Tom Lehrer understood the first rule of satire: it has to be funny. Otherwise it's just whining. Stan Freberg was another satirist who got it.
I got a chance to thank Tom Lehrer for "The Vatican Rag" when I called him (he was in the Boston phone book) to ask him if he would come to Eisenhower College as part of our Artists and Lectures program. He insisted that he was retired, but was very pleasant about turning me down.
My parents also had a copy of That Was The Year That Was, and I also listened to it enough to memorize most of it. I slightly regret not having the album now, but I can still find his songs on YouTube. I was pleasantly surprised to find that several Princeton classmates were familiar with his work - I interpreted that as confirmation of my own intelligence and cultural literacy. I was sorry that he essentially stopped performing, and stopped coming up with new material, but I can't really argue with his motivations.
I first heard Tom Lehrer in 1960, and from that point on, I own every album that was made. Also, he was great in That Was The Week That Was (TW3) on TV.
It wasn't until I was in high school listening to Dr. Demento that I learned about The Vatican Rag, which I immediately liked. One of my college buddies did grow up with most of his 6(ish) albums.
National Brotherhood Week has some lines so very relevant to the prior Hamas surrender post:
"Oh the Protestants, hate the Catholics.
And the Catholics, hate the Protestants.
And the Hindus, hate the Muslims.
And everyone hates the Jews."
Which I'm planning on not singing in karaoke,
tho I have sung and like The Masochism Tango
"Take your cigarette, from its holder.
And burn your initials in my shoulder.
Fracture my spine,
And swear that you're mine,
As we dance to the masochism Tango"
Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe a couple years ago called Lehrer the funniest man of the 20th Century, then did a fine job singing The Elements. Thanks to this post for finding today this mashup duet:
My daughter was criticized about 10 years ago by one of the administrators at the University because she and a boy were singing National Brotherhood Week. The administrator viewed it as a racist song.
It seems that the lines from the Folk Song Army apply to well to much of the left:
They may have won all the battles
but we had all the good songs
I am sure that that same administrator would have come down on my daughter's favorite poem, Kipling's IF.
My high school friends and I bonded over the songs of Tom Lehrer, once we discovered we all independently loved them. This was in the early 1970s. We would sing them endlessly on bus rides (like on field trips). I don't think there was anything snobbish about it. I suppose the other kids thought we were weird. We were just enjoying ourselves.
I learned about them from my father, who had the original "Songs by Tom Lehrer" on a 45rpm double album. I still have it. My favorite song (and his) was "Lobachevsky." But for some reason I rarely see mentions of it when people talk about Tom Lehrer.
Lobachevsky, a song about plaigarism ("Plaigarize! Let no one else's work evade your eyes") was plaigarized from Danny Kaye's Stanislavsky, something Lehrer did not hide.
I think Arnold's meaning is that Mort Saul's later work was much inferior to his earlier work, so inferior as to not really be worth listening to. Though the actual statement is more ambiguous, or perhaps charitable:
"In his later years, Sahl’s became increasingly bitter and decreasingly funny."
Excellent article. Definitely captured some of my difficulties being understood. I'm not as sure it hit my difficulties understanding others but I definitely have some problems of that type too.
For some reason when I started reading it I thought of the high school kid visiting DC, maybe a pro-life rally, who was approached by an American Indian playing a drum. Some news agencies and some of my liberal friends misread the kid's uncomfortableness as him disrespecting the drummer, probably because the kid was wearing a maga hat.
That's funny! ... I have often used the phrase "That’s not my department," as my parents did before me. However, whenever I say it in my wife’s presence, she reflexively starts singing that song. So over the years, the phrase has evolved: now I say, "That’s not my department, said Wernher von Braun.”
Moral arrogance is an unfailing sign of the intellectual midwit, for it reveals an inability to see that moral ambiguity is inherent in all serious questions and issues. Lehrer satirized the early rise in such midwittery which accompanied the decline in intellectual seriousness that came with the 1960s.
I always felt bad for him. He seemed so sad to me in the videos I watched, even though he was funny and humorous. I learned about his music as a teenager from reading lists of what profoundly gifted children were supposed to be interested in (there was nothing wrong with my self esteem) and loved National Brotherhood Week and Elements. I wasn't so thrilled by the rest of them, or maybe the jokes went over my head. I liked
National Brotherhood Week
Elements
Wernher von Braun
New Math
We will all go together when we go (ive always wanted to make a parody of this about jUdgement day)
“I think of it often, because it captures the moral arrogance of many young people today.” As an exercise in also seeing the glass half full, it might be good to think of a song that captures the excellent moral character of many young people today. They exist.
I gather that his original songs were mostly a side project, a hobby, from his academic work. That Was the Week That Was (TW3) was a BBC satirical program. NBC ran an American version from November 1963 to May 1965.
"The album That Was the Year That Was is a live album by Tom Lehrer, released in 1965. It features satirical songs based on current news events that were originally written for the NBC television series "That Was the Week That Was"." wikipedia
Of the American show wikipedia says, "Of 50 episodes, only a few survive in video form". Pity, might be worth watching. Guess I will have to settle for the following:
Tom Lehrer understood the first rule of satire: it has to be funny. Otherwise it's just whining. Stan Freberg was another satirist who got it.
I got a chance to thank Tom Lehrer for "The Vatican Rag" when I called him (he was in the Boston phone book) to ask him if he would come to Eisenhower College as part of our Artists and Lectures program. He insisted that he was retired, but was very pleasant about turning me down.
I heard he taught mathematics at MIT for a time. True?
