Home of the Autographed Cat

Gwnewch y pethau bychain

Tag: creative Page 12 of 17

Two Of Dave

By

On January 1, 2002

In Songs

Two of Dave
by Robert Wynne
Music: “Yesterday” by John Lennon & Paul McCartney
© 2002

Two of Dave
One to pass around, and one to save
For whenever you can’t fight that crave
It’s useful to have two of Dave

Suddenly
Dave is twice the man he used to be
Clone him one more time and you’d have three
To offer up for company

Which one is the clone?
Which is real? I couldn’t say.
They’re both just alike,
right down to the DNA

Two of Dave
One more than his lovely mother gave
And we give to both a joyous rave
review for two, who both are Dave
This was an instafilk that came out on #filkhaven. Dave Weingart was lamenting being unable to attend OVFF due to a scheduling conflict, and Heather Munn said she was continuing to “work on that cloning device, so there can be two of Dave”. This just sorta flowed out.

Rockin’ Argo

By

On January 1, 2002

In Songs

Rockin’ Argo
by Robert Wynne
Music: “Rockin’ Robin” (Bobby Day (by way of Tom Smith))
© 2002

When we pulled into Argo for some R and R
We set out to investigate each joint and bar
We thought we’d enjoy their hospitality
But found it wasnt geared for spacers such as we

Banned from Argo
Banned from Argo
Oh, Banned from Argo, they don’t want us at that port anymore…

(Bridge) Our brave captain’s dating methods were complex
Each partner was of a different world and sex
When the shore police came, we took our chance
Beamed him back aboard but we lost his pants

Our chief engineer was a champion sot
He outdrank the whole bar and that’s a lot
Our navigator finished up in second place
And parked his shuttle in the strangest place

Banned from Argo
Banned from Argo
Oh, Banned from Argo, they don’t want us at that port anymore…

(Bridge)
Our first officer was drugged by something green
And taught the bridge computer how to be obscene
The nurse went shopping in the potion mart
And came home naked with a cheerful heart

The doctor caused a riot and he went to jail
But we got him back aboard without a cent of bail
Our helmsmen went ashore with some odd plant life
And got tangled up with the gov’ners wife

Banned from Argo
Banned from Argo
Oh, Banned from Argo, they don’t want us at that port anymore…

(Bridge)
Oh a group of pirates came to do the town
but nobody noticed that they were around
When they came into the bar where we were that night
They took one look and ran away in fright

Our crew works hard and we’re Starfleets best
But we tend to leave a trail when we stop to rest
We’re sorry for the damage we did, you can bet
But now at least we’re sure that they won’t forget!

Banned from Argo
Banned from Argo
Oh, Banned from Argo, they don’t want us at that port anymore…

Normal filkers just write parodies to the tune of “Banned From Argo” Not me. I have to rewrite Argo to some other tune. This one was inspired by a challenge in rec.music.filk. Honestly, I think I did it better the first time

Plains of Nebraska

By

On January 1, 2002

In Songs

Plains of Nebraska
Words and Music by Robert Wynne
© 2002

Midwestern skies
Wind blows soft across the grassy land
Long winter nights
Moonlight shining down upon you
like a lantern in the fog

And can you hear it?
A lonely distant echo
Can you feel it?
The chill deep within your bones
Can you see it?
How the land can roll forever
‘Till it almost seems to fall into the sky?

There is truth you will find
in the strangest of places
in the unfamiliar faces
in an unsuspecting mind
There is truth there to see
You only have to ask a
man on the plains of Nebraska
and his words will set you free.

Do you recall
Why you wandered far away from home?
And have you found it
The solitary wisdom that comes
softly in the night?

Just remember
What you seek is more than home
Don’t forget now
The owl’s quiet cry
Heed the calling
For it may pass you just this once
And having passed you never come again

There is truth you will find
in the strangest of places
in the unfamiliar faces
in an unsuspecting mind
There is truth there to see
You only have to ask a
man on the plains of Nebraska
and his words will set you free.

Dawn is breaking
Light spills out across the cold dark sky
And you discover
A peace you’ve never known before
A quiet inner light

So you pack up
Leave the ground the way you found it
On your shoulders
Everything you’ve ever owned
And you look back
For a moment, just forever,
Then turn away and walk against the wind

There is truth you will find
in the strangest of places
in the unfamiliar faces
in an unsuspecting mind
There is truth there to see
You only have to ask a
man on the plains of Nebraska
and his words will set you free.

I wrote the chorus for this song a while back, and it sat in my ideas folder for a long time, because I really liked it, but I wasn’t sure what it was about. While looking through the various contents of that folder, i came across it and suddenly knew what the rest of the song was about.

This is a song about self-discovery and the search for meaning and purpose in life. All of us eventually go on this journey in one way or another, and what we find along the way shapes us in subtle ways we don’t always immediately recognize.

