![Leslie Fish - Desolation Valley [HQ] @SongsfromtheStars](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QMqKLUcETZc/maxresdefault.jpg)
Uploaded January 2021 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Firestorm track 09. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: archive.org/details/filk_firestorm
Find more of Leslie Fish's music at: lesliefish.bandcamp.com
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Lyrics:
Darling, let me in, it's only me
We've got to talk of how our lives will be
I found us two ways out of here, but I don't know which is right
Sweetheart, you got to help me choose tonight
Chorus:
I only know our love's worth fighting for
Though living isn't easy, and freedom takes much more
But while we got each other, there's somewhere we can find
To leave this Desolation Valley far behind
We can't just be good victims anymore
The law won't leave us anything but poor
So do we both go underground, that Paper Game to play,
Or head for empty country, far away?
(Chorus)
Country living's hard, and land ain't cheap
Lose one crop and we're in trouble deep
We'd have to barter, make, or grow everything we'd own
But there, at least, we might be left alone
(Chorus)
Firestorm track 09. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: archive.org/details/filk_firestorm
Find more of Leslie Fish's music at: lesliefish.bandcamp.com
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Lyrics:
Darling, let me in, it's only me
We've got to talk of how our lives will be
I found us two ways out of here, but I don't know which is right
Sweetheart, you got to help me choose tonight
Chorus:
I only know our love's worth fighting for
Though living isn't easy, and freedom takes much more
But while we got each other, there's somewhere we can find
To leave this Desolation Valley far behind
We can't just be good victims anymore
The law won't leave us anything but poor
So do we both go underground, that Paper Game to play,
Or head for empty country, far away?
(Chorus)
Country living's hard, and land ain't cheap
Lose one crop and we're in trouble deep
We'd have to barter, make, or grow everything we'd own
But there, at least, we might be left alone
(Chorus)
![Leslie Fish - Desolation Valley [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QMqKLUcETZc/mqdefault.jpg "Leslie Fish - Desolation Valley [HQ]
Firestorm track 09. 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:
Darling, let me in, its only me
Weve got to talk of how our lives will be
I found us two ways out of here, but I dont know which is right
Sweetheart, you got to help me choose tonight
Chorus:
I only know our loves worth fighting for
Though living isnt easy, and freedom takes much more
But while we got each other, theres somewhere we can find
To leave this Desolation Valley far behind
We cant just be good victims anymore
The law wont leave us anything but poor
So do we both go underground, that Paper Game to play,
Or head for empty country, far away?
(Chorus)
Country livings hard, and land aint cheap
Lose one crop and were in trouble deep
Wed have to barter, make, or grow everything wed own
But there, at least, we might be left alone
(Chorus)")
![Leslie Fish - The Paper Sea [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QX0Ng4lSxfA/mqdefault.jpg "Leslie Fish - The Paper Sea [HQ]
Firestorm track 06. 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:
I went to work for welfare in hopes to help the poor
The staff showed me a desk and introduced me to the war
They warned me that the battle started right outside the door
And they fought it on the paper sea
There were thirty social workers, forty-seven clerks,
Twenty-seven managers all gumming up the works,
Three inspectors from the legislature exercising perks
Barracudas in the paper sea
There were countless regulations, rulebooks by the score,
Explaining every policy and system tried before
The money spent on paperwork left nothing for the poor
Abandoned on the paper sea
There were seven hundred forms could be applied to every case
To account for every penny, number, name or date or place
The clerks were working overtime but never keeping pace
With the waves upon the paper sea
Why these endless papers and ministers and more?
All to guarantee there was no cheating by the poor
While for every dollar saved we spent a hundred on the chore
Of adding to the paper sea
Outside in the hallway, the poor folk had to wait
The line stretched down the block, coming early, leaving late
Maybe one poor soul per hour ever made it through the gate
Past the boundaries of the paper sea
First came in a man who didnt have a cent
I filled out twenty forms to guarantee his check was sent
By the time it reached his address he was gone for lack of rent
Well serviced by the paper sea
Next came in a mother, abandoned by her man
She said, Get me some daycare, and Ill find what work I can.
But daycare was too controversial for our family plan
We marooned her in the paper sea
As I walked in one morning, I stumbled on an arm
Attached to some poor body who had clearly come to harm
While waiting for his Medicare, his heart had bought the farm
We had drowned him in the paper sea
I told my supervisor. He said, Lets be discreet
Just sneak the body out the door and leave it on the street
And then its not our problem, but the cops out on the beat
Lets dump him in their paper sea.
