Happy birthday, Tom Lehrer!

[Macoy]

Belated centenary greetings to a master.

[leonAzul]

Belated centenary greetings to a master.

Here, Here!

According to this Wikipedia article, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Lehrer) his birth year was 1928, so that this would be about twenty years shy of a centennial, yet I applaud the idea of remembering him every 9 April, at least.

"Doing well, by doing good" ;)

[Macoy]

Yes indeedy, mathematics was never my strong point, but my time machine usually makes up for it.

[Tricky]

If you're a fan of Tom Lehrer, then you really need to be a fan of his offspring, The Capitol Steps (http://www.capsteps.com/). If you love political parody and fun music, check them out.

[DaveyM]

I first heard Tom Lehrer on the radio in the sixties. I was hooked, and had to get all his recordings that I could. Today, there is much available on You Tube and other Internet sources. In the eighties I attended a touring tribute to him, Tom Foolery
A great creative talent. Happy birthday, Tom.

[leonAzul]

Yes indeedy, mathematics was never my strong point, but my time machine usually makes up for it.

No worries. Thanks for posting on it. If you hadn't, I never would have been motivated on my own to do the research.

[leonAzul]

If you're a fan of Tom Lehrer, then you really need to be a fan of his offspring, The Capitol Steps (http://www.capsteps.com/). If you love political parody and fun music, check them out.

Thanks for the tip. Dive thousand follars, indeed ;)

[TobiasTheCommie]

Uhh, sure gonna check his offspring out...

Love Tom Lehrer

[Foolmewunz]

Lehrer covers so much ground that he amazes me. The TW3 type songs were great, but some of his better stuff was even over the heads of the regular, fairly intelligent audience.

Just some choice recollections....

From "New Math".... at the end he says something in the last stanza about how good they did, and then.... "Tomorrow, Base 8. It's just like Base 10, only you're missing two fingers." Brilliant.

In the original version of his paeon to Hubert Humphrey, he had the line,
"We must protest this treatment, Hubert
Says every newspaper reader
As someone once remarked to Schubert
Take us to Your Lieder.... (sorry about that, folks)

I saw him do the song live and he left out the "sorry about that, folks" that's on the That Was The Year That Was album. He explained, "I used to apologize for that line, but I then realized that no one got it, so they thought I was an idiot."

His political commentary was great, but his all 'round cleverness and wit was what I liked most. Some of his couplets were brilliant.
Smut...
I've never quibbled
If it was ribald
I would devour
Where others merely nibbled
As the judge remarked the day
That he acquitted my aunt Hortense
To be smut it must be ut
terly without....
Reeee-deeming social importance.


Man, they don't write 'em like that any more! Quibbled... ribald... nibbled!

[Fiona]

I also love Tom Lehrer, Did not know he had offspring continuing his work. So thanks for that !

[Mojo]

Yes indeedy, mathematics was never my strong point


Try this (http://members.aol.com/quentncree/lehrer/newmath.htm)

[Acleron]

A belated Happy Birthday :)

From "New Math".... at the end he says something in the last stanza about how good they did, and then.... "Tomorrow, Base 8. It's just like Base 10, only you're missing two fingers." Brilliant.



Agreed.

I liked the comment before New Math, 'Its more important to understand what you are doing rather than get the right answer!'

[Mojo]

And so you've got thirteen tens
And you take away seven,
And that leaves five...

Well, six actually...
But the idea is the important thing! :)

[boojum]

How does one properly honor Tom Lehrer? Poison a pigeon? Plagiarize some mathematics? Chant chemical names? Visit Agnes and contract a social disease?

:)

[TobiasTheCommie]

Social disease... i always thought it was about a pearl necklace *cough*

[SDC]

How does one properly honor Tom Lehrer? Poison a pigeon? Plagiarize some mathematics? Chant chemical names? Visit Agnes and contract a social disease?

:)

Dance cheek to cheek with Lena Horne and Sheriff Clark...

Hold your dear's hand... and raise it to your lips... Take a healthy bite from her dainty fingertips...

[Foolmewunz]

Okay, bringing out the big guns.... Sacreligious, great rhyme, obscure references all rolled into one....

The Vatican Rag (Amazingly, all I had to Google was the spelling of kerie eleison.... I remember this from forty years ago!)

First you get down on your knees,
Fiddle with your rosaries,
Bow your head with great respect,
And genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!

Do whatever steps you want, if
You have cleared them with the Pontiff.
Everybody say his own
Kyrie eleison,
Doin' the Vatican Rag.

*Get in line in that processional,
Step into that small confessional,
There, the guy who's got religion'll
Tell you if your sin's original.
If it is, try playin' it safer,
Drink the wine and chew the wafer,
Two, four, six, eight,
Time to transubstantiate!

