Second Class Fans

Lyrics ©2006 by Bill Roper
Music: "Second Hand Songs" by Jonathan Turner

So we were on our way to LACon IV with a vanload of dealer stuff, when I picked up an e-mail that said that the folks on the filk program at LACon weren't actually program participants, despite the fact we were doing panels, workshops, and concerts. This seemed odd to me.

I woke up early in the morning in Grand Junction, Colorado and scrawled a verse and a chorus on the back of the Motel 6 bill and went back to bed. A bit later, I woke up again and scrawled two more verses on the front of the bill. But the Motel 6 in Grand Junction had no Internet connection.

However, the truck stop in Green River, Utah did. And Gretchen came back to the van to find me standing there with the rear hatch open, typing frantically as I posted this to my LiveJournal and the LACon IV LJ community.

Happily, by the time we got to L.A., the problem was solved and we were now program participants. Which was really all I'd wanted in the first place.

And many thanks to the LACon IV registration people who got to sort all of this out at a very late date!

G                   C      D                G     Em
Thirty years I'm in fandom, plus or minus a few.
                      C       Am                     D
And I've seen lots of blunders, and I've made one or two.
                 C        D                    G
And I work on conventions – I help out where I can,
Em                 C                         D
But for all that I do, seems my fandom's not true.
                   G
I'm a second class fan.

	(Chorus)
	G                  C    D                     G
	I'm a second class fan.  I sing songs late at night.
	Em                   C      Am                     D
	I give workshops and panels, but they say it's not right
                      C       D                   G
	To put me on the program, though I do what I can.
	Em                      C                       D
	Seems they just want to say that while I'm in L.A.
	                   G
	I'm a second class fan.

I was on the filk program at LACon Four.
Thought I might get a ribbon, but they showed me the door.
Such things are reserved, not for our calloused hands.
Seems we don't have the clout, so the Green Room is out
For us second class fans.

Now Columbus likes filkers and Chicago does too.
And I bet Kansas City wouldn't have done what you do.
We write songs to remember so we won't do this again.
We will vote for a site where they treat filkers right
And we're not second class fen.