Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: Peter T.
Date: 15 Jun 00 - 05:20 PM

Any other famous musicians and their pets? Mozart and the starling, Schubert and his peacocks, and Beethoven's wildebeest come to mind. The last one I just made up, and the last but one true but pornographic (his secret code for homosexual encounters), and the Mozart is a fable -- are there any other real ones that come to mind?

yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 15 Jun 00 - 09:02 PM

Morticia's reference to Jake Thackaray got me thinking. My recollection is that Lehrer's first TV appearances in the UK were on the (David) Frost Report, maybe as far back as the late 60s? He alternated with some other singer, and I'm wondering if this might have been Thackaray. (If not,it was Alex Glasgow or Julie Felix. My memory has muddled two or three shows together I fear.)

Thackaray certainly turned out some brilliant songs,though I would be a bit surprised if his style ever caught on across the Atlantic - could any stateside 'catters throw light on that? And can anyone tell me which of his songs has the line "And I felt a right silly pillock with me one of each twice." ?

But Sorry, Jake - Lehrer was in a class of his own: hilarious songs, and effortless mastery of the keyboard. Did he tour? Have any Mudcatters seen him live?

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: AndyG
Date: 16 Jun 00 - 04:40 AM

Fionn,

Tom Lehrer - The Frost Report etc. Julie Felix. - The Frost Report etc.
Jake Thackray - Braden's Week etc.

Alex Glasgow - other than "The Northern Drift" on the radio I can't remember. It might have been Braden's Week/The Braden Beat.

Isabella lives here.

AndyG

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: Wolfgang
Date: 16 Jun 00 - 04:58 AM

Thanks for the link, Andy, that is the first translation of Brassens in English I have seen.

here's the French original.

Wolfgang

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: Stewie
Date: 17 Jun 00 - 05:23 AM

Track listing for the box set mentioned way above can be found here:

Lehrer

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Aug 03 - 04:39 PM

I heard an ad on my local public radio station this weekend for the program Comedy College.

The subject this week: Tom Lehrer.

SRS

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: GUEST,Q
Date: 16 Aug 03 - 05:18 PM

I found "Marinette" easier to find here:
French Songs
Enter Interpretes, select Brassens, and scroll down to Marinette. There are 216 Brassens songs on the list, all available.
Internet Explorer only- some problems trying to use Netscape at this voluminous site.

I think Wolfgang is still around- any update possible on a site for Alma?

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: alanabit
Date: 16 Aug 03 - 05:43 PM

A belated response, but the song Liz quoted from all those posts (and three years) back was not "Fight Harvard Fight" but "Bright College Days". They are both great songs.
   I recall my introduction to Tom Lehrer came at a Downes and Beer gig. Paul sang "The Masochism Tango," with its wonderful opening couplet, "I ache for the touch of your lips dear/But much more for the touch of your whips dear." I went to the record shop to discover more.
   "I hold your hand in mine," is in such monumentally bad taste but it is screamingly funny. It takes someone a bit special to bring that off.
   I was thinking about the satirist whom Fionn was trying to recall from the David Frost Show. I believe that Julie Felix did appear. However, if he is recalling a humorist who improvised calypsos, he may be recalling Lance Percival on That Was The Week That Was.
   Tom Lehrer was prodigiously clever and funny though. I think only Shel Silverstein, who was essentially rather gentler, produced as many lastingly funny songs.

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: Leo Condie
Date: 16 Aug 03 - 05:59 PM

he didn't write enough of them, but i thought a few phil ochs songs were on a par with lehrer at times.

