Songs of the Seven (Blake's 7 zine)

Filk Songbook
Title:	Songs of the Seven
Publisher:	Xenon Press
Editor(s):
Date(s):	July 1988
Medium:	print
Subject:	Blake's 7
Language:	English
External Links:
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cover by Adrian Morgan

Songs of the Seven is a gen 62-page Blake's 7 anthology of filks by Adrian Morgan and Brendan O'Cullane. Adrian Morgan did all the art, including the cover.

flyer, click to read

interior art, Adrian Morgan

The authors put this notice on the editorial page: "This zine has an Astro Gold card cover and is side stapled three times. Anything else is a bootleg copy."

There were 100 issues published.

NOTE: This zine is not connected to a Linda Short filk tape of same name.

The Editorial

When we first discovered B7 fandom four months ago, we never envisioned that we'd be putting out a zine so soon: but here it is. First there was Gauda Prime, then Blake and His Band, and then filk tape, and our Servalan, and... finally Brendan suggested putting out our own filk song zine. Adrian thought it would be a neat idea if each, or nearly each song was illustrated and volunteered for the job. Originally it was due out at the first of July, then the middle of July, then it became, "We have to have this thing done by Scorpio!" We started asking friends for songs, and Jeanne DeVore and Leigh Arnold came through in time, so their songs are here also. Than you Leigh and Jeanne!

It's been hectic, but fun. We hope you like the songs. Some of the tunes they are to might be less than familiar. If that's the case, write to us and we can send you a tape of most of them (some were written from memories of the song and we don't have a copy.)

Well, you might think we've learned our lesson and say, "No more!" Well, you'd be wrong. Never doing things by halves, we started Xenon Press, which will be doing several more zines, B7 and other, over the next few years -- and yes, there will be a More Songs of the Seven and perhaps even a Subversive Songs of the Seven for that bawdy song you've been hiding all this time. Only one thing... this time we're not going to start it as a solo project. So, if you're a filker or an artist, please drop us a line.

Meanwhile, live free or die trying.

Contents

Nonfiction:

• Adrian & Brendan, "Editorial"

Filks:

• "Songs of the Seven" (Songs from the Wood, by Jethro Tull)
• "Blake and His Band" (Jack-in-the-Green, by Jethro Tull)
• "Servalan" (Russians, by Sting)
• "Fighting for Freedom" (Fighting for Strangers, by Steeleye Span)
• "Memories of Blake" (Memories of Green, from Blade Runner)
• "Sarcophagus" (Brain Damage, by Pink Floyd)
• "Gauda Prime" (Velvet Green, by Jethro Tull)
• "Pirate Jenna" (The Black Freighter, by Steeleye Span)
• "Room under Xenon Base" (Moon over Bourbon Street, by Sting)
• "Lost in a Lost Cause" (Lost in a Lost World, by the Moody Blues)
• "The Big Wheel" (House of the Rising Sun, by Joe Cocker)
• "Isn't Blake Strange" (Isn't Life Strange, by the Moody Blues)
• "Blake Is the Rebel Wave" (Love Is the Seventh Wave)
• "Heard It on the Outside" (Heard It through the Grape Vine, by Marvin Gaye; S1, The Way Back)
• "Rebel Crusade" (Children's Crusade, by Sting)
• "Now My Fear Has a Name" (Where the Streets Have No Name, by U2)
• "Avon" (Never Let Me Down, by David Bowie)
• "With Blake and Avon" (All the Madmen, by David Bowie)
• "Bayban" (Running Gun Blues, by David Bowie)
• "Egrorian's Song" (For My Lady, by the Moody Blues)
• "Horizon" (We Work the Black Seam, by Sting)
• "Star One" (Everybody Wants to Rule the World, by Tears for Fears)
• Leigh Arnold, "I Think It's Time for Us to Opt Out" (There Is a Light That Never Goes Out, by Smiths)
• "Auronar in Exile" (Englishman in New York, by Sting)
• "Travis" (I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, by U2)
• "Empty Room" (Be Still My Beating Heart, by Sting; S2, Pressure Point)
• Jeanne DeVore, "Fanzine Writer" (Paperback Writer, by Lennon and McCartney)
• "It's a Long Way I'm Gonna Fall" (It's a Hard Rain Gonna Fall, by Bob Dylan)
• "Stay Vila Stay" (Lay Lady Lay, by Bob Dylan)
• "Mighty Gan" (Mighty Quinn, by Bob Dylan)
• "Avon's New Horizons" (New Horizons, by the Moody Blues; "dedicated to Leigh Arnold for her New Horizon series")
• "All Were On the Flight Deck" (All Along the Watchtower, by Bob Dylan)
• Jeanne DeVore, "Servalan" (Camelot)
• Leigh Arnold, "Zen's Gone" (School's Out, by Alice Cooper)
• "I Understand Him Now" (My Back Pages, by Bob Dylan)
• Jeanne DeVore, "Itty Bitty Ditties" (God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and When the Saints Come Marching In)

Reactions and Reviews

Here's something for you filkers-- gen, but by a pair of authors (who were also a real-life couple at the time but have since split up) well-known in slash fandom for many excellent stories written both under their own names and as "Sean Charles." (There is a collected volume of their works, Double Vision.) This is a very early production of theirs; according to the editorial, they had only been in B7 fandom for four months at the time! I find it perversely comforting to observe that Adrian Morgan's illos in this early publication are not nearly so good as his later work (although there are several luscious portraits, especially of Avon). It's kind of like reading an early, promising-but-not-very- polished story by a writer who later became very good indeed. If the good artists and writers weren't always as good as they are now, then maybe there's hope for the rest of us. :)