![Jordin Kare - Take Two, Asprin [HQ] @SongsfromtheStars](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3jt4wXHuDQA/maxresdefault.jpg)
Uploaded September 2024 | Updated September 2026, 3 hours ago
Parody Violation track 19. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: archive.org/details/filk_parody_violation
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Lyrics (TTTO "Paid Soldiers of Dorsai" by Robert Asprin, which itself is TTTO "Song of the Men's Side," Leslie Fish):
Well you can talk about the Swiss, how their pressmen rose to fame,
And count all the sheets they run
Or the German men, the Heidelbergs by name,
Whose great rollers flashed in the sun
You can sing of all the signatures we've found, stitched and bound,
And you still have to ask us why
In this day of laser's hum, inkjet's hiss, still exist
The Page Folders of Dorsai
Parody Violation track 19. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: archive.org/details/filk_parody_violation
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Lyrics (TTTO "Paid Soldiers of Dorsai" by Robert Asprin, which itself is TTTO "Song of the Men's Side," Leslie Fish):
Well you can talk about the Swiss, how their pressmen rose to fame,
And count all the sheets they run
Or the German men, the Heidelbergs by name,
Whose great rollers flashed in the sun
You can sing of all the signatures we've found, stitched and bound,
And you still have to ask us why
In this day of laser's hum, inkjet's hiss, still exist
The Page Folders of Dorsai
![Jordin Kare - Take Two, Asprin [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/3jt4wXHuDQA/mqdefault.jpg "Jordin Kare - Take Two, Asprin [HQ]
Parody Violation track 19. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_parody_violation
Lyrics (TTTO Paid Soldiers of Dorsai by Robert Asprin, which itself is TTTO Song of the Mens Side, Leslie Fish):
Well you can talk about the Swiss, how their pressmen rose to fame,
And count all the sheets they run
Or the German men, the Heidelbergs by name,
Whose great rollers flashed in the sun
You can sing of all the signatures weve found, stitched and bound,
And you still have to ask us why
In this day of lasers hum, inkjets hiss, still exist
The Page Folders of Dorsai")
![Leslie Fish - The Day it Fell Apart [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4aYVbt5ZwTc/mqdefault.jpg "Leslie Fish - The Day it Fell Apart [HQ]
Firestorm track 08. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_firestorm
Find more of Leslie Fishs music at: https://lesliefish.bandcamp.com/
Lyrics:
Just a little general hospital in a little factory town
The board put me in charge for mainly keeping prices down
I hadnt touched a patient since 1982
But the day of the explosion I remembered what to do
At eleven in the morning, we all heard the factory blow
The blast took out the windows, and the shrapnel fell like snow
We could get no help from out of town for half a day or more
We had near a thousand casualties and beds for ninety-four
Chorus:
And can you keep your head, your backbone, or your heart?
We all found out the answer on the day it fell apart
It was worse than combat medicine; supplies were draining fast
Bandages ran out and antiseptics wouldnt last
I took all the able-bodied I could catch inside the door
And made them help the doctors or go scrounge supplies and more
I invented laws to tell them, saying, In such emergency,
Forget your usual job and boss, your orders come from me.
I sent the cops to commandeer anything in reach:
Food or disinfectant cloth or alcohol or bleach
(Chorus)
The janitor ran cleanup squad, the cook maintained supplies
The garbageman removed the ones who died before our eyes
The clerks burned all our papers to boil water on the fire
For sterilizing instruments, as the body count went higher
A local healthfood herbalist brought everything he had
The painkillers were useful, and the poultices werent bad
A smack and cocaine pusher handed us his whole supply
The quality was lousy, but a few more didnt die
(Chorus)
We did triage in the parking lot, ranked minor, major, grave
A sad-eyed fireman gave the stroke to those we couldnt save
Then sometime in the chaos, a director wandered in
To tell us we were breaking rules, what trouble wed be in—
But if wed swear the factory was not the fires cause
And the harm was accidental, hed forget the broken laws.
The staff sneaked up and grabbed him, and tied him to a door
He gave them blood transfusions till he hadnt any more
(Chorus)
When that day was over and wed saved all that we could,
We saw that law and politics would hang us where we stood
Wed saved eight hundred lives but shattered all authority
I told them, People, save yourselves, put all the blame on me.
I took my books and instruments, and a few supplies beside
Packed my car and ran away to open countryside
So now I live an outlaw, condemned by righteous men
But for all the lives I saved that day, Id do it all again.
(Chorus)
Can you keep your head, your backbone, or your heart?
