Editing An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer

{{Infobox album
| name         = An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer
| type         = live
| artist       = [[Tom Lehrer]]
| cover        = An_Evening_Wasted_With_Tom_Lehrer.jpg
| alt          = 
| released     = 1959
| recorded     = March 1959
| venue        = 
| studio       = 
| genre        = [[Satire]]
| length       = 42:23
| label        = Lehrer Records<br />[[Reprise Records|Reprise]]/[[Warner Bros. Records]]
| producer     = 
| prev_title   = [[Songs by Tom Lehrer]]
| prev_year    = 1953
| next_title   = [[More of Tom Lehrer]]
| next_year    = 1959
}}
{{Music ratings
| rev1      = [[Allmusic]]
| rev1Score = {{rating|5|5}}<ref>{{cite book|publisher=Allmusic.com|title=An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer|author=Lehrer, Tom|date=March 1959|location=Cambridge, MA}}</ref>
| rev2      = 
| rev2Score = 
}}
'''''An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer''''' is an [[album]] recorded by [[Tom Lehrer]], the well-known satirist and [[Harvard University|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>{{Cite news |last=Sanderson |first=David |date=October 22, 2020 |title=Copyright-busting website is invitation to have a laugh with Tom Lehrer |language=en |work=[[The Times]] |url=https://www.thetimes.com/culture/theatre-dance/article/copyright-busting-website-is-invitation-to-have-a-laugh-with-tom-lehrer-k99b6b9gh |access-date=October 22, 2020 |issn=0140-0460 |archive-date=October 22, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201022101502/https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/copyright-busting-website-is-invitation-to-have-a-laugh-with-tom-lehrer-k99b6b9gh |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news | title=Satirist Tom Lehrer has put his songs into the public domain | first=Justin | last=Ho | work=Marketplace | date=21 October 2020 | url=https://www.marketplace.org/2020/10/21/satirist-tom-lehrer-put-his-songs-into-public-domain/ | access-date=25 October 2020 | archive-date=October 24, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201024223019/https://www.marketplace.org/2020/10/21/satirist-tom-lehrer-put-his-songs-into-public-domain/ | url-status=live }}</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">{{Cite web |url=https://tomlehrersongs.com/ |title=Tom Lehrer Songs |accessdate=2022-12-16 |date=2022-11-01 |language=en-us |publisher=Tom Lehrer}}</ref>

==Track listing==
#"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]]
#"Bright College Days" – 3:03 [[File:2-15 Bright College Days.mp3]]
#"A Christmas Carol" – 2:54
#"[[The Elements (song)|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 [[File:1-20 It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier.mp3]]
#"She's My Girl" – 2:53
#"The Masochism Tango" – 3:30 [[File:2-23 The Masochism Tango.mp3]]
#"We Will All Go Together When We Go" – 5:32

==Songs' sources==

==="Poisoning Pigeons in the Park"===
The lyrics refer to killing pigeons with [[potassium cyanide|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>{{Cite journal |last=Faulkner |first=Clarence |date=1999-05-01 |title=As It Was in Region 5,1949-1964 |url=http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1045&context=icwdmprobe |journal=The Probe |volume=200 |pages=7 |via=DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln, "City-wide pigeon control in Boston, MA using strychnine-treated whole corn"}}</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>{{cite web|website=Paul-Lehrman.com|url=http://www.paul-lehrman.com/insider/1997/12insiderfulltext.html|title=A Conversation with Tom Lehrer: the full text|date=1997|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210307035012/http://www.paul-lehrman.com/insider/1997/12insiderfulltext.html|archive-date=March 7, 2021|url-status=dead}}</ref>

==="Bright College Days"===
This song borrows heavily from "[[The Whiffenpoofs#"The Whiffenpoof Song"|The Whiffenpoof Song]]", the traditional signature song of the [[Yale University|Yale]] [[The Whiffenpoofs|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"===
{{main|The Elements (song)}}

The lyrics of "[[The Elements (song)|The Elements]]"<ref>{{cite web|website=privatehand.com|author=Lehrer, Tom|url=http://www.privatehand.com/flash/elements.html |title= The Elements}} (Flash animation)</ref> are a recitation of the names of all the [[chemical element]]s that were known at the time of writing, up to number 102, [[nobelium]];   sixteen more have been [[discovery of the chemical elements|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 [[Arthur Sullivan|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>{{YouTube|rSAaiYKF0cs|"Daniel Radcliffe sings The Elements Song on The Graham Norton Show"}}, broadcast November 12, 2010</ref> At some concerts he also played a version he claims is based on [[Aristotle]]'s elements: "There's [[Earth (classical element)|earth]] and [[Air (classical element)|air]] and [[Fire (classical element)|fire]] and [[Water (classical element)|water]]."<ref>{{YouTube|kSKKPuNoA1g|"Tom Lehrer performs alternate "Aristotle" version"}}, 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) [[Oedipus Rex (1957 film)|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 [[bullfighting|bullfight]]. The lyrics refer to three famous Spanish bullfighters, [[Juan Belmonte|Belmonte]], [[Dominguín]], and [[Manolete]], and also include a pejorative reference to Mexico as "the land of the [[Wetback (slur)|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">[https://www.apd.army.mil/pdffiles/r220_90.pdf 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>

== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{discogs master|446031}}

{{Tom Lehrer}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer, An}}
[[Category:Tom Lehrer albums]]
[[Category:1959 live albums]]
[[Category:Reprise Records live albums]]
[[Category:Warner Records live albums]]
[[Category:1950s comedy albums]]
[[Category:Live comedy albums]]
[[Category:Albums free for download by copyright owner]]