My _{Father Was a Filker}

Reprinted from Songworm 3

Parody of “My Father Was a Harper”, words and music by Cynthia McQuillin

For more information and other parodies, see www.songworm.com
Parody lyrics ©1991-01-28 by Bob Kanefsky. All rights reserved. The copyright of the original lyrics and music remain with the holder(s) of the original copyright.

This just sort of came to me, one night, as I was looking at the Sound OVFF tape and remembering how much I liked My Father Was a Harper. Most of it came within the next day or two, with a little polishing later.

My

D fath

er was a filker long a

C go

.

Now I

D live

the life that he could never

G know

.

The

G dreams

he sang to me became my

D own

,

And I

C knew

that only space could be my

D home

.

I rose to be respected in my trade,
For the flock of floating castles I had made.
But they deemed my dedication nothing more
Than admirable attention to my chore.

Ten thousand in the contractor’s employ.
But no one else performed the job with joy.
My sense of wonder marked me as a freak.
To them it’s just a job, five days a week.

One day, while drifting down a hall I’d grown,
Thinking I must live my life alone,
I heard a worker singing, soft and low,
An old familiar tune that few would know.

We spent that night adrift in zero gee,
In the axle dome, for all the stars to see.
In that space where human forms can intersect,
We proved a famous filksong... incorrect.

When dawn shone from behind the world below,
We parted in a pleasant morning glow.
We knew the bond we shared would hold us fast,
For the things we build up here, we build to last.

My father was a filker long ago...