Youll all find out the answers on the day it falls apart")
![Jordin Kare - The Press [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4jx6sfrBlvU/mqdefault.jpg "Jordin Kare - The Press [HQ]
Parody Violation track 18. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_parody_violation
Lyrics (TTTO The Quest, Leslie Fish):
Now the fans came home from the press, blackened and sore they came,
Inky of hair and dress, deafened, blunt-fingered, and lame
In printing we take no shame, well say it in black and white
But tomorrows the con, my sanitys gone, and the run must be done tonight!
Chorus: So here is my press to mend (kathunka!)
Here is my plate to be shot
The fountains too strong,
The runs too long,
But well print whatever weve got
Well print whatever weve got
Oh, dark and deep was the scum that crept over half of our plate
We still dont know where its from, but we noticed it much too late
For half of the reams been run, of 80-pound Astrobright
Our cover is blown, he said with a grown, and the run must be done tonight!
(Chorus)
Now the feeds making noises strange, and every third sheet gets jammed,
Or wrapped round the rollers, or swallowed quite whole, or folded and monogrammed
The crud sheets are filling the chute, the jogger is losing the fight,
The drive belt just broke, I think I smell smoke, but the run must be done tonight!
(Chorus)
Now our pages you count and know, our volumes so fine and thick,
But you have not seen my foe being serviced by A. B. Dick
Oh, surely well print again, again, but well sell the damn press for junk
Give Kinkos a call, or Xerox it all, and never again kathunk (kathunka! kathunka! kathunka!)
(Chorus)")
![Technical Difficulties - Come You Knights [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4xRsvRA-Mew/mqdefault.jpg "Technical Difficulties - Come You Knights [HQ]
Please Stand By track 04. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_please_stand_by/
Lyrics:
Chorus:
Come ye knights and come ye pilots
With your ships and sabers shining
Come and stop your childrens crying
Come and join the Rebel Queen
Come with might and come with glory
Set your dreams on wings a-soaring
Hear the ancient hidden story.
Come and join the Rebel Queen!
Heard the tales the Empire spread, told you Rebels couldnt win
So you locked your doors before them, made your courage battered tin.
Promised you the traitor’s lands, wealth and power in your hands
You dont even have to fight. All you do is watch them die.
Never ask the dangerous questions such as why youre off to war
Yours is but to follow generals, going where the trumpets blow.
(Chorus)
In the battle for Tiatra, saw a pilot as he died
Looked into his shattered cockpit, heard my soul in torment cry.
For the first time since I started, for the first time in my life
Looked into the enemys eyes, found that they were just like mine.
Lived with evil for so long now, had forgotten truth and right
Knew my time had come and somehow saw my way to join their fight.
(Chorus)
Lying in a blasted turret with a full moon in my eyes
Had no hope that help was coming, when a flash lit up the skies.
Thought it was a battle starship, felt that soon we all would die
Heard the words the Emperor promised, knew them right then for a lie.
Saw the Rebel starships coming, being led by the Chosen Ones
Evil forces lost that morning, and a new day has begun.
(Chorus)")
![Leslie Fish - Teacher, Teacher [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/59114v_Uxoc/mqdefault.jpg "Leslie Fish - Teacher, Teacher [HQ]
Firestorm track 04. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_firestorm
Find more of Leslie Fishs music at: https://lesliefish.bandcamp.com/
Lyrics:
Teacher, teacher, do what you can
To teach your children all the knowledge of man
Teach them how to think and how to survive
A world that eats the soul and body alive
Teacher, teacher, you know what they face
A sea of bigotry for age, sex, or race
Or any other cause thats useful this year
Try to warn the children while theyre still safe in here
Teacher, teacher, the foe waits outside
To turn your children into tools for his pride
Hes always scratching for a way to come in
Here comes a pressure group, hes trying again
Teacher, teacher, you know youre alone
Your boss wont save your skin; hes saving his own
Nor will the parents help, but only condemn
They want their children taught to be just like them
Here comes the bureaucrat with fifty more rules
To tie your hands and take more bread from the schools
Here comes the preacher trying hard to get in
He wants all children taught his pet brand of sin
Here comes the government with plenty to say
It wants your children taught to serve and obey
Here comes the school board, and thats worst of all
They want the teachers taught to cave in and fall
Teacher, teacher, you know what youll find
They want their thumbprints stamped on everyones mind
The kids suspect it and resent it like hell
And all too often theyll suspect you as well
Teacher, teacher, tell me how can you teach
When all the grownups only want you to preach?
How can you teach the kids to think for themselves
With all the censors stealing books off our shelves?
Teacher, guarding the dwindling flame,
How many of your kids have beaten the game?
The wind is rising and the nights falling fast
Will you run, save yourself, or fight to the last?")
