The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #81447   Message #3785107
Posted By: keberoxu
13-Apr-16 - 12:56 PM
Thread Name: ADD: The Wompom (Flanders and Swann)
Subject: Lyr Add: INTERIM REPORT (Flanders and Swann)
"Hat-Trick," the four-compact-disc set of recordings of Flanders and Swann issued in the past ten years, includes a re-visit of The Wompom. The music is identical; this is just a revised set of lyrics. This version was not taped before an audience in concert; it is a private recording by the duo, and appears on the fourth CD called "Hats Off."
The title of this version is:

INTERIM REPORT

copyright, The Estate of Michael Flanders, who is the author

You can do such a lot with the Atom,
You can use every part of it too,
For work or for pleasure
It's a triumph, it's a treasure
Oh there's nothing that an Atom cannot do!

We have recently been to Geneva
Where we found it was perfectly true
At our meetings in Convention
Not a speaker failed to mention
There is nothing that an Atom cannot do!

Now the power you release from the Atom
Can perform any task that you like
And the joy of automation
When applied throughout the nation
Is that everyone can always be on strike.

Hail to thee blithe Atom!
Chain reactor Plant!
All providing Atom!
Universal Aunt!

We should all raise our hats to the Atom
Though it's small, it is game, through and through;
For ignoring the abuses
When it comes to peaceful uses
There is nothing that an Atom cannot do!
         Nothing that an Atom cannot do!
         Nothing that an Atom cannot do!

Now the breeding of fuel from the Atom
Is of utmost importance to man
And the interesting fact A-
-bout a nuclear reactor
Is you finish up with more than you began.

Let us take some Plutonium Atoms,
Let us freeze them and then make them hot;

FLANDERS: Now we add some heavy water --
SWANN:                   What will happen?
FLANDERS:                Something oughter --
BOTH, to resume:
          But we none of us are very certain what!

Gaudeamus Atom!
Ave Gamma Ray!
Vademecum Atom!
Atque vale me!

All the poisonous waste from the Atom
Can be loaded on barges and chips
We can dump it in the ocean,
With the minimum commotion
Though, perhaps, you'll get Atomic Fission Chips.

You can do such a lot with the Atom,
You can use every part of it too,
For work or for pleasure,
It's a triumph, it's a treasure,
Oh, there's nothing that an Atom cannot do!

To the problems of life as we live it
The Atom's the key, and it fits!
We shall learn how to mutate a
Better rabbit or potato --
If we've not already blown the world to bits!

Pro - ton! Neu - tron !
Let your voices ring!
Neut - tron! Pro - ton!
Evermore we sing!

To record what is what in the Atom
Needs a book twice as big as Who's Who;
You can shoot it into space or
You can use it as a tracer
You can shape it, you can square it,
You can drape it, you can wear it,
You can ice it, you can dice it,
You can pare it, you can slice it --
Oh there's nothing that an Atom cannot do!
          Nothing that an Atom cannot do!
          Nothing that an Atom cannot do!