socio-culturally: Filksingers are one of the many recognized subgroups within SF fandom. The relationships between filkdom and these other subgroups are generally cordial, albeit as variable as you might expect of a subculture (SF fandom) which tends to attract quirky and eccentric personalities.

Who's who in filking

Here's a list of a few of the "players" on the filking scene past and present. No, it doesn't even pretend to be exhaustive, or representative, or much of anything besides a list of some of the filkers that Quentin Long is aware of. If you think Joe Tonedeaf deserves to be included in this listing, let me know and I may or may not add him in, depending on how I feel that day -- no promises.

Gary Anderson

Unfortunately, Gary died of a rare form of brain cancer in May 1998. While he beat the point spread (i.e. outlived his doctors' estimates of life expectancy) by a wide margin, he ultimately lost the game. The foremost proponent of ose filksongs, Gary was living proof that exploratory brain surgery is no obstacle to a true filker! Oddly enough, he was known throughout SF fandom for his frog cartoons even before the surgery... Possibly better-known among SF costumers, as a result of the many masquerade events that benefitted from his behind-the-scenes technical expertise.

Juanita Coulson

A long-time SF fan, and filker of equal longevity, Juanita is notorious for the decibel levels her unmodified larynx can generate; in fact, she's been known to fry microphones. Fortunately, the quality of her voice -- not to mention her songs -- is also pretty darned good.

John and Mary Creasey

Yes, filkers do come in mated pairs, the Creaseys being perhaps the most prominent such. They're the motive power behind the filk dealer Random Factors. In addition, Mary is an accomplished filker in her own right (guitarist and vocals; John is more the Appreciative Listener), whose AA in Music has not stopped her from specializing in tunes that push the boundaries of good taste in one way or another, most notably aiding and abetting Leslie Fish. It should surprise no one that Mary has performed in most of the Totally Tasteless Revues.

Julia Ecklar

Generally speaking, filkers are not noted for the quality of their vocal stylings. Julia isn't a general filker. She's quite particular -- and quite particularly good! Julia has written a lot of filksongs about movies, and her songs are frequently better than the films which inspired them! Created what is arguably the finest filk cassette of all time, "Divine Intervention".

Eric Gerds

I don't know Eric very well, largely because we live about 500 miles away from each other. Neither performer nor songwright, Eric is well respected in Southern California filking circles for the many things he's done to promote and encourage the art and practice of filksinging. Through his company, DAG Productions, Eric has produced cassettes and songbooks for longer than anyone else; he's also been concom (a member of the convention committee) for any number of fannish conventions, filking and otherwise.

Leslie Fish

It seems like Leslie has been around forever... and nobody's asked her to leave yet. Leslie is the Isaac Asimov of filking, having written more songs than any three other people, with a remarkably large chunk of them being top-notch material. Or perhaps she's the Eugene Debs of filking, in view of her lifelong IWW membership and radical politics...? Then again, maybe she's just the Leslie Fish of filking -- which should be quite enough for anyone! Leslie is responsible for a small number of songs ("Banned From Argo" chief among them) which are so popular that nobody plays them any more, if you'll forgive the Yogi Berra paraphrase.

Frank Hayes

Frank is a truly twisted individual; he's written such warped songs as "Never Set the Cat on Fire", "Post Mortem", and "Little Fuzzy Animals". Gave his name to Frank Hayes' Disease, the tragic inability to remember the words to your own songs.

Bob Kanefsky

If anyone ever assembles a list of the 10 best song parodists of all time, Kanef will surely be at least 2 of them. Many filkers (myself included) regard Kanef as the best parodist currently working, which "throne" he usurped from Frank Hayes. Although he does look very much like the taller of the two "wet bandits" from the movie "Home Alone", he's really a sweet, gentle (not Gentile), Jewish (see?) lad whose innocent countenance gives no hint of the warped brilliance hiding behind that guileless façade. Beware his "Songworm" songbooks, the "Tapeworm" cassettes, and "Roundworm" CDs (is here a pattern forming here?),the latter two consisting of Kanef's work performed by musicians who you'd think would know better...

Jordin Kare

One of the partners behind Off-Centaur Publications, the first major publisher of filk music (cassettes and songbooks). Jordin is an accomplished songwriter ("Kantrowitz 1972" aka "the HEL Crew's Song", and "Pushin' the Speed of Light", being two of my personal favorites) and performer in his own right, and he wields a mean guitar.

Teri Lee

Another of the partners behind Off-Centaur Publications. Ms. Lee's actions are directly responsible for [a] Off-Centaur's collapse (under questionable circumstances) and [b] its subsequent reformation as Firebird Arts and Music (ditto), not to mention [c] Firebird's perpetual difficulties in producing any discernable quantity of fresh material. Ms. Lee has spent the past several years keeping a very low profile, while is probably just as well.

Quentin Long

The guy whose website you're now visiting -- yes, that's me. I first rose to prominence in the filking community on the strength of an essay I wrote in which I had the audacity to openly assert that some filkers just don't sing very well. Other than that, I've written a few good songs; I'm the MC-For-Life of the Totally Tasteless Revue (an annual event, usually part of the filking convention ConChord, which is to filk music what "Plan 9 From Outer Space" is to motion pictures); and I've self-published a cassette entitled "King of Filk", which is available from Random Factors (or, if they're out of stock at the moment, from me directly).

Jane Mailander

Jane is a recovering Catholic, not to mention almost always being the most cynical person in the room. The pH value of her sense of humor ranges from 1 to -25. First known sufferer of Mailander's Corollary to Frank Hayes' Disease -- the ability to forget your own lyrics while nonetheless remembering the words to everyone else's songs.