I cried when they shot Medgar Evers
Tears ran down my spine
I cried when they shot Mr. Kennedy
As though I'd lost a father of mine
But Malcolm X got what was coming
He got what he asked for this time
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I go to civil rights rallies
And I put down the old D.A.R.
I love Harry and Sidney and Sammy
I hope every colored boy becomes a star
But don't talk about revolution
That's going a little bit too far
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I cheered when Humphrey was chosen
My faith in the system restored
I'm glad the commies were thrown out
Of the A.F.L. C.I.O. board
I love Puerto Ricans and Negros
As long as they don't move next door
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

The people of old Mississippi
Should all hang their heads in shame
I can't understand how their minds work
What's the matter don't they watch Les Crane?
But if you ask me to bus my children
I hope the cops take down your name
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I read New Republic and Nation
I've learned to take every view
You know, I've memorized Lerner and Golden
I feel like I'm almost a Jew
But when it comes to times like korea
There's no one more red, white and blue
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

I vote for the democtratic party
They want the U.N. to be strong
I go to all the Pete Seeger concerts
He sure gets me singing those songs
I'll send all the money you ask for
But don't ask me to come on along
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Once I was young and impulsive
I wore every conceivable pin
Even went to the socialist meetings
Learned all the old union hymns
But I've grown older and wiser
And that's why I'm turning you in
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: Joe_F
Date: 16 Aug 03 - 06:21 PM

My mother gave me Tom Lehrer's first record as a high school graduation present in 1954. [ObFolk: I had already heard one of the songs on it ("The Irish Ballad"); it was in oral circulation in my high school.] I still have it, and I still listen to it from time to time.

I agree that he has worn remarkably well. It is nice to know that he is appreciated even by people who are too young to remember what a breath of fresh air he was in the Stuffy Fifties.

Flanders & Swann of blessed memory outdid him in metrical & musical agility; but hell, they were professionals, whereas Lehrer was just having fun. In that, IMO, he deserves a world of emulators.

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 16 Aug 03 - 06:30 PM

"hates everything he ever wrote..."

It's good to know I'm not the only one who feels that way about his 'work'...

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: GUEST,hrothgleas
Date: 16 Aug 03 - 08:32 PM

Someone quoted from one of my favorite contemporary singer-songwriters, and didn't appear to know who it was: Todd Snider's first album, 'Songs from the Daily Planet' is terrific from beginning to end. 'My Generation (Part Two).' has the line 'Hang your hair down in your eyes, you';ll make a million dollars' It's hysterical.

I teach High School, and half my kids tell me they listen to alternative music. When I ask the what that means, they get as glazed-eyed as when we discuss quantum mechanics. I have REM's single 'Fall on Me' on '45 - that was alternative 20 years ago...

In Snider's song, the band tries to fit in in Seattle, then out-does the local 'alternative' bands by not recording anything. They're finally out-done by a band that isn't even together. ("Talk about alternative - that's alternative to alternative... I feel stupid - AND contagious!' I did that for the last time at a school variety show 5 years ago, when it seemed like grunge had finally died - dedicated to a student who was still a huge Nirvana fan. At the time, Cobain had checked out, Courtney Love was a movie star, and another Seattle band (Soundgarten??) had just broken up. I sang the song while sone kids still got the joke.

I also sang Lehrer's "ELement song' last year at an awards assemply (I teach AP Chemistry), and still recall the lines:

'In Cherman, oder Englisch, I know how to count down -
And I'm learning Chinese, says Wernher von Braun.'

(Once the rockets go up - who cares where they go down?
That's not my department says Werner von Braun)

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 16 Aug 03 - 09:33 PM

"'My Generation (Part Two).' has the line 'Hang your hair down in your eyes, you';ll make a million dollars' It's hysterical."

One of your favs eh?

My Generation Part 2 doesn't have such a line in it... The Talking Seattle Grunge Blues does however...
And the full chorus goes

Hey hey my my
Rock and roll will never die
Just hang your hair down in your eyes
You'll make a million dollars


The chorus for My Generation part 2 goes

Here's to hair gel
Hanging out at the health spa
Using Condom sense
And watching L.A. Law
Here's to drum machines, stone washed jeans
credit cards and fax machines
Big-bow headed chicks and frat guys
Wearing $40.00 tie-dyed T-shirts
And big bold paisley ties
Here's to living off dad as long as ya can
And blending in with the crowd
My generation should be proud

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: Joe_F
Date: 17 Aug 03 - 06:43 PM

