![Technical Difficulties - Break Forth [HQ] @SongsfromtheStars](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KoypuevTPpc/maxresdefault.jpg)
Uploaded February 2021 | Updated September 2026, 33 minutes ago
Please Stand By track 09. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: archive.org/details/filk_please_stand_by
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Lyrics:
Break forth from gravity's fearsome well
Amid the engines' roaring
Each ship in which our spirits dwell
Into the aether soaring
This quest though now in infancy
The future of our world shall be
The power of ignorance breaking
Our newest frontier making
Please Stand By track 09. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: archive.org/details/filk_please_stand_by
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Lyrics:
Break forth from gravity's fearsome well
Amid the engines' roaring
Each ship in which our spirits dwell
Into the aether soaring
This quest though now in infancy
The future of our world shall be
The power of ignorance breaking
Our newest frontier making
![Technical Difficulties - Break Forth [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/KoypuevTPpc/mqdefault.jpg "Technical Difficulties - Break Forth [HQ]
Please Stand By track 09. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_please_stand_by/
Lyrics:
Break forth from gravitys fearsome well
Amid the engines roaring
Each ship in which our spirits dwell
Into the aether soaring
This quest though now in infancy
The future of our world shall be
The power of ignorance breaking
Our newest frontier making")
![Bob Kanefsky/Leslie Fish - Trilogy Readers [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/LIYr9Rvoj2Y/mqdefault.jpg "Bob Kanefsky/Leslie Fish - Trilogy Readers [HQ]
Tapeworm I track 11. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_tapeworm_1
Lyrics:
We bought your book, and we drooled in droves
Over endless action from front to back.
We finished the book and found we’d been took,
For an end is an awful thing to lack.
But the author says she’s not done.
We’d have saved our cash if she’d mentioned it then.
And she won’t say why, and she won’t say how.
She says To Be Continued—suckered again!
But they don’t work, so they don’t care.
Each volume costs us an hour’s wage.
For they only see how the money rolls in,
And that publishers pay them by the page.
So the author laughs and rubs her hands,
And the publishers make a tidy sum.
And the bookstores where they spring their trap
Rake our paychecks in as fast as they come.
“The end is near,” the author claims.
You publishers sing the same refrain.
But we won’t stand this kind of deceit,
And knowing we may be waiting in vain.
We demand to read finished work;
This is art, not some layaway plan!
And you greedy hogs better heed our call,
Or you’ll know the wrath of S.F. fans.
For we’ve found a way we can get revenge
On trilogy authors, one and all.
You’ll regret the size of your debt
When you find that your back’s against the wall.
Then youll yield to our demands
When we tell you just what we’ve got in store.
If you want the details of what we’ve planned...
You’ll have to wait: the end’s in Westerfilk Four.")
![Kathy Mar - Lady Ellen [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/MEunL5lPq7k/mqdefault.jpg "Kathy Mar - Lady Ellen [HQ]
Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_songbird
Lyrics:
Lady Ellen wandered in the quiet wood
Pondering the suitors for her hand
Wishing for a life alone and yet, with love
Bending to her fathers one command
All at once a rustle and a sweet perfume
Filled the little meadow where she stood
All at once a silver, silken unicorn
Took a dainty step out of the wood
Lady Ellen gasped and took a trembling step
Reaching out in timid quaking grace
Quivering, the unicorn stepped forward too
Quiet terror showing on its face
And in one light touch their spirits joined and sang
Sharing their unspoken thoughts and fears
Lady Ellen gazed into the midnight eyes
Losing in that look one thousand years
Lady Ellen wanders in the city streets
Staring at the traffic and the light
Looking for a unicorn that disappeared
And left her in this lonely future night")
![Frank Hayes - Hucksters Song [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Mi-q5TRRkf0/mqdefault.jpg "Frank Hayes - Hucksters Song [HQ]
Dont Ask track 19. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_dont_ask/
Lyrics:
They are now to be among you at the jingling of your coin
Rest assured, the hucksters here quite happily will join
In whatever odd transaction they see is going on
For whenever two or more of you are gathered at a con
There is cash
There is cash
Now a man shall leave his labors and a woman leave her job
And they shall travel to the con and join the fannish mob
In the huckster room, their paychecks will dwindle into dust
For a huckster knows what he must do and does the things he must
For their cash
For their cash
So then whats to be the reason to lay out your hard-earned bread?
Is it books, or games, or weapons, or the art show now instead?
Well, an artists just a huckster with some semblance of a heart
Its still the highest bidder, and wherever there is art,
There is cash
There is cash
They are now to be among you at the rustling of your green
Rest assured, theyll do most anything thats not obscene
To separate your silver from your person till its gone
For wherever two or more of you are gathered at a con
There is cash
Or, more precisely, there was cash")
![Technical Difficulties - Elizabeths Song [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/N42VLWUF9i8/mqdefault.jpg "Technical Difficulties - Elizabeths Song [HQ]
Please Stand By track 03. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_please_stand_by/
Lyrics:
Please let me see
The world you see
I look to heaven’s height
I only see clouds
You look to heaven’s height
Dragons abound
So please paint for me
The colors you see when you dream
I long to know
The hues and the shades of your soul
It seems to me (Elizabeth)
You see the world quite differently (your world is different)
What magical key (Elizabeth)
Unlocks your reality (or all your fantasies)?
