bn_songbook | Entries tagged with media

In the memorable Babylon 5 episode "War Without End" (for which spoiler alert but I will, like the character who sings this song, try to keep them vague), the alien Zathras is assigned by Cmdr. Sinclair to a time travel mission in which he is taken prisoner by Sinclair at an earlier point in the timeline. To avoid, well, spoilers, at first all Zathras will say to the earlier Sinclair is "Not the One!"

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Still the One" by Johanna Hall and John Hall

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This one was done just for the pun at first, but it ended up as a touching (I think) crossover fanfic mashup.

It will make more sense if you've seen Babylon 5 and read A Fire Upon the Deep: In each story arc, at a climactic moment (the turning point in the middle of the story in one case, the denoument in the other), one of the many protagonists in the ensemble cast chooses to fulfill their destined role in the battle against an ancient trans-human evil, bidding their companions a fond farewell and stepping into a Transcendent machine, never to return in the same form.

In B5 the character is (or will become) the legendary hero Valen, while in aFutD some of the companions are members of the species known to the reader as Tines, a race of wolf-like creatures with hive-minds where several individual bodies come together to be one individual person. Valen... Tines... you get where this is going.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "To My Valentine" by S.J. Tucker

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This poem is a style parody of Edward Lear's nonsense poem "The Akond of Swat", mainly notable for its distinctive rhythm and the way it dangles and drops rhymes. Swat was a real princedom in what is now Pakistan, and its prince was indeed titled Akond — Lear's poem of course has nothing to do with the real place, and uses the title merely for its strangeness.

"S.H.I.E.L.D.", on the other hand, stands for "Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division". ("And what does that mean to you?" "It means that someone really wanted our initials to spell 'shield'.")

by Benjamin Newman

after "The Akond of Swat" by Edward Lear

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Almost nothing in "The Rainbow Connection" needed to be changed to make it about Babylon 5. Just replace "rainbow" with "Vorlon" throughout and every line falls into place.

Really, that's it.

lyrics and music by Paul Williams and Kenneth Ascher, adapted by Benjamin Newman

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Elvis Costello's "Veronica" is strangely peppy for a song about dementia. This parody is also about a woman who has left behind the memories that go with a name, a name that rhymes with "Veronica" — and indeed more of the vowel patterning of the original song has been preserved than is typical of my parodies.

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lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Veronica" by Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney

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I like to imagine A Wrinkle in Time and Babylon 5 taking place in the same universe — the three Mrs. W's are clearly Vorlons, and after that other things fall into place.

lyrics and music by Benjamin Newman

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I'm not the only filker to notice that "McGillavry" sounds a lot like "of Gallifrey". Marc Gunn and Devo Spice also took on this challenge and produced a very different song.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Donald McGillavry" by James Hogg

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Based on the Nickelodeon cartoon The Wild Thornberries.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Thornberry Wine" by Virginia Taylor

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A song for Mr. Morden — like the symbol of the raven in "I Go Like the Raven", the Shadows (or their ships) screaming across the "dark and dervish sky" herald a wily trickster with a mysterious past and unknown powers.

Dave & Tracy's original song is as notable for its virtuosic instrumental breaks as for its haunting lyrics, and this new recording of my parody finally features a most appropriate theme in that role.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "I Go Like the Raven" by Dave Carter

and featuring the main title theme from Babylon 5 by Christopher Franke

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The Psi-Cop's side of the story of "Annie's Luck" by Cat Faber.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Annie's Luck" by Cat Faber

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lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: "Mr. Tambourine Man" by Bob Dylan

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lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: the theme from Battlestar Galactica season 2 by Glen A. Larson and Stu Phillips

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lyrics adapted by Benjamin Newman from "The Flying Toaster Song" from the After Dark screensaver by Jack Eastman and Patrick Beard

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A love song, from a space station to her commander and crew, or from one heart to another — may we always be here to welcome each other home.

lyrics by Benjamin Newman

ttto: the theme from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine by Dennis McCarthy

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Ben's Songs

Entries tagged with media_tv

Not the One

To My Valen/Tines

The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.

The Vorlon Connection

For Annika

A Wrinkle in Hyperspace

Timelord of Gallifrey

Thornberry Child

I Go Like the Shadows

Howard's Choice

Hey, Evil Borg Machine-man

The Galactica Overture

The Flying Toaster Song (BSG Version)

Deep Harbor

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