ClintonHammond:

You are surely not alone. The following testimonials are quoted on the jacket of _An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer_:

"More desperate than amusing" -- _New York Herald Tribune_
"He seldom has any point to make except obvious ones" -- _Christian Science Monitor_
"Mr. Lehrer's muse [is] not fettered by such inhibiting factors as taste" -- _New York Times_
"Vulgarity" -- _Pittsburgh Sun-Telegraph_
"Obvious, jejune, and remarkably unsophisticated" -- _London Evening Standard_
"Plays the piano acceptably" -- _Oakland Tribune_

Alas, Mr Lehrer has already outlasted the _Tribune_ by some decades.

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From:
Date: 29 Mar 04 - 09:58 PM

Yes I loved his songs. Too bad they don't write them like that any more.But Rick you are in good company now. Good bye.

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Mar 04 - 11:28 PM

Er--Tom Lehrer is still alive and well. Rick is no doubt in good company, but Mr. Lehrer lives in Santa Cruz!

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: GUEST,Ptorq
Date: 19 Mar 11 - 11:04 PM

So yeah: years after the fact, but "Golley, Alma zigit, a tour" is actually Gaudeamus Igitur ("let us rejoice"). It's commonly sung as a drinking song; the general theme is "let's enjoy life while we're young, because all too soon we'll get old and die."

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: GUEST,ollaimh
Date: 20 Mar 11 - 12:34 AM

i found two of his old records and put them on cd for easy listening. i had a girl friend who rolled on the floor in laughter to "i hold your hand in mine" very romantic untill he hit the verse

"the night you died i cut it off
i really don't knoiw why
now each time that i kiss it
i get blood stains on my tie"

i still sing the irish ballad

he was the best satyrical somg writer ever

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 20 Mar 11 - 04:51 AM

Paul Gambaccini interviewed him for his series on the making of key hit records. I heard the programme on BBC Radio 4 yesterday, probably still available on Listen Again facility. Always makes me laugh, however often I hear those classic routines.

RtS

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: Bo
Date: 20 Mar 11 - 06:09 AM

That was a great program yesterday and very interesting - but - it was about Bob Newhart.

Unless I've got the wrong program , again !

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: GUEST,Ken Brock
Date: 20 Mar 11 - 09:20 PM

Somebody please visit



and make your appreciation of Lehrer known. I'm tired of being keeper of the flame there. As Tom said in "New Math", "Now, let's not always see the same hands".

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: GUEST,Ken Brock
Date: 20 Mar 11 - 09:25 PM

Trying the blue clicky again. The forum portion needs more participants:

http://www.casualhacker.net/tom.lehrer/

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 07:35 AM

His comment that giving Henry Kissenger the Nobel Peace Prize did away with the need for satire ranks as one of the most incisive comments of all times.
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 02:04 PM

I not only can't tell my arse from my elbow, I clearly can't tell my Newhart from my Lehrer!

RtS
(it's an age thing...)

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: Bev and Jerry
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 05:36 PM

Very nice site, Ken. Keep up the good work.

Once, after we did a couple of our original songs, the MC remarked that they sounded like they could have been written by Tom Lehrer. That was thirty years ago and we never forgot it - probably the highest compliment anyone ever paid us.

Bev and Jerry

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: Leadfingers
Date: 21 Mar 11 - 07:36 PM

Having just learned Paxton's 'Forest Lawns' , I was able to ask him after a local gig if (ESPECIALLY the 'Likeness Cast in brass' etc) he had ever been influenced by Tom Lehrer he replied "Of Course!"

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: GUEST,C. Ham
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 01:06 PM

Mike Regenstreif on "The Tom lehrer Collection"

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 01:50 PM

i still sing the irish ballad

he was the best satyrical somg writer ever

Now I have a picture of Tom with cloven hooves & hairy legs!

Subject: RE: Tom Lehrer and his satire. The Best!
From: GUEST,Ken Brock
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 05:59 PM

another quote about satire:

"Satire is what closes on Saturday night". George S. Kaufman