Songs I wrote

I've written a lot of songs over the last N years. I used to have a lot of them up on my website, but that was mostly for my own reference. These days I keep them on my Google Drive, which works a lot better for me in terms of being able to get at them when I need them, and not mess up the formatting of the chords.

If you're looking for something you know I wrote that you don't see here, drop me a line, and I can put it up.

Songs about books and short stories

Anatomy of a Mermaid - Written after reading the short story of the same name. The third verse didn't show up for a few years.

Anticipating a Rose on B-612 - My own lens into the story of Le Petit Prince. Written for Dave Weingart and Rika Koerte.

The Child Garden - One of my favorites books of all time is not exactly a time travel story. It's The Child Garden by Geoff Ryman. Thank you, Avram for making me read it.

Fool's Run - My impressions of Patricia McKillip's Fool's Run as filtered through 80's glam rock.

Song for Arbonne - There are two stories in A Song For Arbonne by Guy Gavriel Kay that never resolve.

Songs about other media

Invitation - The words of the chorus are from a Shel Silverstein poem. The rest was my reflection on losing a childhood icon who informed my sense of humor and my sense of anarchy.

Sigil - Drawn from Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics, from the relationship between Delight/Delirium and her brother, Destruction.

Original songs

Apple Trouble - women and apples and trouble go together.

Beggar at the Feast - I had a long streak of writing cyclical bard songs. This is the only one that made it all the way to a melody.

The Bored Programmer - Another silly early parody, the result of working a programming job at a bank.

Calling From the Foot of the Beanstalk - Fairy tale distillation with no little influence from Into the Woods

Door to Summer - Written for Seanan when she left after living with us for a whole summer.

Distant Glass - A song I wrote for Seanan and Rika when I took a trip out west to spend time with them and got Talis as a bonus.

It's Not Easy - At some point I was joking that every perspective in a fairy tale has been written from multiple angles. Maybe not this one.

Kokepelli's Smile - I wanted to write something about how we relate to music and personify it. This is what came out of that exercise.

Many Huns, One War - My parody of the filksong that was heard around the world.

The Miller's Daughter - Another fairy tale distillation, this time with Rumpelstiltskin.

Quest for the Raven Stone - A song for the villain to sing when they send the hero on a deadly quest.

Sleep on the Ledge - An imperfect parody that a lot of my friends like. Mostly friends who've had long-term feline companions. Trigger warning, contains peaceful cat death.

Underwear - Yes, I wrote a song with this title. Jordan called the original song Solitaire so it was sort-of necessary? Somewhere I have video of the premiere of this song on stage at OVFF 2003. Jordan didn't kill me. Much.

Collaborations

307 Imps - A song about Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and their product line. Co-written with Batya Wittenberg

Child (Ballad) Abuse - This song was written as a revenge tactic to get back at Margaret Middleton who made us stop breathing by singing Gimmie Those Old Childe Ballads at an OVFF open circle. It didn't work on her, but it has had many hapless victims since then. Co-written with Batya Wittenberg.

Dear Seanan - A song that I wrote with Erin Bellavia to poke fun at the fact that Seanan's book characters would love a chance to get back at their author. Available on Via Bella's first album.

Filk Instrument - Or the adventures and misadventures of a filk band. Based very loosely on real life. Very loosely. Written with Batya Wittenberg.

The Filkers Who Don't Sing Anything - Not to be confused with Larry Kirby's song of the same name (and the same tune - sharing a brain with your whole community is weird). Co-written with Batya Wittenberg.

Haven - This song was written around these events. Co-written with Seanan McGuire and Batya Wittenberg.

Me Like Rocky! - A pean to many nights spent covered in rice, sequins and fishnets. Co-written with Batya Wittenberg.

The Other Little Prince (Katamari Damacy) - I wrote a song about The Little Prince and then one day, Batya and I were dangerously bored.

A Raven Tail - From a story about Seanan's Uncle, who does raven rescue. No birds were harmed in the creation of this song. Co-written with Batya Wittenberg

Run Little Bird - Written in great haste in Kate's basement at a Lady Mondegreen rehearsal when inspiration struck. Co-written with Batya Wittenberg.

Three Fine Slayers of Rupert Giles - This song came out of too much exposure to Eddie From Ohio and Buffy the Vampire Slayer at the same time. Or possibly, just enough.

Why I Haven't Got a Boat - Lady Mondegreen covered Lyle Lovett's If I Had a Boat for a long time, and then we asked the fatal question. How many songs start with "if"?

You Stay Here (Split the Party Remix) - We used to cover Richard Shindell's song You Stay Here. Sometimes we would mix it up and substitute "zombies" for "tiger", but then we started thinking, what would be worse than the situation in the original song? Co-written with Batya Wittenberg