Hope And Mercy

By

On September 11, 2001

In Blog

Hope and Mercy
Words and Music by Robert Wynne
© 2001

September 11, 2001

The world around me has gone mad
I cannot find the words
To make sense out of anything at all

I feel so hopeless and confused
So powerless and small
If anyone is there to hear my call

Hope and mercy
For this alone we pray
Send us strength from somewhere
To make it through this day

Faith and courage
To help us through the night
And draw us all together
To set the world to right

I know I cannot save the world
Not by myself alone
I’m not even sure how to survive

Please tell me there is still a chance
A reason to go on
There must be hope as long as we’re alive

CHORUS

So at last we come together
To comfort and to grieve
And lean upon each other in our fears

But dawn will bring a new day
And together we will strive
To build a new tomorrow without tears

CHORUS

There’s an mp3 on my webpage: https://www.autographedcat.com/mp3/hope_and_mercy.mp3

Wherein the Autographed Cat has some really strange things come out of his backbrain

By

On June 25, 2001

In Blog

Sometimes, I get an idea for a song and I sit and think about what I want to say in it and how I want to say it and all sorts of mechanical things that are necessary to transform that idea into music. Other times, it just comes up out of nowhere. It’s what I call “Dictation from the Muse”. “Here,” she says, “take this down. Don’t argue, just take it down.”

The music for this is still a little formless. I’ll keep walking around it until I find it:

Consumed by Wonder


The Hundred Acre Wood
    is dark
is dark
    is closing in
Shadows linger shadows leap
from behind from within
    swirling spectres soundless formless
    timeless ageless seamless screaming
    shifting sliding swirling swooping
down upon me in the closing of the dark
    of the dark
of the dark
   of the Hundred Acre Wood


Wonderland
    is dark
is dark
    is closing in
Shadows shuffle shadows flee
from below from without
    stalking phantoms mindful prideful
    vengeful willful skillful streaming
    swerving skulking stalking swooping
up behind me in the closing of the dark
    of the dark
of the dark
    of Wonderland


The Emerald City
    is dark
is dark
    is closing in
Shadows startle shadows fly
from above from withstanding
    creeping spirits spaceless graceless
    endless threadless friendless weeping
    seeping sleeping creeping swooping
from within me in the closing of the dark
    of the dark
of the dark
of the Emerald City

Terence Chua Could Filk It

By

On January 1, 2001

In Songs

Terence Chua Could Filk It
by Robert Wynne and Brenda Sutton
Music: “Christine Lavin Could Do It” by Cheryl Wheeler
© 2001

“It started with an idea but it got so out of hand
Now they scream for songs of Hastur to the tunes of Swedish Bands
I tell them that i’m over that, but they don’t really seem to see
That I’m sick of doing HPL, there has to be much more to me!”

They all scream “Terence Chua can filk it!
They all shout “Terence Chua’s the man!”
Well he crosses the Pacific just to sing his little song
It’s to the tune of “Waterloo” about the thousand young
Oh, Terence Chua could filk it!

I said “Hey listen up, that stuff is just a small part of the whole
I’d rather do some R&B, a little Fanboy Soul
I’ve moved on to other things now, Cthulhu’s not my only game!”
They all said “Sorry buster, but you know you’ve only got yourself to blame!”

And they scream “Terence Chua can filk it!
They all shout “Terrence Chua’s the man!”
Well he crosses the Pacific just to sing his little song
It’s to the tune of “Waterloo” about the thousand young
Oh, Terence Chua could filk it!

I grabbed my ukelele and ran screaming down the hall.
They trapped me in the filkroom and they pinned me to the wall
Shouting, “Sing Nyarlathotep or we’ll force feed you on bad bok choy.
You are the Bard of ol’ Cthulhu and we’re just your little Fan Boy Toys!”

And they scream “Terence Chua can filk it!
They all shout “Terrence Chua’s the man!”
Well he crosses the Pacific just to sing his little song
It’s to the tune of “Waterloo” about the thousand young
Oh, Terence Chua could filk it!

Terence Chua was the Interfilk guest to the Ohio Valley Filk Festival in 2001, the same year as my good friends Three Weird Sisters were the Guests of Honor. Some time before the con, Terence made the comment to me that he was tired of people only knowing him for his Lovecraft/ABBA parodies, and thinking that was all he did.

So we hatched a plot. I came up with an idea for a song about Terence, and Brenda and I wrote it. At the end of their Guest of Honor concert, the Sisters called Terence up on the stage, sat him in a chair, facing the audience, and proceeded to perform the song while Erica Neely, Jodi Krangle, and Debbie Ridpath Ohi all played fawning fangirls around him. Daniel Glasser got photographs. (Use the arrow keys to scroll through the photos, and the Home button to return to this page.)

This song inspired David Rood’s I Wanna Be Filked By the Three Weird Sisters, and was published in the ConCertino 2003 sonbook.