Please paint for me
The colors you see
I hear a song
I hear words and notes
You hear a song
You hear more than both
So please sing to me
The songs that you hear when you dream
I long to know
The echoing chords of your soul
It seems to me (Elizabeth)
You hear the world quite differently (your world is different)
What magical key (Elizabeth)
Unlocks your reality (or all your fantasies)?
Please sing to me
The songs you hear
I’ve known joy, sorrow, and pain
You’ve felt them too,
But is it the same?
So please give to me
The passions you feel when you dream
I long to know
The depth and the touch of your soul
It seems to me (Elizabeth)
You feel the world quite differently (your world is different)
What magical key (Elizabeth)
Unlocks your reality (or all your fantasies)?
Please give to me
The passions you feel
Please give to me
Elizabeth")
![Leslie Fish & the Dehorn Crew - The Preacher and the Slave [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NWobqv_3pPA/mqdefault.jpg "Leslie Fish & the Dehorn Crew - The Preacher and the Slave [HQ]
Its Sister Jennys Turn to Throw the Bomb track 07. 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:
Long-haired preachers come out every night (come to Jesus)
Try to tell you whats wrong and whats right (from the Bible)
But when asked about something to eat (are you saved?)
They will answer in voices so sweet (get a job!)
Chorus:
You will eat, by and by,
In that glorious land above the sky (way up high)
Work and pray, live on hay,
Youll get pie in the sky when you die (thats a lie)
And the Starvation Army they play (Rock of Ages)
And they sing and they clap and they pray (hallelujah)
Till they get all your coin on the drum (give another)
Then theyll tell you when youre on the bum (have a doughnut)
(Chorus)
Holy Rollers and jumpers come out (hear the guru)
And they roll and they jump and they shout (spare change?)
“Give your money, hare krishna,” they say (buy some incense)
“And youll eat on that glorious day.” (brown rice)
(Chorus)
Working folks of all countries, unite
Side by side we for freedom will fight
When this world and its wealth we have gained
To the grafters well sing this refrain:
You will eat, by and by,
When you learn how to cook and to fry
Chop some wood, itll do you good,
And youll eat in the sweet by-and-by (thats no lie)")
![Frank Hayes - Clock on the Wall [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NXpP8C655YI/mqdefault.jpg "Frank Hayes - Clock on the Wall [HQ]
Dont Ask track 20. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_dont_ask/
Lyrics:
I think you know I loved you from the start,
And I know you knew I thought wed never part,
Our love it was a nova, but then you said its over,
And you left that big black hole down in my heart.
I cant forget the night you threw me out,
Though I dont recall just what we fought about,
But it hurt so bad I thought my heart would burst.
Dear, you might at least have let me suit up first.
And the clock on the wall keeps on a-ticking,
Counting the time since youve been gone,
Now nothing is left to carry me on,
Nothing at all, but the clock on the wall.
Rushing through the interstellar night,
Thirty-seven times the speed of light,
And I cant hear the rhyme, the scansion, nor the time,
Cause when you go this fast the clocks run backwards.
So though you left me stranded and alone,
Here without a life to call my own,
When that clock turns back a month or more,
I know youll come walking right back through that door.
And the clock on the wall keeps on a-ticking
(You listen close, you can hear it going “Kot-kit, kot-kit, kot-kit,” which is really just “Tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock,” only of course its going backwards)
Counting the hours since youve been gone,
Now nothing is left to carry me on,
Nothing at all, but the clock on the wall.
And the clock on the wall keeps on a-ticking,
Counting the hours since youve been gone,
Now nothing is left to carry me on,
Nothing at all, but the clock on the wall.
Nothing at all, but the clock on the wall.")
![Leslie Fish - Hello! Remember Us? [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/O68DedIacWM/mqdefault.jpg "Leslie Fish - Hello! Remember Us? [HQ]
Firestorm track 11. 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:
Hello! Remember us?
The ones you left behind,
When half the Earth was burning
And all the sky was blind?
You lords of wealth and power
Who made the missiles fly,
Remember how you hid yourselves
And left us here to die?
Hello! Hello! Hello!
Hello! Remember us?
No doubt you shed a tear
Before you took yourselves below
And left us standing here
Now arent you pleased to see us
So many still alive?
Or did you hope to find a world
Where you alone survived?
Hello! Hello! Hello!
Hello! Remember us?
We sure remember you!
Remember how our world was
And what you brought it to?
And when the dead were buried,
The dust all cleared away,
We set ourselves about your door
And waited for this day.
Hello! Hello! Hello!
Hello! Remember us?
It seems were hard to kill
Though more than half were slaughtered then,
Enough are living still
And if now we dont obey you
Why should you find it strange?
We lived this long without you
And we see no need to change.
Hello! Hello! Hello!
Hello! Remember us?
We swear that this is true
Whatever world remains through us,
It will not go to you!