So get down upon your knees,
Fiddle with your rosaries,
Bow your head with great respect,
And genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!

Make a cross on your abdomen,
When in Rome do like a Roman,
Ave Maria,
Gee it's good to see ya,
Gettin' ecstatic an'
Sorta dramatic an'
Doin' the Vatican Rag!

*I so admire the rhymes in the first four lines in that refrain. (And the "safer" to "wafer" connection is also quite good.)

[CFLarsen]

"If you really want to sell the product...."

[fuelair]

http://www.amazon.com/Remains-Tom-Lehrer/dp/B00004SWBH/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1208352865&sr=1-3

for those who pop in and don't know and those who are mising some of the available material.

[Thinking in CT]

Wow! A visit to the USA by Joe "Benedict" Ratzinger and Tom Lehrer's birthday on the same day!

I understand that George II is serenading JR with a rendition of "The Lord's Prayer" sung by Kathleen Battle; but why not "The Vatican Rag" by Lehrer? Oh well.

One thing though, Leher wrote another song with a Pontifical referennce. I can't remmemebr much about it other than the lyric: "Giovanni Battista Montini*, who lives in the Vaticanini..."

Google was no help. Can other forum members, who are better Lehrer scholars than I, elucidate us as to this obscure Lehrer opus?

Thanks.

(*Pope Paul VI)

[Foolmewunz]

Sorry - no recollection of the song, Thinking in CT.

I did just recall one of his better convoluted rhymes, from So Long Mom, thogh.

... and while you swelter
down there in your shelter,
you can see me
on your tee vee.
While we're attacking frontally,
watch brink-a-lee and hunt-a-lee
describing contrapuntally
the cities we have lost.
No need for you to miss a minute
of the ag-o-ni-zing hol-a-caust!

[I Ratant]

"First you get down on your knees,
Fiddle with your rosaries,
Bow your head with great respect,
And genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!"
.
I recall being moderately appalled at hearing this way back when.
Then the genius it encompassed burst thru the indoctrination, and got me thinking about "stuff"... and its accompanying nonsense.

[dudalb]

I still think that "My Home Town" is his masterpiece.
But a personal favorite of mine is "In Old Mexico". A pretty accurate description of my trip to Mexico.
"We Ate,We Drank,and We Were Merry,
And we Got Typhoid and Dystentary".
The Mexican term for diarhhea is not La Turista for nothing.....

[Macoy]

If you're a fan of Tom Lehrer, then you really need to be a fan of his offspring, The Capitol Steps (http://www.capsteps.com/). If you love political parody and fun music, check them out.

Excellent stuff, Tricky, thanks very much!

[dudalb]

BTW the original recordings by Tom Himself are VASTLY superior to the cast album of "TomFoolery". Good show, but not nearly as good as Tom himself.
My Favorite Tom Comment: "Then he went to College and majored in Animal Husbandry...Until they caught him at it".

[fuelair]

http://members.aol.com/quentncree/lehrer/
is all the lyrics and commentary transcribed.:)

http://sniff.numachi.com/~rickheit/dtrad/pages/tiGIOVPOPE.html
and this is the Giovanni Montini the Pope. Site lists it as (obvious joke) copyright Mike Hunt.

There may be more.

[fuelair]

dup by wierdness of computer


But, cannot find more on Montini. my memory is of Lehrers voice singing it - and I must have a recording somewhere because I heard it many times and that's not something that would get general airplay

[Thinking in CT]

I also have a distinct memory of Lehrer singing the "Pope" song (as attributed to a Mr. "Hunt" on the web-site you provided) in his inimitable style and accompanying himself on the piano.

You know, in the era of Lehrer's hay-day censorship was all too common on TV, the radio, and even in a lot of print media. Perhaps that is why one can't find any reference to this song in any of the many "Tom Lehrer Lyrics" collections available on the web. He may never have published it or even released a recording of it under his own name, because none of the publishers or record companies would touch it.

My late dad had in his (alas now lost) record collection a late 50's era LP of Lenny Bruce routines. The record, pressed in clear red vinyl, didn't have Bruce's name or likeness on either the label or record cover. The cover featured a photo of a bunch of comical "beatniks" sitting around a "pad" drinking wine and playing bongos. The liner notes were just gibberish.

Perhaps somewhere a similar record by Lehrer exists. One wonders what might be on the B side!

[fuelair]

I may have to go through a part of my vinyl collection and see if the TW3 volume has it - the version on DVD doesn't

[fuelair]

More tries on net and got it!!! Not Lehrer, Patrick Sky sang it on "Songs That Made America Famous"!!!


http://www.wirz.de/music/skyfrm.htm

[Wildy]

How does one properly honor Tom Lehrer? Poison a pigeon? Plagiarize some mathematics? Chant chemical names? Visit Agnes and contract a social disease?

