Filk: How Will They Know?

by Dave Aronson

To an original tune, of course, though it's pretty generic, so you can probably fake it anyway. Hint: think 3/4 time, and yes, the emPHAsis in "Okay" is supposed to be on the wrong sylLABle.

I first was a parody writer,
And wrote words to old well-known tunes.
I stole from the classics
Clear back to Jurassics
To write my silly lampoons.
And then one day it struck me,
As I strutted on stage like a ham:
The primary fault
In my filking gestalt
Is that I can't sing worth a damn!

I've got the rhyme schemes down perfect.
My scansion is okay I guess.
I project very well,
But one point won't sell:
My pitch is a terrible mess!
And then one day inspiration
Came to me quite suddenly:
If nobody knows what the tune's s'posed to be,
How will they know if I sing it off key?

So now I shift keys at random;
At least that's the way that it seems.
And noone can say
A yea or a nay
For it's all my own musical dreams.
Perhaps someday I will learn how
To sing out with sweet melody.
By then they might know what the tune's s'posed to be,
'Til then I will just keep on singing off key!