Sauron

By

On January 1, 2001

In Songs

Sauron
by Robert Wynne
(Thanks to Dave Weingart for the second half of verse 1)
Music: “Do Ron Ron” by the Crystals
© 2001

He rose up out of Mordor and the sky turned black,
a Sauron-ron-ron, a Sauron-ron
He sent his Orcish raiders for the Ring to track
A Sauron-ron-ron, a Sauron-ron

Yeah….his shadow hand
Stretched…..out across the land
Best….to avoid his eye
A Sauron-ron-ron, a Sauron-ron

Gandalf said the One Ring was his key to power
a Sauron-ron-ron, a Sauron-ron
If he could regain it he would rule the hour
a Sauron-ron-ron, a Sauron-ron

Out….of Rivendell
To….the brink of Hell
We’re….off to destroy the Ring
of Sauron-ron-ron, a Sauron-ron

Sam and Frodo journeyed to the Cracks of Doom
a Sauron-ron-ron, a Sauron-ron
Threw it in the fire not a bit too soon
a Sauron-ron-ron, a Sauron-ron

Yeah…..the rings unmade
So…..the world was saved
And…never more we’ll fear
a Sauron-ron-ron, a Sauron-ron
A bit of silliness that came out of a long afternoon on #filkhaven. I tossed out the first half of the first verse, and Dave Weingart tossed out the second half, and I thought “Hey, that’s not a bad idea” and quickly finished it. This one is an infectious sing-along, and always helps bring the mood of a circle up.

This song was published in Xenofilkia #78 and the Gafilk 2003 songbook.

Novel Man

By

On January 1, 2001

In Songs

Novel Man
by Robert Wynne and Jeffrey Williams
Music: “Nowhere Man” by John Lennon and Paul McCartney
© 2001

He’s a real novel man
living off his long-time fans
writing long complex stories
that don’t end

Plots that are long and absurd
Two hundred ninety thousand words
Can it be he’s never heard of
Brevity

Novel man, please hasten
Up that scene, time’s wastin’
Novel man
The advance has long since been spent

Got multiple points of view
Subplots and pointless verse too
Does he think we’ve nothing else
to read

Long winded as he can be
Series come in groups of three
I wonder if we’ll ever see
the end of it

Novel man, please end it
It’s much harder to defend it
Novel man, It once was so promising
Now it’s a joke

He’s a real novel man
Doesn’t have a master plan
And his series rolls on to
Infinity

He may write this series for infinity!
This song isn’t about one particular writer, but could easily be applied to any number of authors currently mining the low grade ore out of the science fiction and fantasy mine. There’s some really good deposits down deep and off the main shaft, but some folks manage to get rich selling the same stuff off the top over and over again.

Oh well, they keep printing them. I guess SOMEBODY’S gotta read them.

This song was published in the Gafilk 2006 songbook.

Keep You Closer

By

On January 1, 2001

In Songs

Keep You Closer
Words and Music by Robert Wynne
© 2001

For all my chosen family throughout the filk community,
and especially for LM, who is ever in my heart.

We come from different corners of the world
And the times that our paths will cross are few
A few short weekends through the year
And then it’s time to go
And parting ways is always hard to do

But give me just a minute to embrace you
To hold you close before you turn away
A moment to remind you
That we’re closer than the miles
To keep until we meet another day

If I could hold the world inside these arms
If I could build a bridge across the sea
If I could shrink the miles that lie between us
I’d keep you closer every day to me

If the world were only a bit smaller
Then parting wouldn’t be a time for tears
But the shuttle waits to take you home
And on a plane you’ll soon be gone
And we may not meet again until next year

(chorus)

Slowly now we pull apart and smile and say goodbye
I pack my bags into my car and go
And though there is a sadness
that must come with each farewell
I love you, and that’s all you need to know

(chorus x2)

Of all the songs I’ve written, this one is probably the one that means the most to me, personally. And yes, while it is about a lot of people on one level, when I wrote it I had a certain few individuals on my mind. I’m very happy to say that, a year later, I did manage to shrink the miles between myself and one of those individuals, and the two of us are very happy being closer every day.

This song was published with sheet music in the Gafilk 2002 songbook.

Hope and Mercy

By

On January 1, 2001

In Songs

Hope and Mercy
Words and Music by Robert Wynne
© 2001

September 11, 2001

The world around me has gone mad
I cannot find the words
To make sense out of anything at all

I feel so helpless and confused
So powerless and small
If anyone is there to hear my call

Hope and mercy
For this alone we pray
Send us strength from somewhere
To make it through this day

Faith and courage
To help us through the night
And draw us all together
To set the world to right

I know I cannot save the world
Not by myself alone
I’m not even sure how to survive

Please tell me there is still a chance
A reason to go on
There must be hope as long as we’re alive

CHORUS

So at last we come together
To comfort and to grieve
And lean upon each other in our fears

But dawn will bring a new day
And together we will strive
To build a new tomorrow without tears

CHORUS

While I did write this song on September 11, it’s not really about the terrible events of that day. One of the first reactions I saw to the events on rec.music.filk was someone who said, “I shall write songs of vengence tonight.”

This struck me as…the wrong approach somehow, and I got to thinking about how communities, such as ours, come together to face adversity. No matter what tries to divide us, we know we can build a better tomorrow together, because we will always have each other. This is a song about coming together and dealing with adversity as a community.

This song was published with sheet music in “September 11, 2001 – A Memorial Songbook.”

Page 12 of 17

Previous

Next

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén