An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer

{{safesubst:#invoke:Unsubst-infobox||$params=italic_title,name,type,longtype,artist,cover,border,alt,caption,released,recorded,venue,studio,genre,length,language,label,director,producer,compiler,chronology,prev_title,prev_year,year,next_title,next_year,misc|$extra=italic_title,longtype,border,caption,language,director,compiler,chronology,year,misc|$aliases=italic title>italic_title,Italic title>italic_title,Name>name,Type>type,image>cover,Cover>cover,Border>border,Alt>alt,Caption>caption,Longtype>longtype,Artist>artist,Released>released,Recorded>recorded,Venue>venue,Studio>studio,Genre>genre,Length>length,Language>language,Label>label,Director>director,Producer>producer,Compiler>compiler,Chronology>chronology,Misc>misc|$flags=override|$B={{#ifeq:{{#invoke:Is infobox in lead|main|[Ii]nfobox [Aa]lbum}}|true|{{#if:Template:Has short description | |Template:Short description|noreplace}}}}{{#invoke:Infobox|infobox}}Template:Template otherTemplate:Category handlerTemplate:Main other{{#invoke:Check for unknown parameters|check|unknown=Template:Main other|preview=Page using Template:Infobox album with unknown parameter "_VALUE_"|ignoreblank=y|italic_title |type |name |image |cover |border |alt |caption |longtype |artist |released |recorded |venue |studio |genre |length |language |label |director |producer |compiler |prev_title|prev_year|next_title|next_year|chronology|year|misc}}{{#if:{{#invoke:String|match|error_category=Music infoboxes with Module:String errors|A|1=Songs by Tom Lehrer1953More of Tom Lehrer1959liveAn Evening Wasted with Tom LehrerAn_Evening_Wasted_With_Tom_Lehrer.jpgTom Lehrer1959March 1959Satire42:23Lehrer Records
Reprise/Warner Bros. Recordsx|2=</?t[drh][ >]|nomatch=}}|Template:Main other}}Template:Main other}} Template:Music ratings An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer is an album recorded by Tom Lehrer, the well-known satirist and Harvard lecturer. The recording was made on March 20–21, 1959 in Sanders Theater at Harvard.

In October 2020, Lehrer transferred the music and lyrics for all songs he had ever written into the public domain.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> 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.<ref name="songs">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Track listing

1. "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park"<ref>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)</ref> – 2:38 File:2-14 Poisoning Pigeons in the Park.mp3
2. "Bright College Days" – 3:03 File:2-15 Bright College Days.mp3
3. "A Christmas Carol" – 2:54
4. "The Elements" – 2:16
5. "Oedipus Rex" – 3:41
6. "In Old Mexico" – 6:26
7. "Clementine" – 4:40
8. "It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier" – 4:50 File:1-20 It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier.mp3
9. "She's My Girl" – 2:53
10. "The Masochism Tango" – 3:30 File:2-23 The Masochism Tango.mp3
11. "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.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> 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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

"Bright College Days"

This song borrows heavily from "The Whiffenpoof Song", the traditional signature song of the Yale Whiffenpoofs.<ref>Siegel, Paul. Outsiders Looking in: A Communication Perspective on the Hill/Thomas Hearings. United States: Hampton Press, 1996. pg 267</ref>

"The Elements"

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The lyrics of "The Elements"<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }} (Flash animation)</ref> are a recitation of the names of all the chemical elements that were known at the time of writing, up to number 102, nobelium; sixteen more have been discovered since then. It can be found on his albums Songs & More Songs by Tom Lehrer as well as An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer. The song is sung to the tune of Sir Arthur Sullivan's "Major General's Song" ("I am the very model of a modern major-general...") from The Pirates of Penzance. At his concert in Copenhagen (1967), Lehrer admitted, "I like to play this song every once in a while, just to see if I can still do it!" Indeed, several of Lehrer's fans, such as actor Daniel Radcliffe, have tried and failed to sing it (that is, he sang it in its entirety, but with slight hiccups).<ref>Template:YouTube, broadcast November 12, 2010</ref> At some concerts he also played a version he claims is based on Aristotle's elements: "There's earth and air and fire and water."<ref>Template:YouTube, clip from a live performance in 1967</ref>

"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.<ref name="psi">Olivares-Merino, Eugenio M.. Peeping Through the Holes: Twenty-First Century Essays on Psycho. United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publisher, 2014.</ref> It was also a reference to the popularity of Freudian psychoanalysis and the Oedipus complex in popular culture in the 1940s and 1950s in the United States.<ref name="psi"/>

"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 gallbladder. Performed in the style of Mexican folk music, it describes the narrator's memory of a trip to that country and his viewing of a bullfight. The lyrics refer to three famous Spanish bullfighters, Belmonte, Dominguín, and Manolete, and also include a pejorative reference to Mexico as "the land of the wetback."

"Clementine"

"Clementine" is a parody of the old folk song "Oh My Darling, Clementine" in several styles.

"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.<ref name="AR 220-90">Army Regulation 220-90, Army Bands, 14 December 2007, para 2-5f, g</ref>)

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.<ref>Bowman, John., Zoss, Joel., Bowman, John Stewart. Diamonds in the Rough: The Untold History of Baseball. United States: University of Nebraska Press, 2004.</ref>

External links

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