Art of Filking question (was: Wolf in the Night)

On Sat, 13 Sep 1997, Daniel R. Reitman wrote:  

> Meanwhile, here's the latest in the recent efforts Andrew and I have
> made toward filking Richard and Linda Thompson's Shoot Out the Lights
> CD.
>
> (At this point, we've completed four of the eight tracks. There is
> no overall theme.

Heh. I didn't realize our mission was to cover the whole album. If it was up to me, I'd have picked Magical Mystery Tour, or Little Creatures, or something with very well-known tracks. But save me "Walking on a Wire"...

This new song puts me in mind of an amiable disagreement over style that daniel and I had while scribbling a filk to the tune of "Wall of Death" from the above album. Allow me to poll the group on the art of filking:

replySuppose you want to filk "Wall of Death" so that it becomes a song about a particular card from Cardboard Crack^H^H^H^H^HMagic:The Gathering. You have the following options:

1. the Wall of Earth, a real Magic card that sounds the most like "Wall of Death", but which is a truly obscure and unplayable card that cannot realistically be used to win a game

2). the Wand of Ith, a real card that really could be used to win the game, and which sorta sounds like "wall of death", but which most people will not have heard of.

3). Wrath of God, a popular tournament card that sounds nothing like "wall of death", but which lends itself to punny lyrics like "Let me take my chances with the Wrath of God", or

4). Wall of Death. There is no such card in real life, but you can have fun deciding what sort of thing it would do if it did exist, and write about that (maybe you throw it at your oponent and kill him with it).

In other words, what do you think are the most important parts of a good filk? Do you like to retain some of the original lyrics? The spirit of the song? Retain only the music and make the lyrics completely original?

Daniel and I have different approaches. He has a wonderful filk to "I am the Walrus" which has almost all of the key phrases and buzzwords from the Beatles' song and yet still manages to be an original filk about cloning. I tend to write completely new lyrics that often retain the spirit of the song (although I sometimes go for bonus points by putting *different* lyrics in, as in the song I just posted to "Cat and the Fiddle" that includes the phrase "axes flash" from "March of Cambreadth." One of my better filks describes Darth Vader's last battle with Ben Kenobi, to the tune of Harry Chapin's "Taxi." The lyrics are mine, but the spirit of the song is hauntingly similar to the original.

Discuss, if you wish.

Andrew Ross Received on 09/15/97