One of my old friends relayed an email to ask about an old filksong....

Who the hell wrote the Ringworld Engineers filk from the 1980s

There were Pak protectors before adam was a pup
Those protectors found the galaxy was blowing up
So they packed up their tree of life and sailed for many a year
And those who survived the dangerous voyage were ring world engineers

Oh we are, we are, we are, we are, the Ringworld engineers
We can, we can, we can build the thing to last a million years
Drink fuel, drink fuel, drink fuel, drink fuel and come along with us
'Cause we don't give a damn about any damn race that doesn't say "TANJ"
about us"

I told her that I'd never heard of it, let alone never heard of it.
I'd only heard Filthy Pierre's song to that tune.

Has anyone here heard this version?

--Lee

On 12/17/2021 9:05 AM, Lee Gold XP wrote:
> One of my old friends relayed an email to ask about an old filksong....
> Who the hell wrote the Ringworld Engineers filk from the 1980s

I think there's a Motie Engineers version in the NESFA Hymnals (is that
Filthy's?), but I haven't encountered the Ringworld Engineers version. I
wonder whether the latter ever made it to the East Coast.

Both appear to be adapted from what I know as The Engineers' Drinking
Song, for whatever that isn't worth.

> We can, we can, we can build the thing to last a million years

Scansion seems off in that line. Delete one "we can", or "the thing"?

On 12/17/2021 12:59 PM, Joe Kesselman wrote:
> I think there's a Motie Engineers version in the NESFA Hymnals (is that
> Filthy's?), but I haven't encountered the Ringworld Engineers version. I
> wonder whether the latter ever made it to the East Coast.

That's the Filthy Pierre song, not the one I quoted.

Its chorus goes:

We are, we are, we are, we are the Motie Engineers!
We've lived with high technology for several million years.
We've got brown fur and Watchmakers who come along with us
And we don't give a damn about human man--
'cause he don't give a damn about us.

It's also in FILKER UP #2.
And, of course, in Filthy Pierre's MICROFILK.

--Lee