Track Listing

1. Introduction
2. I Wanna Go Back to Dixie
3. Wild West Is Where I Want to Be
4. Old Dope Peddler
5. Fight Fiercely, Harvard
6. Lobachevsky
7. Irish Ballad
8. Hunting Song
9. My Home Town
10. When You Are Old and Grey
11. Wiener Schnitzel Waltz
12. I Hold Your Hand in Mine
13. Be Prepared
14. L-Y [From The Electric Company][*]
15. Silent E [From The Electric Company][*]

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21411 in Music
• Brand: Tom
• Released on: 1990-05-02
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Live
• Dimensions: .20 pounds

Customer Reviews

Masterpiece of musical parody
Recorded before a live audience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1959, these pieces by songwriter/pianist/satirist Tom Lehrer poke fun at the South, folk songs, hunters, the Harvard football team, mathematicians, and even the Boy Scouts. Lehrer provides his own introduction, as well as hilarious introductions to each of the songs. The album also includes two bonus tracks with songs that Lehrer wrote and performed for "The Electric Company" in 1972, and even though they were created to teach children to read, they still contain his trademark creativity and humor.

This album contains some of Lehrer's earliest material. Although it is less politically oriented than his later songs, it is every bit as satirical. The songs parody many styles of music including love songs, folk ballads, and football fight songs. As Lehrer puts it himself in the introduction to "I Wanna Go Back To Dixie": "Well, what I like to do on formal occasions like this is to take some of the various types of songs that we all know and presumably love, and, as it were, to kick them when they're down." Many of these songs are shockingly macabre or raunchy, and considering when they were performed, they were well ahead of their time. Even the liner notes are funny, and although they are not attributed to Lehrer, I have the feeling he had a hand in their authorship.

This is a short album, barely over a half hour long. I suppose this is because Lehrer wrote only about fifty songs in all before dropping out of songwriting to teach mathematics, so his songs are sparingly rationed out among a few CDs. But good things come in small packages. In my humble opinion, Tom Lehrer is one of the greatest musical satirists, and I highly recommend this album.

Eileen Rieback

"Only To Call It, Please . . . .Research !"
This is basically the album 'Songs by Tom Lehrer' in a live setting . . .and is a whole lot better for it. The audience reaction is preferable to the sterile studio-and-solo-piano of Lehrer's first release. The audience gasps at the sheer audacity of Lehrer's lyrics; stomping on subjects that some still won't talk about today . . .and this was in 1959! Tom Lehrer is the yardstick to which other satirists have to be measured . . .may this album show you exactly why!

INTRODUCTION - What better way to save costs than to introduce yourself to your audience . . .and in such a modest way,too!

I WANNA GO BACK TO DIXIE - All the Southern song cliches are skewered (and a few civil rights points scored) in a song that makes the controversial lyrics of Neil Young's Southern Man seem like a nursery rhyme.

THE WILD WEST IS WHERE I WANNA BE - A barb directed at nuclear testing out in the desert and arid regions of the west in the 50's. Those who were in that region certainly felt the effects eventually . . .remember John Wayne and the cast/crew of 'The Conqueror'?

THE OLD DOPE PEDDLER - A disrespected fixture of the community.
.You can hear the audile audience gasp on this one.

FIGHT FIERCELY,HARVARD - A football fight song as sung by an intellectual snob who would've probably gotten creamed if he stepped on a football field.

LOBACHEVSKY - An ode to the great Russian mathematician, Lobachesky; sung in the tongue twisting style of an early Danny Kaye routine. The secret of his success: "Plagiarise; only to call it please . . .research!"

THE IRISH BALLAD - A more ghoulish Irish ballad you'll never, ever hear.Sounds like a script of an old cheesy early '80s slasher flick. You can bet they'll never be singing this little emerald isle parody in any Irish Pub soon.

THE HUNTING SONG - Dedicated to all would be 'wild sportsmen' out there. "You just stand there looking cute, and if something moves . . . you shoot!" LOL!

MY HOME TOWN - A town full of weirdies and nasties crawling out of the woodwork; guaranteed to kill off any thoughts of homesickness. During the stanza about Parson Brown, Lehrer would always imply that he had to leave a lyric line out due to censorship; it always left the audience wondering.

WHEN YOU ARE OLD AND GREY - This couple will not grow old gracefully together. For the male protaganist of this ditty, youth holds all the charm.

THE WEINER SCHNITZEL WALTZ - An fractured take on the love ballad
, this time on the romance of the waltz. "I drank wine,you drank chocolate malts".

I HOLD YOUR HAND IN MINE - A love song that some rockers like Alice Cooper would later draw inspiration from (check out Alice's song 'Roses On White Lace' for comparisions). Another audience gasper.

BE PREPARED - Lessons never taught to real boy scouts! Some of them are really helpful: "Don't write diry words in books if you can't spell!" LOL!

L-Y - A bonus track from Lehrer's quick flirtation with 'The Electic Company'. See kids, learning can be funny.

SILENT E - Another 'Electric Company' bonus track. It's a pity that this collaboration did not lead to another album of fresh Lehrer material,but we must be thankful for what we do have.

I've never tired of this man's recordings!
True, I almost got kicked out of college for playing this man's recordings. I played them for my children as they grew up in the 60s and 70s. As a socially aware citizen, I cherish this man's ability to portray with sarcasm, exaggeration, humor, some of the foibles of the everyday American in any age, of any age. We still need Tom Lehrer to remind us of what we are and what, perhaps, we could be.