We now come to the themes and topics of filk, which are wide-ranging, not surprising for a style of music that has been around for 60+ years. It started out with science fiction and fantasy, but quickly branched out to songs about space and science. Cats, fandom, and life in Mundania are all popular topics. But one of the proverbs of filk is that everything that is sung in a filk circle is filk, so pretty much anything goes.
Parodies are also popular and important to the filk community, but it is a mistake to think that filk is only made up of parodies. Rather, filk is one of the few remaining redoubts of the old days of the folk process and oral transmission. When it was hard to distribute music but easy to distribute lyrics, and so reusing and repurposing tunes was something that was done regularly. Writing a good parody—in the sense of writing a new set of words to an existing tune—is considered an art form, and having your song parodied is among the finest compliments you can receive as a filker. Some filkers have their output almost exclusively as parodies, some very few only as originals. Most fall somewhere in between.
Also note that there is no requirement for parodies to be funny or transgressive. They can catch any mood or any theme.
Since filkers write about fantasy, Harry Potter is one of the topics that appear, but it’s not that common a topic. There are more than a few filkers who have written a Harry Potter-themed song or two, but outside of The Blibbering Humdingers there are no filkers that I know of who specialise in Harry Potter. It is possible that many Harry Potter-themed songs from the filk community were written as the books were published, and might have been poorly documented at the time—a problem that I’m sure many wrockers can recognise. But if you are a wizard rocker who lack a local group, there might be a group of nearby filkers who—I really hope—will welcome you in their circle. Or I will have bad words to say about them.
So here are a handful of Harry Potter songs from the filk community. There are doubtless many more that I have missed.
Dave Weingart (Filkerdave) wrote the first filk song about Harry Potter that I know of in 2000, with “Just a Boy Named Harry”. With Filkerdave’s permission, there is a live recording of this rare song on the Wizrocklopedia Music Archive!
Tom Smith is immensely productive, and has at least four Harry Potter-themed songs. “Denouement” from And They Say I’ve Got Talent, “Dead Potters” which can be found on some of his live albums, the Star Trek–Hogwarts crossover “Hogwarts Holodeck”, and arguably one of the greatest Hermione songs ever, “Hey, It’s Can(n)on” on iTom 1.0: And So It Begins. All of these, like many of Tom Smith’s songs, are on the humorous side. But be aware that he also has a serious and angry side.
Will Frank wrote “The Wank of the Fleet Harry Potter” in 2005. It is a great example of meta-wrock, describing the consequences The Half-Blood Prince had on shipping fandom. It is to the tune of “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald”, which is a popular target for parodies within filk, or you can listen to his recording.
Speaking of parodies, the husband-and-wife duo of Jeff and Maya Bohnhoff are noted for their excellent nerdy parodies of popular songs, apart from their originals. If you watched “Midichlorian Rhapsody” on Youtube, that was them (and friends)—the link goes to the live version, something which even Queen is loath to perform. In a similar vein, they have also written “Railway to Hogwarts” and “My Wand Has Broken”.
Cheshire Moon, the husband-and-wife duo of Lizzie Crowe and Eric Coleman, write what they themselves dub mythpunk. “Hot McGonagall” is a great example of their craft. Eric Coleman also hosts the great Filkcast pod, more on which later.
Other more recent examples are “Love Good” by The PDX Broadsides and “Team Neville FTW” by The Faithful Sidekicks.
Is the hook in yet?
Two good ways to get a sense of the music of filk are by listening to Eric Coleman’s Filkcast or the Filk Sampler playlist on Spotify. Filkcast regularly plays wizard rock, so feel free to let Eric know about your songs, especially new releases.
If you’re like the Wrock Snob, New England filker Gary McGath has written a much more thorough introduction to filk and filk history in Tomorrow’s Songs Today: the History of Filk Music. It is available digitally as a free ebook.
Interfilk—a non-profit that promotes sharing of filk music—maintains a list of filk conventions. There are also other cons which have a strong filk presence, like most Worldcons, Dragoncon, Confluence, and Chambanacon.
On Facebook, the two central spots for filk are the two groups F Is for Filker and Filk Marketplace, though there are lots of other groups for various purposes. Note that posting notices about new wizard rock releases and events to the Filk Marketplace is not only allowed but encouraged!
Outside Facebook, the Filkhaven Discord is an important gathering place for the filk community.
Most filk cons have moved to online events during the pandemic, where Zoom has emerged as the platform of choice due to its builtin participatory nature, and Zoom can be made decent for music (even if it’s not as good as dedicated streaming software). Apart from the cons there are also regular online filk circles like Filk Bytes (monthly or bi-monthly, hosted by the Canadian filkers) and Eurofilk (bi-weekly, hosted by me). There is also Blind Lemming Chiffon’s Festival of the Living Room. The best way to keep track of online filk events is by visiting filkstreams.org (maintained by Eric Distad) or friendsoffilk.org (maintained by Cecilia Eng).
Hint: submit any wrock concerts you host or organise to filkstreams.
And we will see if you will get a part 4…
Leave a Reply