:)

Umm?

Get annoyed at that NCIS episode where "The Elements Song" appears on a victims computer and they just say it was written by "a mathematician"?

[Thinking in CT]

Refusing to let this alone without a definative resolution I inquired into the authorship of "The Pope" to the Bible of American folkmusic, "Sing Out" magazine. My inquiry and their reply:

To: the Editors of “Sing Out”

Last week, upon the occasion of Tom Lehrer’s 80th (!) birthday several people on one of my favorite internet forums, offered various comments on the great songs and career of that 60’s icon and sage. I noted that his (TL’s) birthday fell on the same day as Joe “Benedict” Ratzinger’s visit to our favored land and that it brought to my mind Lehrer’s big hit “Vatican Rag”. I seem to remember that Lehrer wrote another song with a Papal reference and that it had the lyric…”Giovanni Battista Montini, who lives in the Vaticanini..” (etc) . One of my fellow forum posters wrote that he too had a distinct memory of hearing Lehrer sing that song and accompany himself on the piano. An extensive Google search found no Tom Lehrer connection. However, a set of lyrics to a song called “The Pope” by “Mike Hunt” (indeed!) turned up on Google and (I am getting to my point, honest) many, many references to Pat Sky’s 1973 record “Songs that Made America Famous”. That record did indeed feature a recording of the hilarious and irreverent “Pope” song. My query is this: did Tom Lehrer write “The Pope”, did Pat Sky write “The Pope”, or is there really a Mike Hunt?

If “Sing Out” don’t know then there aint nobody that don’t know!

Thank you for your kind attention.

(P. S. if you don’t know her already: please treat yourselves to a treat: A real 60’s baby from New England who has been doin’ her thing in Texas for 30 years: www.mandymercier.com; www.myspace.com/mandymercier)



From: Mark D. Moss, “Sing Out” magazine

While I can't *promise* you that "The Pope" was written by someone named Mike Hunt (given its only recording. It's plausible that Pat Sky was kidding around a la "Ben Dover" or "Hugh Jorgan"), but it is my sense that Mike *might* have been an actual writer Pat knew. I wouldn't bet anything valuable either way (and *asking* would only delight Pat! <g>). He has a cagey sense of humor. (Note, too, that the rest of the recording is credited to Pat, other than Dave van Ronk's "Luang Probang.")

I can authoritatively confirm that this song has nothing to do with Tom Lehrer, and no relation to Tom's "Vatican Rag."

*******

How interesting that two forum members, who think of themselves as fairly sophisticated in these matters, would independantly have incorrect memories of who sang a funny topical song from the 60's. Just goes to show how time and memory are funny things!

(By the way I urge all forum members to check out the web sites of the singer I pitched to "Sing Out". Mandy is the loveliest and coolest child of the '60 performing today!)

[malbui]

My dad had the good fortune to see Tom Lehrer in concert when he visited the UK fifty odd years ago and my siblings and I were brought up listening to his songs - many long car trips on holiday were enlivened (although perhaps my mother didn't think so) by lusty interpretations of his repertoire. The effect was so well rooted (did you see what I did there?) that as a young man finding himself at a céilidh in Connemara and obliged to contribute a number (that the people could hum), I ended up giving them a rendition of his Irish Ballad. I'd like to say that it brought the house down, but my piano playing is so rudimentary that the applause was more sympathetic than anything.

[fuelair]

Umm?

Get annoyed at that NCIS episode where "The Elements Song" appears on a victims computer and they just say it was written by "a mathematician"?I am going to make an assumption based on my wife's situation. She has twice made requests to use Mr. Lehrer's music and he allowed both. Based on the specifics of that allowance, I strongly suspect that they did it that way at his request.

[fuelair]

Refusing to let this alone without a definative resolution I inquired into the authorship of "The Pope" to the Bible of American folkmusic, "Sing Out" magazine. My inquiry and their reply:

To: the Editors of “Sing Out”

Last week, upon the occasion of Tom Lehrer’s 80th (!) birthday several people on one of my favorite internet forums, offered various comments on the great songs and career of that 60’s icon and sage. I noted that his (TL’s) birthday fell on the same day as Joe “Benedict” Ratzinger’s visit to our favored land and that it brought to my mind Lehrer’s big hit “Vatican Rag”. I seem to remember that Lehrer wrote another song with a Papal reference and that it had the lyric…”Giovanni Battista Montini, who lives in the Vaticanini..” (etc) . One of my fellow forum posters wrote that he too had a distinct memory of hearing Lehrer sing that song and accompany himself on the piano. An extensive Google search found no Tom Lehrer connection. However, a set of lyrics to a song called “The Pope” by “Mike Hunt” (indeed!) turned up on Google and (I am getting to my point, honest) many, many references to Pat Sky’s 1973 record “Songs that Made America Famous”. That record did indeed feature a recording of the hilarious and irreverent “Pope” song. My query is this: did Tom Lehrer write “The Pope”, did Pat Sky write “The Pope”, or is there really a Mike Hunt?

