An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer
An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer | ||||
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Tom Lehrer chronology | ||||
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Allmusic | [1] |
An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer is an
In October 2020, Lehrer transferred the music and lyrics for all songs he had ever written into the public domain.[2][3] In November 2022, he formally relinquished the copyright and performing/recording rights on his songs, making all music and lyrics composed by him free for anyone to use.[4]
Track listing
- "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park"[5] – 2:38
- "Bright College Days" – 3:03
- "A Christmas Carol" – 2:54
- "The Elements" – 2:16
- "Oedipus Rex" – 3:41
- "In Old Mexico" – 6:26
- "Clementine" – 4:40
- "It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier" – 4:50
- "She's My Girl" – 2:53
- "The Masochism Tango" – 3:30
- "We Will All Go Together When We Go" – 5:32
Songs' sources
"Poisoning Pigeons in the Park"
The lyrics refer to killing pigeons with cyanide-coated peanuts and strychnine-treated corn. The latter method was used by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to control pigeon populations in Boston public areas during the 1950s.[6] The pianist hired for an orchestral version of the song, arranged and conducted by Richard Hayman with vocals by Lehrer, fell off his bench when he heard the title.[7]
"Bright College Days"
This song borrows heavily from "The Whiffenpoof Song", the traditional signature song of the Yale Whiffenpoofs.[8]
"The Elements"
The lyrics of "
"Oedipus Rex"
Lehrer comments that most popular movies of the time have a catchy title song that helps to draw in audiences. Believing that a recent (1957) film adaptation of Sophocles' play Oedipus Rex had failed at the box office because it did not have such a song, he wrote this one in ragtime style.[12] It was also a reference to the popularity of Freudian psychoanalysis and the Oedipus complex in popular culture in the 1940s and 1950 in the United States.[12]
"In Old Mexico"
This song is prefaced by a lengthy commentary about the (fictional) Dr. Samuel Gall, who gained fame and fortune from his "invention" of the
"Clementine"
"Clementine" is a parody of the old folk song "
"It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier"
A parody of the official songs in use by the various branches of the United States military. Lehrer explains that the Army "didn't have no official song" when he started basic training; he wrote this one in an attempt to remedy the situation. (The branch adopted "The Army Goes Rolling Along" as its song in 1956, one year after Lehrer enlisted.[13])
One of the rare parodies of Lehrer's work emerged in Jim Bouton's classic book Ball Four: "It Makes a Fellow Proud to be an Astro", conjured up by members of the 1969 Houston Astros.[14]
Notes
- ^ Lehrer, Tom (March 1959). An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer. Cambridge, MA: Allmusic.com.
- from the original on October 22, 2020. Retrieved October 22, 2020.
- ^ Ho, Justin (21 October 2020). "Satirist Tom Lehrer has put his songs into the public domain". Marketplace. Archived from the original on October 24, 2020. Retrieved 25 October 2020.
- ^ "Tom Lehrer Songs". Tom Lehrer. 2022-11-01. Retrieved 2022-12-16.
- ^ cf. "Frühlingslied" (Geh'mer Tauben vergiften im Park, “Let's go poisoning pigeons in the park”) on the 10" album Vienna Midnight Cabaret by Georg Kreisler (1957)
- ^ Faulkner, Clarence (1999-05-01). "As It Was in Region 5,1949-1964". The Probe. 200: 7 – via DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln, "City-wide pigeon control in Boston, MA using strychnine-treated whole corn".
- ^ "A Conversation with Tom Lehrer: the full text". Paul-Lehrman.com. 1997. Archived from the original on March 7, 2021.
- ^ Siegel, Paul. Outsiders Looking in: A Communication Perspective on the Hill/Thomas Hearings. United States: Hampton Press, 1996. pg 267
- ^ Lehrer, Tom. "The Elements". privatehand.com. (Flash animation)
- YouTube, broadcast November 12, 2010
- YouTube, clip from a live performance in 1967
- ^ a b Olivares-Merino, Eugenio M.. Peeping Through the Holes: Twenty-First Century Essays on Psycho. United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publisher, 2014.
- ^ Army Regulation 220-90, Army Bands, 14 December 2007, para 2-5f, g
- ^ Bowman, John., Zoss, Joel., Bowman, John Stewart. Diamonds in the Rough: The Untold History of Baseball. United States: University of Nebraska Press, 2004.