Dragaera

filk: You don't mess with Sethra Lavode

Mark A Mandel mam at theworld.com
Wed Sep 10 14:52:26 PDT 2003

The title line came into my head, and then I just had to figure out the
rest of it. I don't remember the tune of the original verse -- chorus,
yes, but not the verse, and I may be confusing it with "Bad, Bad Leroy
Brown" or something entirely different, and so it may not scan well;
ditto for the spoken coda. The chords are in there as I got them for the
original, from a Web site whose URL I have unfortunately misplaced. The
extra lines in the final chorus (4 and 5) use approx. the same tune as
"you don't mess around with" for each half of each of those lines.

I'm sure that if we ever find out more about the episode referred to
here than the little we already know, a lot of this will prove to be
wrong in terms of plot.


You don't mess with Sethra Lavode
ttto You Don't Mess Around With Jim, by Jim Croce
Mark A. Mandel Copr. 2003

Athyra got their wands and staves, [G]
Dragonlords their swords [G]
The whole Empire got Sethra Lavode [G]
And she's older than the Orb. [G7]

She's the Enchantress of Dzur Mountain [C F C F]
She's a Dzur and a Dragon too [C F C]
Been Warlord more times than anybody can count  [D C]
And she sure ain't afraid of you. [D C]
What they say is ... [G C G]

[Chorus]
You don't spit in a Dragon's face [C7 G]
You don't challenge a Dzur for the road [C7 G]
You don't turn informer on the Organization [C7]
And you don't mess with Sethra Lavode. [D7  G C7 G C7]

Well, outa nowhere come a nine-foot Jenoine, [G]
Said, "I am looking for Sethra Lavode.
You _products_ cannot pronounce my name
But some of you call me 'Toad'. [G7]

She has something that does not belong to her [C F C F]
And she is standing in our way." [C F C]
The zombie said, "I'll announce you, sir, [D C]
But you know, sir, what they say. [D C]
Sir, they all say..." [G C G]

[Chorus]

Well, then Sethra herself walked into the room [G]
And she brought a couple of friends.
There were swords & spells & energy fields
And by the time it all came to an end [G7]

The Enchantress was dead tired [C F C F]
But the Jenoine was just plain dead [C F C]
The story was declared an Imperial Secret [D C]
But the ones that heard it said, [D C]
Yeah, they all said... [G C G]

[Chorus]

[Spoken, use G-C progression]
Yeah, Toad got a big surprise
Right between his bulgy eyes.
Even if she came from the rock of Dzur Mountain
Don't take Sethra Lavode for granite.

[Final chorus]
You don't spit in a Dragon's face
You don't challenge a Dzur for the road
You don't turn informer on the Organization
And whatever you do, whatever you do,
If you value your life & if you value your soul,
You don't mess with Sethra Lavode.


-- Mark A. Mandel, The Filker With No Nickname
     http://world.std.com/~mam/filk.html
     Now on the Filker's Bardic Webring!
   http://world.std.com/~mam/Cracks-and-Shards/
   a Steven Brust Dragaera fan website