I tried to make the system work, I tried to help the poor
I struggled through the paperwork and might have taken more
But thats the final straw that sent me screaming out the door
Sent me running from the paper sea
Id had it with the paper sea!")
![Jordin Kare - Callahans Bar [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QaUmd5HMVkc/mqdefault.jpg "Jordin Kare - Callahans Bar [HQ]
Fire in the Sky track 04. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_fire_in_the_sky
[book: Callahans Bar stories, Spider Robinson]
Lyrics:
There is a bar called Callahans, its really quite a place
Theres aliens there every night from every world and race
And when the puns start flying, as they do at quite a rate
Not even steel-jawed robots can quite keep their faces straight
Chorus:
Spider, oh Spider, why wont you tell us where
Callahans is hidden, and well do our drinking there
A time traveler comes in each week and buys a couple beers
Hе drinks them down, then taps his belt and promptly disappеars
Next week, same time, hes back again, still potted to the ears
Hes been on one long bender for some twenty-thousand years
(Chorus)
There is a guy with funny eyes, his name is Michael Finn
He carries quite an arsenal tucked underneath his skin
His masters had him programmed once to do the whole Earth in
And the only thing that stopped him was a glass of homemade gin
(Chorus)
A frigid-blooded methane breather wandered in one night
And announced to one and all that he was lookin for a fight
Mike said “Ill have no fighting here in any shape or form!”
And with a single mighty blow, he knocked the fellow...warm?
(Chorus)
A large grey wolf paced to the bar and ordered in a growl
Mike dusted off an old brown jug; he gave a joyful howl
One swallow and there stood a man—twas quite a trick to pull
But the liquor, it was moonshine, and the bottle, it was full
(Chorus)
Doc Webster, feeling genial, once told us of the day
He mixed chromosomes from vegetables with canine DNA
He crossed Lassie with a canteloupe. Said Mike, “So whatd you get?”
“Why, a melon-collie baby and one hell of a startled vet!”
(Chorus)")
![UnReal Estate 05 - The High Frontier [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Qy_g3KO07qc/mqdefault.jpg "UnReal Estate 05 - The High Frontier [HQ]
Sung by Mitchell Burnside Clapp. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_unreal_estate
Lyrics:
Jake was a spacer, he was handsome, lean, and proud,
He was a triple pilot on the Earth-Moon run, aloof in the dirtside crowd.
Claire loved him for his laughter, like a boy hed shrug and grin.
His dreams were visions of the yet-to-be, away from the crowds and din.
He wrote her nearly every other watch and hoped for a regular run;
She lived in the Springs and every other day thought of going home to Mum.
But hed await the phone when they were home alone; by duty, love is clear
On the High Frontier.
Cut next to Jake in orbit, writing words then crossing out,
Shedding crumpled sheets like autumn leaves, a winter breeze of doubt.
“I need you, Claire, my darling, but I need to be here too.
I cant quit now and let my dreams fade out, so close to coming true.
“For if I leave now, with the job half through, its not been worth a damn—
This isnt only just a thing I do, its more like who I am,
And theres a queue around the block who wait for me to drop.
Can we take it for another year,
On the High Frontier?”
The last time he left her crying, angry words, then he went away.
Claire wonders where she fits into Jakes life, and she packs her things that day.
But then the phone starts ringing; she almost lets it go—
“A call for you from Luna Terminal.” With hope she says “Hello?”
“Its me, my darling, and Ive got good news; they gave me a steady run.
Well be in Luna City, and theres room for you on the next ship out but one.
Till I can be with you and watch my dreams come true, well make our future here
On the High Frontier.”
So they worked out the passions, the anger, and the tears
Save them in your memory
On the High Frontier.")
![Jordin Kare - Ladyhog [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QyknpGVIU6s/mqdefault.jpg "Jordin Kare - Ladyhog [HQ]
Parody Violation track 16. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_parody_violation
Lyrics (TTTO Ladyhawke, Julia Ecklar):
Im a frog among men, with no guts but big dreams
Just two ping-pong ball eyes in a sock
But a magical pig far less real than she seems
Has convinced the whole world we can talk
Its not just her beauty, for beauty I know,
Though the French that she speaks makes me swoon,
Its the strength she can place in karate-chop blows
That sends me right off to the Moon
Ladyhog, Ladyhog, swine bravely on,
Hooves spread oer each mornings meal (pigs cant fly!)
Ladyhog, Ladyhog, from dusk to dawn,
Teach this poor frog to be real")
![Aislinn (Anne Prather) - Star Pilots Hymn [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RADF3NYOTmA/mqdefault.jpg "Aislinn (Anne Prather) - Star Pilots Hymn [HQ]
High Wings track 13. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_high_wings
Lyrics:
My starship rides on wings of joy
Her myriad courses round
The galaxy and her suns so free
With mystic song resound.
