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I was first introducted to the concept of filking by the cross-dressing guy in the blue pinafore and blonde wig from the Trekkies documentary, who demonstrated a filk for the documentary crew, a folk song that he'd written (I think) from the perspective of Khan (as in Ricardo Montalban's character from The Wrath of &c). I remember thinking that despite his eccentricities, this guy was by far the sanest and most likeable of all of the people featured in the doco. Even so, this whole filking thing seemed about as appealing as fan fiction, slash and all the other associated fan-based genres of writing: interesting to know that it's out there, but not something I'd really want to participate in myself. At least, that's what I thought until I heard the folk song called "The Death of Optimus Prime". For those of us not blessed with a familiarity with 80s kids' cartoons and their associated mileu, Optimus Prime is the name of the chief good-guy in the Transformers cartoon. He was a bright red robot with silver and blue trimmings, who spoke with a pseudo-John-Wayne accent and could change into a semi-trailer. I recently Acquired a copy of the aforementioned filk, but the track listing I've got has mis-attributed it to those kings of nerd-pop themselves, They Might Be Giants. One listen and it's patently obvious that it's not TMBG who's responsible for this gloriously camp tribute to everybody's favourite robot truck. But who is responsible? Who was it that managed to encapsulate the majesty and stature of Optimus Prime and the tragedy of his heroic death so succinctly?
Anyone out there who can point out the true authors of the above, I'd be eternally grateful, and not just because I have an anal-retentive need to enter the correct details into iTunes so I can properly alphabetise according to artist name. |
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