Lyr Req: Mad Professor Bly (Andy Breckman)

Subject: Lyr Req: Mad Professor Bly by Andy Breckman
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 08:18 PM

This was a song about Mad Professor Bly who threw a sheep dog from the sky; and now we know that sheep dogs can not fly. I heard this last, 28 years ago at a Nassau Community College Folk Festival sung by Andy Breckman himself. SOL ZELLER

Subject: ADD: Mad Professor Bly (Andy Breckman)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 17 Aug 04 - 12:30 AM

Hi, Sol -

Mad Professor Bly
(Andy Breckman)

Mad, Mad, Mad Professor Bly
Whenever he'd go walking by
Grown up men would start to cry
Ladies would avert their eye
We're talking 'bout an ugly guy
Mad Professor Bly

One afternoon in late July
Said Mad, Mad, Mad Professor Bly
"How do we know that dogs don't fly?
You can't be sure until you try."
There never was a meaner guy
Than Mad Professor Bly

He said, "We're gonna need some proof."
He dragged his sheepdog to the roof
He threw the sheepdog to the sky
Mad, Mad, Mad Professor Bly
"Well, now we know that dogs don't fly,
You're never sure until you try."
Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad,
Mad Professor Bly


from the CD booklet for Proud Dad by Andy Breckman. This cut recorded in December, 1989.


Hey, I have a kid who named his CD Street Dad. He says he named it after me. I wonder if Breckman named his CD after his dad.

-Joe Offer-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1QGXkAunFE

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mad Professor Bly by Andy Breckman
From: Cool Beans
Date: 17 Aug 04 - 12:22 PM

Andy Breckman is also the creator of the TV series "Monk." But we all knew that, right?

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mad Professor Bly by Andy Breckman
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 12:20 AM

Hi Joe, Andy Breckman also wrote a song "Where O Where Is Rabbi Finkleman". If you have the words to that one, I would also appreciate them. Is it by any chance on the same CD as "Mad Professor Bly" ?   SOL ZELLER

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mad Professor Bly (Andy Breckman)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Jun 20 - 04:14 AM

I was talking with somebody today about Andy Breckman, so I went to this thread. I see that we have an unanswered request from Sol Zeller for "Where O Where Is Rabbi Finkleman" - anybody have lyrics for that one?
The song is on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6CXfAiG8CM.
Anybody got time to transcribe it?

-Joe-

Subject: Lyr Add: Where is Rabbi Finkleman
From: cnd
Date: 19 Jun 20 - 10:28 AM

Transcribed by ear from the link Joe provided. There's still one word towards the end which I couldn't get but it'll get you most of the way there. I assume it's a Jewish/Yiddish word, but I'm not sure.

It should be noted that this song is probably about Rabbi Mordechai Finkelman, a long-time Jewish educator.

WHERE IS RABBI FINKLEMAN
(Andy Breckman

You got a young girl in Kentucky with a pimple at the prom
She's in the corner, she's wishing she was dead
You got an old man in Miami with a television on
He got no reason to get out of bed

You got a lady in Connecticut whose second husband drowned
The tide come in and took him right away
You got misery and heartache every time you turn around
And everywhere you hear the people say

CHORUS
Where Is Rabbi Finkleman, oh brother, where Is Rabbi Finkleman?
Oh! Where Is Rabbi Finkleman?
He promised us he'd be here if we ever needed him
Where is Rabbi Finkleman?

My brother's cutting gym class 'cause he cannot climb the rope
He just can't get his feet up off the ground
My sister's in her bedroom with a half a pound of dope
I get the car and start to drive around

Why, you can read it a paper, you can see it on the street
There is something wholly missing from our lives
Every person on a subway, every stranger that you meet
You can see the hunger burning in their eyes

CHORUS (They say...)

Oh where is he?
Oh woe, is me
We'll keep the door unlocked in case he happens to drop in
Where is Rabbi Finkleman?

This afternoon I went upstairs to get my ball and bat
When I opened up the closet door
There was a little man in pigtails and a teeny tiny hat
Saying ?cottish? on a closet floor

He said "For God's sake man, I beg you, do not tell them where I am!"
He said "They're crazy, there's no guessing what they'll do!"
He said "I was only kidding when I claimed to have a plan"
He said "I'm really just as lost as all of you"

CHORUS (We go...)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Mad Professor Bly (Andy Breckman)
From: GUEST,rleff
Date: 03 May 23 - 04:50 PM

"Kaddish" rather than ?cottish?