And I am part and parcel
Of the Universe at play
The winds of space are in my soul
And among the stars Ill stay.
I know no love but in her arms
No one may claim my soul
The love I bear for my ship so fair
Is all that keeps me whole.
And Ill take no human lover
Save one who knows full well
That I love the stars and the song they sing
More than human words can tell.
I know no home but in the stars
No planet calls me here.
My home is space whose joy and grace
Casts out my remnant fear.
And though the primal calling
Of Earth may be quite strong
Though I may long for Earth Ive been called since birth
By the stars sweet haunting song.
Oh, I am free in space and time
Eternitys my friend.
Though my heart may cease her living beat
My life will never end.
My spirit joins the chorus
Of the Universe at play.
The winds of space are my time and place
And among the stars Ill stay.")
![Free Fall & Other Delights 15 - New Sins for Old [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RDt_zrFMW6I/mqdefault.jpg "Free Fall & Other Delights 15 - New Sins for Old [HQ]
Sung by Leslie Fish. 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
Find more of Leslie Fishs music at: https://lesliefish.bandcamp.com/
Lyrics:
Oh, whats the use of this looting and pillaging
Swinging my ray-gun through blood, guts, and gore?
Raping and robbing and boozing grow boring
The life of a pirates no fun anymore
No fun anymore, no fun anymore
Its only a job, its no fun anymore.
Always the same: all the planning and ambushing
Pouncing, attacking, and hauling away
The whoring and boozing and passing out afterwards
Its getting monotonous, day after day
Day after day, day after day
Its boring as Hell, fighting day after day.
Ive bounced in more beds than theres hairs on my you-know-what
Ive bred enough bastards to crew my own ship
Ive never had time to stay home and raise one of em
So what will I have when Ive emptied my clip?
Emptied my clip, emptied my clip
Wholl call me Dad when Ive emptied my clip?
Ive got an itch to go do something different
Get a good farm and a nice buxom bride
Raise some tall crops and a lot of fat babies
Complacencys one sin that Ive never tried!
Ive never tried, Ive never tried
Playing Good Citizen Ive never tried.")
![Leslie Fish & the Dehorn Crew - Trinity [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RNf3BX7_Leo/mqdefault.jpg "Leslie Fish & the Dehorn Crew - Trinity [HQ]
Its Sister Jennys Turn to Throw the Bomb track 11. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_its_sister_jennys_turn_to_throw_the_bomb
Find more of Leslie Fishs music at: https://lesliefish.bandcamp.com/
Lyrics:
I see them on the corners,
Big black bible in hand
Shouting at the people to hear the word of the Lord—
And its this:
“Youre just a filthy sinner-man!
You cant save yourself, but Jesus can!
And then you too can be an angel with a sword,
Smite the unrighteous!
Make Jesus your goal, sell him your soul,
Go throw your mind down the nearest hole.”
Chorus:
And the Lord Christ Jesus will save you from the Devil and sin,
The Lord Marx Lenin will save you from the Chairman of the Board,
The Lord Smack Needle will save you from the pains of life,
But who will come and save you from your Lord?
I see them on the corners,
Little Red Book in hand
Preaching in the name of the People while the people pass by
Not giving a damn
“Filthy bourgeois, no right to live,
The only way to be saved is give!
Let your commissar tell you how to live and die,
Out of the book!
And well forge ahead, righteous and Red,
If anyone argues well cut em dead.”
(Chorus)
I see them on the corners,
Tiny white packet in hand
Crooning to their needles and taking their god “in vein”
Or maybe skin popping
“Guilty sinner, salvations here!
No more suffering, no more fear.
Pay down your money and wipe the world from your brain
Down to basics!
We dont preach a creed, we know what you need,
You want to forget how much you bleed.”
(Chorus)")
![UnReal Estate 03 - Phantom Lover of the Star Drive [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RaVmXAEW1O4/mqdefault.jpg "UnReal Estate 03 - Phantom Lover of the Star Drive [HQ]
Sung by Heather Alexander. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_unreal_estate
Lyrics:
Young women, if you travel stellar shipping lanes, beware
The whisper-soft caress of gentle fingers in your hair
The tender kiss as you lie sleeping when theres no one there
And your temperatures rise
Youve been touched by the Phantom Lover of the Stardrive.