If “Sing Out” don’t know then there aint nobody that don’t know!

Thank you for your kind attention.

(P. S. if you don’t know her already: please treat yourselves to a treat: A real 60’s baby from New England who has been doin’ her thing in Texas for 30 years: www.mandymercier.com; www.myspace.com/mandymercier)



From: Mark D. Moss, “Sing Out” magazine

While I can't *promise* you that "The Pope" was written by someone named Mike Hunt (given its only recording. It's plausible that Pat Sky was kidding around a la "Ben Dover" or "Hugh Jorgan"), but it is my sense that Mike *might* have been an actual writer Pat knew. I wouldn't bet anything valuable either way (and *asking* would only delight Pat! <g>). He has a cagey sense of humor. (Note, too, that the rest of the recording is credited to Pat, other than Dave van Ronk's "Luang Probang.")

I can authoritatively confirm that this song has nothing to do with Tom Lehrer, and no relation to Tom's "Vatican Rag."

*******

How interesting that two forum members, who think of themselves as fairly sophisticated in these matters, would independantly have incorrect memories of who sang a funny topical song from the 60's. Just goes to show how time and memory are funny things!

(By the way I urge all forum members to check out the web sites of the singer I pitched to "Sing Out". Mandy is the loveliest and coolest child of the '60 performing today!)
Well researched!!:) I did not have/think to use a source like that.:( Will check Mandy out - since you obviously have goosd taste in music!!!:)

[Peter S.]

I can attest that "The Pope" was written by Patrick Sky and can be found on his album "Songs That Made America Famous". I was working at my college radio station when it came out and I remember being amused that it had been sent to the radio station because most of the album was unairable. The lyrics attributed to Mr. "Hunt" are not accurate, but close. I learned the song and performed it often, along with the song "Fight For Liberation" which had the lyric: "First we'll get a bloody rope and we'll hang the ******* pope, And we'll burn the Sistine Chapel to the ground....". The album also contains "The Child Molesting Blues" and the shockingly politically incorrect "Bake That Chicken Pie".

[a_unique_person]

A brilliant entertainer. I heard some of his songs years ago, and they instantly grabbed my attention.

[leonAzul]

Sorry - no recollection of the song, Thinking in CT.

I did just recall one of his better convoluted rhymes, from So Long Mom, thogh.

... and while you swelter
down there in your shelter,
you can see me
on your tee vee.
While we're attacking frontally,
watch brink-a-lee and hunt-a-lee
describing contrapuntally
the cities we have lost.
No need for you to miss a minute
of the ag-o-ni-zing hol-a-caust!

We Will All Go Together When We Go!

ETA:

I still think the best way to celebrate is to Be Prepared

Dedicated to those bast-
ions of Democracy

[Ove]

Well some of the great bard's writings have become even more true today. Remember this:
If you visit American city,
You will find it very pretty.
Just two things of which you must beware:
Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!

Pollution, pollution!
They got smog and sewage and mud.
Turn on your tap
And get hot and cold running crud!

See the halibuts and the sturgeons
Being wiped out by detergeons.
Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly,
But they don't last long if they try.

Pollution, pollution!
You can use the latest toothpaste,
And then rinse your mouth
With industrial waste.

Just go out for a breath of air
And you'll be ready for Medicare.
The city streets are really quite a thrill -
If the hoods don't get you, the monoxide will.

Pollution, pollution!
Wear a gas mask and a veil.
Then you can breathe,
Long as you don't inhale!

Lots of things there that you can drink,
But stay away from the kitchen sink!
The breakfast garbage that you throw into the Bay
They drink at lunch in San Jose.

So go to the city,
See the crazy people there.
Like lambs to the slaughter,
They're drinking the water
And breathing [cough] the air!


Brilliant stuff.

-and by all means let poison some pigeons. They still go for peanuts, when coated in cyanide. :)

[fuelair]

Mr. L. even allowed my wife to adapt the lyrics specifically to Nashville, TN. conditions when she worked with the U.O. there .

[Myriad]

Don't forget, it was Tom Lehrer who turned Pop into the Pope in the first place.

It's el-e-men-ta-ry for Silent e!

Respectfully,
Myriad