![Aislinn (Anne Prather) - Space Child Lost [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6GinJV6O1xM/mqdefault.jpg "Aislinn (Anne Prather) - Space Child Lost [HQ]
High Wings track 12. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_high_wings
Lyrics:
Oh, I am a spacechild, I was born for the stars.
On bright silver glitterwings I will journey far.
The ship shes my love, my song and my home.
I was made by the gods, the spaceways to roam.
I am a starpilot, trained and taught
And flight is my life-need, it measures each thought
The space-winds my joy, her course is my pride
Its my pleasure and sorrow the starlanes to ride.
Oh, once I had a lover but now he is gone:
He could not hear the wild call that drove me on;
My heart sang in sorrow, but by then twas too late:
I could never return; he had no cause to wait.
But he waited at dockside in Radiants fair town
For my stardancing spaceship to wing her way down.
He pleaded, saying Love, without you Ill die.
I said not a word, but looked at the sky.
My love turned and walked into the dark heavy night.
His head bent in sorrow, his shoulders hunched in fright.
On the first jump out from Radiant, a wild, haunting cry
Filled the ship with a death-song as we soared through the sky.
Hed hidden in the drive room, where theres no way to escape,
And no way I would find him till it was too late.
For the drive songs pure beauty, and the drive song is death;
My love heard the ships song with the last of his breath.
So my ship took my lover, and now Im alone
As the gods have ordained it, the spaceways to roam:
The space wind and the ships song will bear me company
Its a sad life, but joyous, on the wide, endless sea.")
![Free Fall & Other Delights 16 - Space Station Annie [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6NKEevn3P-4/mqdefault.jpg "Free Fall & Other Delights 16 - Space Station Annie [HQ]
Sung by Cynthia McQuillin and Larry Warner. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_free_fall_and_other_delights
Lyrics:
Annie sits by herself in a bar with no friends
She thinks of her past and dreams now and then
Once she had beauty, you can see in her eyes
But life has grown bitter, love holds no surprise
Chorus:
Space Station Annie, hit of the circuit, the toast of them all
Space Station Annie, chasing the stars around, around...
Planetbound lovers have faded and gone,
But the lure of the rover kept calling her on
One more performance, the show was her life
And when you forgot her, it cut like a knife
(Chorus)
One bars like another, and shes seen em all
She still keeps on singing right over the brawl
When she takes a bow, though you never pause,
In the back of her mind she still hears the applause
(Chorus)")
![Aislinn (Anne Prather) - Sourdough Skies [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/6TRwuGbyrCc/mqdefault.jpg "Aislinn (Anne Prather) - Sourdough Skies [HQ]
High Wings track 7. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_high_wings
Lyrics:
An airline you own neath the midnight sun
Neath the midday dark and the chill
Your assets a one-engine high-wing plane
Your luck, brains, courage and skill.
Strange are your loads, for no two are alike
And sometimes youve flown for free
Your logbook reads like The Call of the Wild
Youre an adventurer, wild and free
In wintertime, warming the engine
Means lighting a fire underneath for a time
And take-off at dawn
Means waiting till noon
As into the twilight you climb.
And landing in snowstorms on skis is a thrill
As you feel your way down through the slop
A river you see, so you schuss on the snow
And you pray it stays flat till you stop!
The midsummer sun is so warm and so bright
Youd think you could fly without care
On floats, with all those lakes, rivers and ponds
Youd think you could land anywhere
But the snags you dont see can rip up your floats
And then, friend, youve got to walk home
A hundred long miles to the nearest small town
Through bears–and tundra–alone!
Glaciers are fun any time of the year
For those parties who want you to land
On frost-giant faces you dodge the crevasses
And the wailing willawa wind
With oil and eggs and a stove and some pills
And a caribou carcass you fly
A woman and kids and a gold-miners poke
Cause youre part of the Sourdough Skies
Youre part of Alaskas skies.")
![Bill Sutton - Bask, Ye Samplers [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/74PcwNKNSEg/mqdefault.jpg "Bill Sutton - Bask, Ye Samplers [HQ]
Past Due track 12. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_past_due
Lyrics:
Chorus:
Bask, ye samplers, bask in the light
Space is dark, but the star is bright
Bask in the heat of the distant sun
Its gonna get hotter before were done
So bask in the heat of the sun, boys
Bask in the heat of the sun!
