A thought

[avevale_intelligencer]

Wherever there are two male American filkers gathered together, there will sooner or later be a performance (and I use the word advisedly) of "When I Was A Boy."

We need a British equivalent of this thing. Not about computers especially, but something we can spin out to several hours of schtick till everyone else has left the room in disgust. Any ideas, anyone?

Comments

[eoforyth.livejournal.com]

The way it's looking, it would have to be something by the knitters :D

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

Mike Whitaker wrote "When I Were A Lad", about filking, but I cannot immediately find the lyrics online.

[rdmaughan.livejournal.com]

Can we cheat and resort to using \monty \python or the Goons?

[fleetfootmike.livejournal.com]

That's cause you're not looking in the right place :D
http://www.altrion.org/when.txt

[http://users.livejournal.com/la_marquise_de_/]

It needs to be a long lament by those meta-filked by demoneyes

[occams_pyramid]

I'll go for a Reverse Frimley to, err, Hanger Lane.

[aunty_marion]

You mean, "When I was a Purl"?

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

[howeird]

Maybe it's my American blinders, but except for the left-handed reference to Apple, I don't see where "When I Was a Boy" doesn't work in the UK. IMHO trying to write a UK equivalent would be as futile as an American trying to write a USA equivalent to "Every Sperm is Sacred".

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Well, that's wonderful as a filk of "WIWAB", but what I was thinking of was more something original and British, as "WIWAB" was original and (as it happened) American.

[keristor.livejournal.com]

I've sung it in the UK. The Apple reference isn't any problem, there are a few terms which are definitely American though (the ones which jump out at me are "schoolhouse" and "eight bits" -- we would just say "school" and don't see "bits" in the sense of money). They aren't really much problem, though, because most of us do understand those things these days, but the whole song comes over as 'American' especially with the schtick.

The point, as I see it, isn't to write a UK equivalent in the sense of a translation but to have something of our own which has the same features of being sung ad nauseam and spun out for (at least what seems like) hours. Before The Dawn did that at one point, but too few people know enough of it these days, and even then it wasn't really spontaneous enough (not like WIWAB; get any two or more male geeks over 40 together and they'll be trying to outdo each other in old technology after a couple of drinks even without the song). We need something different to bore everyone else with...

[zanda-myrande.livejournal.com]

Exactly.

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Surely our equivalent is called "You Were Up First".

"Oh no, you were up first!"

"No, that was just me sorting my song book out. You were definitely up first."

"But mine's just a silly thing, doesn't matter at all. *You* should go first..."

Massed ranks of filkers (radiating telepathically with steadily increasing intensity): "WILL ONE OF YOU JUST HURRY UP AND SING SOMETHING?!?"

=:o}

(See also: "Q: What's the slowest thing on four legs? A: Two Christians^* trying to get through a doorway."

^*(Or Englishmen, or Canadians, or whoever else is stereotyped as being excessively polite in your culture.)

[little-cinnamon.livejournal.com]

I thought our equivalent, in some sense, was "Pies". Not in the drawn-out-till-the-cows-come-home sense, but in the "sacred-tradition-over-the-top-performance" way. :)

[tarkrai.livejournal.com]

Well, it's not *quite* like that. It was never intended to grow in this direction...

Frank Hayes wrote WIWAB for Duckon in Chicago in June, 1997. I was there when he debuted it and I managed to borrow the recording from a fan who had a film camera. :)

So, I'm about as close to ground zero as you can get.

I was so geeked about the song that I played it *everywhere*. Bill Sutton and Tom Smith were the second two to pick it up.

The 'schtick' aspect likely started spontanneously in several places at the same time. My first experience with it was at Duckon in 1998 (the next year) with Pete Grubbs, Tom Smith, and RJ Johnson lending the one-upmanship.

The first time I did it opposite Bill Sutton was at Chambanacon in 1999, I believe.

The worst it got was as a one hour program item at the Chicon in 2000. Bill Sutton, Dave Clement, and a host of others (about 10 of us in all, I think) sang the song. We ran over time. (The best part of it to me was the line "... but it sure beat that ancient Atari, 'cuz I almost went blind dont'cha know..." and Dave Clement interrupted by saying "Well, I *did* go blind!")

I agree that 'Pies' certainly has the potential for the same mind-numbing humor. All you need is to add other aspects of Ankh-Morpork to make a truly interesting (and long-winded) presentation. :)

[the-gwenzilliad.livejournal.com]

Do we really need something like that? I mean, lots of things will make me leave a filkroom in disgust, certainly including overdone renditions of "When I Was A Boy," but why would I *want* to encourage some kind of song that would eventually make me leave a filkroom in disgust? There are enough roadkill songs / 75-verse renditions of "Bend Over Greek Sailor" / etc. out there to keep me walking out of filkrooms in disgust already! :D

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

I see it as intended to be sort of *affectionate* disgust.

:)

[vixyish.livejournal.com]

(...bless their hearts.)

*giggle*

[gingicat]

Trust me, USAians do that too.