My parents also had a copy of That Was The Year That Was, and I also listened to it enough to memorize most of it. I slightly regret not having the album now, but I can still find his songs on YouTube. I was pleasantly surprised to find that several Princeton classmates were familiar with his work - I interpreted that as confirmation of my own intelligence and cultural literacy. I was sorry that he essentially stopped performing, and stopped coming up with new material, but I can't really argue with his motivations.
RIP, Tom!
I first heard Tom Lehrer in 1960, and from that point on, I own every album that was made. Also, he was great in That Was The Week That Was (TW3) on TV.
It wasn't until I was in high school listening to Dr. Demento that I learned about The Vatican Rag, which I immediately liked. One of my college buddies did grow up with most of his 6(ish) albums.
National Brotherhood Week has some lines so very relevant to the prior Hamas surrender post:
"Oh the Protestants, hate the Catholics.
And the Catholics, hate the Protestants.
And the Hindus, hate the Muslims.
And everyone hates the Jews."
Which I'm planning on not singing in karaoke,
tho I have sung and like The Masochism Tango
"Take your cigarette, from its holder.
And burn your initials in my shoulder.
Fracture my spine,
And swear that you're mine,
As we dance to the masochism Tango"
Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe a couple years ago called Lehrer the funniest man of the 20th Century, then did a fine job singing The Elements. Thanks to this post for finding today this mashup duet:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DyZQzqmFVM&list=RDaIlJ8ZCs4jY&index=18
My daughter was criticized about 10 years ago by one of the administrators at the University because she and a boy were singing National Brotherhood Week. The administrator viewed it as a racist song.
It seems that the lines from the Folk Song Army apply to well to much of the left:
They may have won all the battles
but we had all the good songs
I am sure that that same administrator would have come down on my daughter's favorite poem, Kipling's IF.
My high school friends and I bonded over the songs of Tom Lehrer, once we discovered we all independently loved them. This was in the early 1970s. We would sing them endlessly on bus rides (like on field trips). I don't think there was anything snobbish about it. I suppose the other kids thought we were weird. We were just enjoying ourselves.
I learned about them from my father, who had the original "Songs by Tom Lehrer" on a 45rpm double album. I still have it. My favorite song (and his) was "Lobachevsky." But for some reason I rarely see mentions of it when people talk about Tom Lehrer.
Lobachevsky, a song about plaigarism ("Plaigarize! Let no one else's work evade your eyes") was plaigarized from Danny Kaye's Stanislavsky, something Lehrer did not hide.
https://www.stevesailer.net/p/im-baaaack
"The results confirmed the wisdom of Lehrer’s decision to retire sooner."
Are you judging him based on how much you liked his performances? The size of the audiences? How much he enjoyed performing?
Would it have been wise to continue if he had many fans and large crowds but hated it? How should we judge the wisdom of other people's choices?
I think Arnold's meaning is that Mort Saul's later work was much inferior to his earlier work, so inferior as to not really be worth listening to. Though the actual statement is more ambiguous, or perhaps charitable:
"In his later years, Sahl’s became increasingly bitter and decreasingly funny."
It's very possible that's what he meant to say. I dnt think that's what he said though.
Your comment made me think of an article I read recently, "The illusion of understanding: why the way we communicate matters".
https://observer.co.uk/news/science-technology/article/the-illusion-of-understanding-why-the-way-we-communicate-matters?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Excellent article. Definitely captured some of my difficulties being understood. I'm not as sure it hit my difficulties understanding others but I definitely have some problems of that type too.
For some reason when I started reading it I thought of the high school kid visiting DC, maybe a pro-life rally, who was approached by an American Indian playing a drum. Some news agencies and some of my liberal friends misread the kid's uncomfortableness as him disrespecting the drummer, probably because the kid was wearing a maga hat.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_Lincoln_Memorial_confrontation
"Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down?
That's not my department, " says Wernher von Braun.
That's funny! ... I have often used the phrase "That’s not my department," as my parents did before me. However, whenever I say it in my wife’s presence, she reflexively starts singing that song. So over the years, the phrase has evolved: now I say, "That’s not my department, said Wernher von Braun.”
Moral arrogance is an unfailing sign of the intellectual midwit, for it reveals an inability to see that moral ambiguity is inherent in all serious questions and issues. Lehrer satirized the early rise in such midwittery which accompanied the decline in intellectual seriousness that came with the 1960s.
I always felt bad for him. He seemed so sad to me in the videos I watched, even though he was funny and humorous. I learned about his music as a teenager from reading lists of what profoundly gifted children were supposed to be interested in (there was nothing wrong with my self esteem) and loved National Brotherhood Week and Elements. I wasn't so thrilled by the rest of them, or maybe the jokes went over my head. I liked
National Brotherhood Week
Elements
Wernher von Braun
New Math
We will all go together when we go (ive always wanted to make a parody of this about jUdgement day)
Pollution
One of my (many) favorite Tom Lehrer lines: "Some people don't love their fellow humans, and I hate people like that."
“I think of it often, because it captures the moral arrogance of many young people today.” As an exercise in also seeing the glass half full, it might be good to think of a song that captures the excellent moral character of many young people today. They exist.
I gather that his original songs were mostly a side project, a hobby, from his academic work. That Was the Week That Was (TW3) was a BBC satirical program. NBC ran an American version from November 1963 to May 1965.
"The album That Was the Year That Was is a live album by Tom Lehrer, released in 1965. It features satirical songs based on current news events that were originally written for the NBC television series "That Was the Week That Was"." wikipedia
Of the American show wikipedia says, "Of 50 episodes, only a few survive in video form". Pity, might be worth watching. Guess I will have to settle for the following:
Tom Lehrer – That Was the Year That Was
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fSbbsWrxqc
I loved Tom Lehrer. We had the TW3 album, and played it so often we wore it out.