Tom Lehrer

Post by **Ylva Kresh** » Fri Dec 19, 2003 6:43 pm

Some of his lyrics are very funny... Since X-mas is coming up, I thought I should start out with his Christmasmedley (look out for the last line in the song):

Spoken:One very familiar type of song is the Christmas carol, although it is perhaps a bit out of season at this time. However, I am informed by my disk jockey friends, of whom I have none, that in order to get a song popular by Christmas time you have to start plugging it well in advance, so here it goes. It's always seemed to me, after all, that Christmas, with its spirit of giving, offers us all a wonderful opportunity each year to reflect on what we all most sincerely and deeply believe in - I refer, of course, to money. And yet, none of the Christmas carols that you hear on the radio, or in the street, even attempts to capture the true spirit of Christmas as we celebrate it in the United States, that is to say the commercial spirit. So I should like to offer the following Christmas carol for next year as being perhaps a bit more appropriate.

Christmas time is here, by golly,
Disapproval would be folly.
Deck the halls with hunks of holly,
Fill the cup and don't say when.

Kill the turkeys, ducks and chickens,
Mix the punch, drag out the Dickens.
Even though the prospect sickens,
Brother, here we go again.

On Christmas Day you can't get sore,
Your fellow man you must adore.
There's time to rob him all the more
The other three hundred and sixty-four.

Relations, sparing no expense, 'll
Send some useless old utensil,
Or a matching pen and pencil.
("Just the thing I need, how nice!")

It doesn't matter how sincere it is,
Nor how heart felt the spirit,
Sentiment will not endear it,
What's important is the price.

Hark, the Herald Tribune sings,
Advertising wondrous things.
God rest ye merry merchants,
May ye make the Yuletide pay.
Angels we have heard on high,
Tell us to go out and buy!

So, let the raucous sleighbells jingle,
Hail our dear old friend Kris Kringle,
Driving his reindeer across the sky.
Don't stand underneath when they fly by.

Spoken: Actually, I did rather well myself this past Christmas. The nicest present I received was a gift certificate good at any hospital for a lobotomy... rather thoughtful.

Post by **[Syl]** » Sat Dec 20, 2003 2:23 am

I still have most of his Element song (periodic table set to Major Model General) memorized.

Post by **danlo** » Sat Dec 20, 2003 4:32 am

Let's Go Poisoning Pigeons in the Park

Post by **TRC** » Sat Dec 20, 2003 9:41 am

I get hooked on TL as Easy as TC
My Faves :

Poisoning Pigeons in the Park
Bright College Days
Elements
Oedipus Rex
In Old Mexico
It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier
Masochism Tango
We Will All Go Together When We Go

Post by **Dragonlily** » Sat Dec 20, 2003 10:51 am

The Vatican Rag

Post by **TRC** » Sun Dec 21, 2003 9:13 am

isn't that what Catholic women use as a choice of feminine hygiene products ?

Post by **Dragonlily** » Sun Dec 21, 2003 9:36 am

That Was the Year That Was

Post by **Ylva Kresh** » Tue Dec 23, 2003 7:47 pm

It is nice to know that there are some other Lehrer-fans out there... Does anyone know if he is still alive? I heard an interview with him a couple of years ago, but that was the last I heard.

(btw my all time favourite is The Irish Ballad... "This happens to be a very nice song for group participation, so if anyone of you feel like joining in with me: would you please LEAVE now, please...", but also the folk song army in general "People who thing that singing 50 verses of "On top of old smokey" is twize as enjoyable as singing 25...")

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 9:15 pm

He's still alive and fiesty, Ylva. When asked why he won't write about George Bush, he said he didn't want to satirize him, he wanted to vaporize him.

(Tom, of course, being a lifelong liberal.)

Post by **Dromond** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 9:16 pm

Um... that was me.

Post by **Ylva Kresh** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 10:50 pm

You have acctually met him??? Ohhhh lucky you!!!! If you meet him again tell him that he has quite a few followers in a small town named Uppsala in Sweden...

Post by **Dromond** » Thu Dec 25, 2003 11:14 pm

Huh!?! Met him ??!! I didn't mean to convey that! I read an article about him a few months ago, that's all.

I forget where but I stumbled across it online.

Post by **Ylva Kresh** » Fri Dec 26, 2003 7:35 pm

Sorry... I made some kind of "over-interpretation" there. It would be fun to meet him though...

Post by **Savor Dam** » Wed Nov 02, 2016 8:47 pm

...or to have studied math at University of California - Santa Cruz during the three decades he was a professor there. He retired 15 years ago...or two years before the last post in this thread.

What? Do Watchers have so little love for Lehrer?

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