We mine the neutron matter from the heart of a living star
Remotes cant pass magnetic fields, machines cant go that far
So we must ply our samplers to the edge of the stellar core
And there release the drone ships to collect our neutron ore
(Chorus)
A starships drive is a neutron drive, and it pushes the speed of light
The starships fly to the distant stars, we fly to the star in sight
From cool and green to heat obscene we cross in the work we do
We do it well and we brave this hell for the sake of the starship crew
(Chorus)
A million miles to the core and back, in the heat of the fusion glow
All mankind thrives on the lives we lead, but only the samplers go
If not for the neutrons we return, the starships could not run
And so we mine like our fathers mined, and bask in the heat of the sun
(Chorus)")
![Frank Hayes - Lola the Engineer [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7CRyZdZgeE4/mqdefault.jpg "Frank Hayes - Lola the Engineer [HQ]
Dont Ask track 16. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_dont_ask/
Lyrics:
I met her in a barroom on a world called Callan C
More drunk she was than anyone would ever want to be
I tickled her and patted her and lifted up her skirt
She jumped up on my lap and then she threw up on my shirt
And I said, “This looks like the start of a beautiful friendship!”
And Ill drink a toast now to Lola, the engineer
On board the “Sultans Pleasure,” with a load of ore to haul
Well, a freighter all but runs itself between the ports of call
And outside of drink and making love, there isnt much to do
So thats what we did each chance we could, and a few we couldnt too
And those were very few
And Ill drink a toast now to Lola, the engineer
One day in an unused engine, just to pass the while
Drinking gin and making love in a complicated style
Our bodies shook together from our kneecaps to our necks
“Its love!” I cried. “Like hell,” she said, “its pirates! Hit the deck!”
She listened at the intercom then turned to me and said
“Inside an hour theyll find us, in an hour well be dead.
And theres no way to outrun em...” then a look came to her eye
“By God, it may not work,” she said, “but well know the reason why.”
So Ill drink a toast now to Lola, the engineer
It seems the pirates made their move while we were making love
And a pulsar blast had fried the brains of every hand above
But we were recreating down in engine number two
Where twenty feet of shielding kept the hell from coming through
So we jury-rigged the panel board to start the engine cold
With a power surge and a blast we knew the shielding couldnt hold
And Lola took a can of paint and signed her work in red
“Ill see you bloody bastards down in hell!” was what it said
And Ill drink a toast now to Lola, the engineer
Then we sprinted for a shuttlecraft and ran to save our skins
And Lola passed the bottle for one final slug of gin
“Theres a million ways to live,” she said, “but theres just one way to die.”
Then the surge came through and the “Pleasure” blew and the pirates lit the sky
And when the “Sultans Pleasure” went, the sky was filled with light
And time stood still an endless moment in the endless night...
And then the shockwave hit us, picked us up, and threw us clear
Theres fortune for a greenhorn and a spaceborn engineer
And Ill drink a toast now to Lola, the engineer
It ended back on Callans where we drained the taverns dry
We drank and smashed our glasses and we never said goodbye
And the last time I saw Lola she was looking for a beer
Shes a drunkard, and a cynic, and a first-class engineer—
And Ill drink a toast now to Lola, the engineer")
![Frank Hayes - Lincoln Park Pirates [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/7HE5W3-d5xM/mqdefault.jpg "Frank Hayes - Lincoln Park Pirates [HQ]
Dont Ask track 10. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_dont_ask/
Lyrics:
The streetlamps are on in Chicago tonight
And the lovers are gazing at stars
Stores are all closing and Harolds been chosen
And the fat mans counting the cars
“And theres more cars than places to put em,” he says,
“But Ive got room for them all!
So round em up boys, cause I want some more toys;
Hit the lot by the grocery store.”
Chorus:
To me way, hey, tow them away
The Lincoln Park Pirates are we
From Wilmette to Gary, theres none thats so hairy
And we always collect our fee!
To me way, hey, tow them away
We plunder the streets of your town
Be it Edsel or Chevy, theres no car too heavy,
And no one can make us shut down.
“We break into cars when we gotta
With pickaxe and hammer and saw
And they said this garage has no license—
Ha! Little care I for the law!
All my drivers are friendly and courteous
Their good manners you always will get
Cause they all are recent graduates
Of the ‘charm school’ in Joliet.”
(Chorus)
“And when all the cars are collected
And all of their fenders are ruined
Then well tow every boat in Belmont Harbor
To the Lincoln Park Lagoon
And when weve collected the ransom
And sunk all the ones that wont yield
Then well tow all the planes that are blocking the runways
At Midway, OHare, and Meigs Field.”
To me way, hey, tow them away
The Lincoln Park Pirates are we
From Wilmette to Gary, theres none thats so hairy
And we always collect our fee!
To me way, hey, tow them away—
Now, citizens, gather around
And I think its enough
And lets call his bluff
Lets tow the bum out of town!")