We know what dreams you harbored;
Come kiss them all goodbye.
Come up and claim your kingdom now,
Come out, stand up, and die!
Hello! Hello! Hello!
Goodbye!")
![Jordin Kare - The Quest [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OK6B80DmP1A/mqdefault.jpg "Jordin Kare - The Quest [HQ]
Parody Violation track 7. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_parody_violation
Lyrics (Rudyard Kipling):
The knight came home from the quest, muddied and sore he came
Battered of shield and crest, bannerless, bruised and lame
In fighting we take no shame, better is man for a fall
Merrily borne, the bugle-horn answered the warder’s call:
Chorus: Here is my lance to mend (Haro!),
Here is my horse to be shot!
Oh yes, they were strong, the fight was long,
But I paid as good as I got!
I paid em as good as I got!
Oh, dark and deep was their van, that mocked my battle-cry
I could not miss my man, but I could not carry by
Utterly whelmed was I; flung under, horse and all.
Merrily borne, the bugle-horn answered the warder’s call:
(Chorus)
My wounds are noised abroad, but theirs my foemen cloak
You see my broken sword, but never the blades she broke
Trading them stroke for stroke, good handsel over all.
Merrily borne, the bugle-horn answered the warder’s call:
(Chorus)
My shame you count and know, you say my quest is vain
But you have not seen my foe, you havent counted his slain
Surely he fights again, again, but when you prove his line,
There will come to your aid my broken blade in this last, lost fight of mine!
(Chorus)")
![Jordin Kare - Caretaker [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/OhPBieJ_Uas/mqdefault.jpg "Jordin Kare - Caretaker [HQ]
Parody Violation track 3. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_parody_violation
Lyrics (Bill Sutton):
In the time of rising mountains, in an age when life was new
The trees were the rulers of life on earth, and the world as a forest grew
But a new life found the forest, and a new life tore the land
And the dryads came to protect the wood, to stay the humans hand
Singing, I am the strength of the heart and the root
I am the soul of the wood.
In a time of ancient mountains, in an age no longer new
A man walked into a hardwood grove with a chainsaw and its crew
And he reached for the crippled oak tree, and he waved his crew to start
When a vision leapt from the shattered limbs and pierced him to the heart
Singing, I am the strength of the heart and the root
I am the soul of the wood.
She was sun and moon and starlight, she was earth and sky and sea
She was everything that hed ever loved, and all that he wished to be
And she sang of the elder forests, and she sang of the rustling wind
And her arms reached out from the jagged bark, reached out to pull him in
Singing, I am the strength of the heart and the root
I am the soul of the wood.
But the man pulled out an acorn, and he held it to her eyes
And he sang to her of birth and life, and that even an oak must die
Then she knew that her tree had withered, and she turned, no longer strong
And she passed away while the chainsaws roar drowned out her final song
Singing, I am the strength of the heart and the root
I am the soul of the wood.
In the night under ancient mountains, in the night under autumn skies
A man looks down at a rotting stump, and he shakes his head and sighs
Then he kneels to plant an acorn, and he hears a quiet sound
A song of joy and a hope of spring, of new life in the ground
Singing, I am the strength of the heart and the root
I am the soul of the wood.
Singing, I am the strength of the heart and the root
I am the soul of the wood.")
![Bill Sutton - Do It Yourself [HQ]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oi4W0UPa_xs/mqdefault.jpg "Bill Sutton - Do It Yourself [HQ]
Past Due track 10. Thanks to rocketman0739 for providing high-quality versions of these songs.
Download the album here: https://archive.org/details/filk_past_due
Lyrics:
I went to buy computers, and they said a million bucks
For a brand new mainframe IBM, now that price really sucks!
So I looked at all the pictures, and I chose to build my own
For you can build a mainframe from the things you find at home
Chorus:
Oh, IBM, DEC, and Honeywell; HP, DG, and Wang
Amdahl, NEC, and NCR—they dont know anything
They make big bucks for systems, so they never want it known
That you can build a mainframe from the things you find at home
Now, take the CPU; you see, its only just a box
With blinking lights and whirring fans and lots of cable slots
So I spent an evening working with some wire and bulbs and pins
Then I hauled it to the basement and I plugged the freezer in
(Chorus)
Well, next I needed tape drives, my tape drives were a steal
I climbed into the attic for my dads old reel-to-reel
Some cable and some binder twine, and soon it was complete:
My CPU and tape drive at a price no one can beat
(Chorus)
So then I looked for disk drives, but it didnt take me long
Function follows form, they say, or have I got that wrong?
I found a drive with five new modes that blows the rest away:
Cottons, linens, wash and wear, rinse, and lingerie!
(Chorus)
Well, I had to have a console just to make my system run
Without a fancy console then my system wasnt done
So, I tied a ten-buck typer to a broken TV tube
And now Ive got a console that can write the evening news
(Chorus)
Ive had my system running—Ill admit its not the best
The data isnt right, and the response time is a mess
It crashes every hour, and it isnt worth a damn
But Im satisfied because it runs just like an IBM!
(Chorus)
Yes, you can build a mainframe from the things you find at home!")
