So, some years ago, Judith…
No, wait. I’ve not only already written this, I’ve sung it to the tune of Me and Bobby McGee.
It started at Toronto Trek, Judith asked me out for food
Then her and Dave said, “Want to do our con?”
I told them that I didn’t sing,
And Judith said, “Well, here’s the thing,
It doesn’t take that much to sing along.”
It was somewhere near the airport,
There’d be Urb Girls, there’d be Dave,
And Interfilk brought Anke from Germany.
Then Judith played her trump card, the one that cinched the deal,
Joey would sing Medic just for me.
Note: Judith had not, at that point, talked to Joey about the whole singing Medic thing. Fortunately, Joey was amenable. And let’s skip the chorus because it doesn’t actually advance the plot.
From the Friday evening concerts, to Sunday’s circle after hours
Music was the language of the day
By the time I hit the highway, it had wrapped me in its power
And I vowed I was going to learn to play.
I took my old guitar out of its tattered, cat-peed hard case
Started strumming soft like Joey showed me to… three, four… five?
And although it took a little time,
I learned some chords and made some rhymes
And hey, look, this year I’m a filker too….
I’ll always be grateful to filk because it gave me back conventions. See, when you turn pro, conventions become part of your job, and I’d really missed just being able to go and hang out with friends. Filk not only gave that back to me, it gave me the magic of music when I’d pretty much grown up without it.
If it matters, I also write books.