From the Floating Log at Frogmorton

Ordinarily a song has to have a certain classic status
to be worthy of being filked. But Darryl Worley's
"Have You Forgotten?" reaches such depths of
cheesiness and bathos (not to mention sloppy logic)
that I'm sure filkers from The Floating Log to the
Golden Hall will agree it deserves to be honored.
--Fool of a Took

Are You a Moron?

I hear some dwarves saying
That this ain't our war
I say there's some things worth fighting for
What about the Lonely Mountain and our heaps of gold?
You know we got 'em by being vengeful and bold.
You say that Sauron ain't the balrog's tool.
Before you start preaching
Let me ask you this ya fool

Have you forgotten Azanulbizar
When the smoke from dwarven pyres
Covered Lorien afar?
Have you forgotten Thror's head rollin' down the hill?
And Azog's evil laughter
Well there's some that never will.
And you say we shouldn't worry about Sauron.
Are you a moron?

They said we shouldn't try to enter Khazad-Dum
Said Durin's Bane ain't rentin' no rooms.
And Sauron ain't the balrog, that's what they're
tellin' me
But they kinda look alike, and that's good enough for
me.
Some say we dwarves are just lookin' for a fight.
After Azanulbizar I'd have to say that's right.

Have you forgotten all your dwarven lore?
That gold is fine and dandy but revenge is what life's
for.
Have you forgotten Azog's evil grin?
Well I may be clouding issues
But that's surely not a sin.
And you say the balrog ain't the same as Sauron
Are you a moron?

I've been there with the dwarves 
Who've been marching off to fight
And I put-damn near went with 'em
'Cause I don't doubt they were right.

Have you forgotten there was elves nearby
And they must've heard us fighting
'Cause the din rang 'cross the sky.
Did you happen to see any elves show up
We sure coulda used their help
That ol' Azog for to whup.
And you say that them elves ain't in league with
Sauron
Are you a moron?

(Below are Darryl Worley and Wynn Varble's
semi-original* lyrics)

I hear people saying we don't need this war
I say there's some things worth fighting for
What about our freedom and this piece of ground?
We didn't get to keep 'em by backing down
They say we don't realize the mess we're getting in
Before you start preaching
Let me ask you this my friend

CHORUS 1
Have you forgotten how it felt that day
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away?
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside
Going through a living hell
And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout Bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

They took all the footage off my T.V.
Said it's too disturbing for you and me
It'll just breed anger that's what the experts say
If it was up to me I'd show it every day
Some say this country's just out looking for a fight
After 9/11 man I'd have to say that's right

CHORUS 1
Have you forgotten how it felt that day
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away?
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside
Going through a living hell
And we vowed to get the ones behind Bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

I've been there with the soldiers
Who've gone away to war
And you can bet that they remember
Just what they're fighting for

CHORUS 2
Have you forgotten all the people killed?
Yes, some went down like heroes in that Pennsylvania
field
Have you forgotten about our Pentagon?
All the loved ones that we lost
And those left to carry on
Don't you tell me not to worry 'bout Bin Laden
Have you forgotten?

*Parts of the song bear a more than passing
resemblance to Seigfried Sassoon's 1919 poem "Aftermath":

HAVE you forgotten yet?... 
For the world’s events have rumbled on since those
gagged days, 
Like traffic checked while at the crossing of
city-ways: 
And the haunted gap in your mind has filled with
thoughts that flow 
Like clouds in the lit heaven of life; and you’re a
man reprieved to go, 
Taking your peaceful share of Time, with joy to spare.

But the past is just the same—and War’s a bloody
game... 
Have you forgotten yet?... 
Look down, and swear by the slain of the War that
you’ll never forget. 

Do you remember the dark months you held the sector at
Mametz— 
The nights you watched and wired and dug and piled
sandbags on parapets? 
Do you remember the rats; and the stench 
Of corpses rotting in front of the front-line trench— 

And dawn coming, dirty-white, and chill with a
hopeless rain? 
Do you ever stop and ask, ‘Is it all going to happen
again?’ 

Do you remember that hour of din before the attack— 
And the anger, the blind compassion that seized and
shook you then 
As you peered at the doomed and haggard faces of your
men? 
Do you remember the stretcher-cases lurching back 
With dying eyes and lolling heads—those ashen-grey 
Masks of the lads who once were keen and kind and gay?


Have you forgotten yet?... 
Look up, and swear by the green of the spring that
you’ll never forget. 

March 1919.