Chorus:
Ghost or alien, dead or alive
Only one sure thing is known
The Phantom Lover of the Stardrive
Only haunts the ladies, he leaves the men alone
No one knows his name, what he was, or where he came from
He just began to haunt the Tau Ceti run
No sooner is a cruisers jump to faster-than-light done
He arrives
With a soulful sigh, the Phantom Lover of the Stardrive.
(Chorus)
In normal space, theres not a trace of passions entity
But jump to light and his romantic spree is guaranteed
An interstellar Don Juan, lady passengers agree
With a sparkle in their eyes
Hes a tachyon high, the Phantom Lover of the Stardrive.
(Chorus)
They love him, yes they do, and now the Tau Ceti cruise
Is booked solid by women whove been victimized
Oh, hes a tachyon high,
The Phantom Lover of the Stardrive.
Oh, he satisfies,
The Phantom Lover of the Stardrive.")
![Bob Kanefsky/Heather Alexander - Shapes of Shadow [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/RjmgMWuYNgw/mqdefault.jpg "Bob Kanefsky/Heather Alexander - Shapes of Shadow [HQ]
Tapeworm I track 5. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_tapeworm_1
Lyrics:
Past where patterned pathways lie,
Magic works, and there work I.
Scaffold boards left far behind,
I mold forms inside my mind.
Forms that kill, and forms that cure.
Forms to teach, or to obscure.
Forms in which the minds eye delves.
Forms for forming forms themselves.
Chorus:
You build worlds with steel and stone.
I build worlds with words alone.
Skilled tradespeople, long years taught:
You shape matter. I shape thought.
Soft, where your works rigid stand,
My works change as times demand.
Yours take years to redesign;
One night’s thought can alter mine.
For you must stop to forge new tools.
I need only change my rules.
You discard old stock in stores;
I discard old metaphors.
(Chorus)
Some would say my work exists
In the mindless maze’s twists.
They confuse their beer and gin
With the glass they buy them in.
The second’s made to hold the first,
And, empty, cannot quench your thirst.
Like the poet’s scroll and ink:
Less important than you think.
(Chorus)
Softly through the fertile night,
My work sheds its own clear light.
You still let your lives be run
By the dictates of the sun.
Fearful caveman that you are,
Scurry to your home or bar!
Long before your brain need tire,
Huddle ’round your neon fire.
(Chorus)")
![Jordin Kare - Fool to Feed the Drive [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Rrb_sMoBdaQ/mqdefault.jpg "Jordin Kare - Fool to Feed the Drive [HQ]
Parody Violation track 15. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_parody_violation
Lyrics (TTTO Fuel to Feed the Drive, Cynthia McQuillin):
A hundred parsecs out, on a ship quite second-rate,
The engineer McQuillin sent the word up to the mate
Our engine’s out of steam, he said, and soon our ship will die
If we can’t find a planet with fuel to feed the drive.
Now our ship’s a noble lady, and our captain she is too
But our engineer is none too bright, the dimwit of our crew
The captain said, I thought you filled the tanks on Vega 5!
McQuillin just looked sheepish; he forgot to feed the drive
Can curses stir the gods of space who dwell beyond the stars?
If so, they surely woke up then, for we used up most of ours
We thought we’d drift forever, lost between the stars we’d die
And all because McQuillin bought no fuel to feed the drive
But then the captain’s eyes grew bright; she said, It seems to me
That a fusion drive burns H2O... McQuillin turned to flee!
Grab him, boys, and hold him—he’s no good to us alive,
But two hundred pounds of water will feed our dying drive!
So once again we fly through space, avoiding all the stars
Who knows what ruin may take us, what evil fate is ours
We never found our planet, but we’ll all but one survive
As long as we are granted some fool to feed the drive!")
![Bill Sutton - Midnight at the Well [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SNmnAtOfGe0/mqdefault.jpg "Bill Sutton - Midnight at the Well [HQ]
Past Due track 14. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_past_due
[book: Well of Souls series, Jack L. Chalker]
Lyrics:
I stand and watch the universe, so strong and full of light
I watch the children grow and dreamers fight
And yet you ask me now to throw them all away
To steal from them their right to have their day
Chorus:
For all the deeds weve done
And all the things that weve begun
All the people, every heaven, every hell
All the places that weve been
And all the wonders that weve seen
Will vanish when its Midnight at the Well
Ive seen a thousand races die, but thousands more still thrive
Those living races have a right to survive
Art and joy and music, all will disappear,
And no one will ever know that they were here
(Chorus)
But I will not take all the blame for the things you ask
Mine not the only guilt, the only task
For I must be the one to pull the trigger, it is true
But the one who gives the order shall be you!
(Chorus)
Must vanish, for its Midnight at the Well
Give the order—its Midnight at the Well!")