Kathy Mar

Kathy, formerly an honest-to-God street musician in Denver, is still living in the 1960s... and fiercely proud of it. Good voice, good guitar technique. Prime exponent of the "sleep is for the weak and sickly" school of convention attendance. You want to hear her perform "Velveteen", or "Drink Up The River", or pretty much anything else she cares to sing.

Bill Roper

An ose-meister of the first water, with a suitably deep bass voice of above-average quality. In addition, Bill is something of a filk recording mogul; you'll find the works of Tom Smith, among others, on Bill's label, Dodeka Records. The brevity of this entry has more to do with my lack of familiarity with Bill (I'm a California boy, he's a Midwesterner) than any lack of merit on his part.

Chrys Thorsen

While Chrys is certainly a more-than-competent musician herself, she made her most significant mark on filking as a recording engineer, producing many tapes under her now-defunct THOR Records label. Chrys has worked with some of the best filkers around (Anne Harlan "Aislinn" Prather, Kathy Mar, Bill Sutton, Dr. Jane Robinson, Cynthia McQuillon, etc etc), and she was also kind enough to work her particular magic on "King of Filk".

Paul J. Willett

A few years back, Paul was the editor and proprietor of a fanzine entitled PHILK FEE-NOM-EE-NON, which contained filksongs, announcements of filking conventions, essays on a wide range of relevant subjects, and a smattering of cartoons. Sadly, mundane factors -- a family, chronic overtime at work, that sort of thing -- have long since conspired to force Paul away from his 'zine. I'm not the only filker who hopes that Paul can eventually regain enough free time to resurrect PFNEN...

So where can I hear this stuff, already?

There are three major classes of venue in which filksongs can be heard.

Local filksings

These informal events typically occur in filkers' homes. It's basically a party, except with very little alcohol (if any), and possibly more noise. I'd suggest that you check with whichever SF fans of your acquaintance to see if there'll be any filksings in your neighborhood in the near future.

Conventions

Filking originally occured mostly in SF conventions, and you can still find "organized" filking at most cons. Nowadays, there are also some cons entirely devoted to filking.

Recorded music

Filkers have recorded and released surprisingly many cassettes of their music, and there's also an increasing number of CDs to be found. There's also a number of songbooks, some of which include sheet music as well as lyrics.

Some words of the convention-al type

There are a number of filking conventions in various parts of the world (largely in the North American continent, and the British Isles to a somewhat lesser extent); they include the Ohio Valley FilkFest in the US Midwest, ConChord in southern California, Consonance in the San Francisco Bay Area, and a British convention of no fixed name (in chronological order: Contabile, Con2bile, Treble, FourPlay, Pentatonic, VIbraphone, and whatever they're going to call the next one), to name only four. In addition, filking is part of the schedule at almost every general SF convention. And finally, many filkers play host to informal filk gatherings on a regular basis, typically monthly.
At this point, I really ought to put in a few filking-related hyper-links for those of you who are interesting in getting some first-hand exposure to filk; however, I haven't (yet) done so. One thing you can do is try going through your favorite search engines (Alta Vista, Excite, etc) using keywords like FILK, FILKING, SF, SCIENCE FICTION MUSIC, CONVENTIONS, SF FANDOM, and so on; if you know any SF fen, feel free to ask them about filksings and conventions.

You know you want it...

Okay, maybe there aren't any conventions or filksings in your neighborhood. It certainly doesn't mean that you can't hear some darn good filking; that's what God invented cassettes and CDs for, right? Not to mention songbooks and sheet music, for those of you who are a bit more performance-inclined! Regardless of exactly how the music is recorded, you can pick up said recordings at your friendly neighborhood filk dealer. Or, for those of you who don't have a friendly neighborhood filk dealer, just follow the bouncing hyperlinks you'll see immediately below -- and if you see something you'd like to buy while you're visiting, be sure to tell 'em you surfed on over from Quentin's website, okay? Thanks muchly...

To start with, I give you Random Factors, a long-standing filk dealer whose principals, John and Mary Creasey, had a long-standing relationship with Off Centaur / Firebird Arts and Music / Whatever The Heck They're Calling Themselves This Year which kinda died about 1995. This is the same year the Creaseys assisted Leslie Fish in retrieving the rights to her songs from Firebird, but I'm sure that's just a coincidence, right? Anyway, it is worth noting that beyond what Firebird stuff they yet retain, Random Factors also carries a pretty darned good selection of all filk recordings, including my own "King of Filk" cassette. Yes, that image is their logo, and yes, it's a hyperlink to the Random Factors website. Like I said above -- if you buy something Random, tell 'em Quentin sent you.

DAG Productions doesn't seem to have a nifty logo graphic, but that's okay; DAG is the oldest active filkstuff producer around. The proprietor, Eric Gerds, is a much-respected member of the filking community as a result of all that he's done for filking, both through DAG Productions and through his convention-related activities.

How to purchase KING OF FILK

I strongly advise you to check out Random Factors first... but if they're out of stock, you might as well buy copies of "King of Filk" from me directly. Send $11 per cassette, plus $4 postage and handling, to this address:

Quentin Long
845 Laverne Way
Los Altos, CA 94022-1108

What has gone before

6 Jul 2001 -- Corrections to the info on the Creaseys. Minor editing.
30 May 1998 -- "You know you want it" section re-written (links added for Random Factors and DAG, etc). Creasys, Eric Gerds and Bill Roper added to "who's who". How-to-get-it info for "King of Filk". Internal hyperlinks added.
23 Sep 1997 -- Minor editing.
10 Sep 1997 -- Initial upload.