Tom Lehrer was once asked why he stopped writing and recording. He brilliantly replied that "political satire became redundant when Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize."
And it looks like they're preparing for it , NATO seems determined to push Putin to press that button. Still we won't all go together. The ones responsible will slowly die in their bunkers after we are all gone 😂
@nicholasmackley8580 lol what a future these brave politicians have carved out for us eh? I mean who could possibly argue against these amazing human beings leading us forward into a brave new world..... made of radioactive☢️ shit!!!💩 🤣
Holy fuck. He's right. And for those who don't know, he invented the Jell-o shot to sneak vodka in with his lunch while working at Los Alamos. What a guy!
Right now I was searching the web about his info to update his Swedish wikipedia page since I saw that it had no date of his death, and I saw your comment. Here's to his health.
I was always creative with the rhymes. See the halibuts and the sturgeons being wiped out by detergens. Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly, but they don't last long if they try.
+oinari12345 That might be the most incorrect thing you've said in your entire life. Back then there was the constant threat of war between nuclear superpower #1 vs. nuclear superpower #2. Now the sole remaining world superpower's primary enemies are a non-nuclear caliphate full of primitive screwheads and a mildly nuclear xenophobic three-ring circus. Unless some combination of Russia, China, and the United States are on the brink of war with one another, there is no way the nuclear threats of today even come close to those of the Cold War.
way wrong. I'm not even sure what you mean by what. today the situation is, in a nutshell, that a crazed-decadent US controlled by power-hungry neocons is reaching for world domination regardless of consequences, and a resilient Russia+China are fighting back by all means they can. and especially Russia has got 10x the means to destroy the US and the whole world, too, and nobody can prevent or stop it. talk of ABM's reliability is ridiculous vs. Russian ICBMs. we will all go together when we goo..... soo true even in 2016...
Yeah If his other songs like Werner Von Braun and this were made today he would've been considered edgy or trying too hard to be cool but his songs were made literally after the war just finished He spoke what everyone was too afraid to speak and made it enjoyable Seriously this guy probably had a hard time walking around with the steel balls he carried Plus he's also great at making educational kid songs
Hey exurb1a. I know you don’t know me but I'm subscribed to you, and I don't really know what to say but I think you're really cool and that your videos are really great, and that I hope you're doing well.
He seems to value authenticity yet he’s very critical of a lot of the people who claim to be authentic yet really aren’t (The Irish Ballad takes aim at folk music which I often love but is a bit self absorbed at times, god knows what he’d think of hipsters). I don’t think there’s anyone who balances sarcasm and honesty in such a odd way
Honestly, these people rather expected to possibly die by nuclear bomb... The thought that while it was certainly possible it never happened, we somehow managed to get through it.
Amazing guy, served in WWII, the NSA, Taught Political Science and Mathematics at the college level, invented the Jello Shot, etc., etc. A great unsung American.
@@christopheroliver148 Mixing jelly with alcohol dates alllllllll the way back to the 1300s, and the first recipe actually including Jell-O is from 1902, so I doubt Tom Lehrer invented the concept. Although, it was popularized in the 50s, so Lehrer likely contributed to that.
@@christopheroliver148 Well according to Mel Magazine, Tom Lehrer created the modern gelatin shot we now know as a means of sneaking booze into a Christmas party on a military base! He mixed orange Jell-O and vodka to smuggle it at the party. But in fact, the first person to actually create a drink with alcohol and Jell-O was back in 1862 when a recipe was recorded in the very first cocktail manual ever published, by Jerry Thomas in How to Mix Drinks called "punch jelly" in his 1862 work How to Mix Drinks that called for adding isinglass gelatin to a bowl of fruit punch spiked with cognac and rum
There's a LOT of quests in FNV named after songs. In fact, playlist compiled from names of FNV quests is far better than the original game radio playlist. :)
@@Name-ps9fx We are literally at 8 Billion 💀. I don’t think any species has become as widespread as humans have. Our population has reached unnatural levels.
"I always like to end on a positive note, so here is a rousing, up-lifting song, which is guaranteed to cheer you up." [introductory notes] "When you attend a funeral...." Nailed it!
He was in the NSA before its very existence became public knowledge, and was essentially barred from talking about it - so he sang about it instead. At least, I think that's what he meant with spies, referring to in The Wild West.
The cheery melody and piano accompaniment contrasted with the subject matter is chilling in a way no metal band can replicate, and that's from a metal fan.
Okay, those are good examples of peppy sounding dark songs, but that guy specifically said "metal".... Neither "Foster the People" nor "Nena" are metal.
Yes. Decades ago, legit black and white 😂 if you haven't heard his other stuff, I totally recommend it. I use to dance with my best friend as happy as can be to this song. It sounds like such a happy song, but man. Tom is twisted! He's amazing!
@@LDG519 ha ha ha! Oh really are you now??? 😉😉😉 I wish more people were gone of poisoning geese at my parks. We have too many and they have no class whatsoever.
Why are you panicking for nuclear war? It’s not likely going to happen. Even if it did or looks like it’s going to happen, there is nothing you can do so there’s no point in panicking.
@@dimasdelpablo А мне даже не прочь застать это. Представьте, будущие поколения нас, людей до Армагеддона, в случае ядерной войны, будут воспринимать как богов а наш мир как Эдэм, где люди могли сходить и купить воды.
"Just sing out a Te Deum, when you see that ICBM..." Some of his rhymes are hilariously daft ('tragic' and 'adjec...tives' for a start!), but this is genius. Great song.
There, just learned another one of the countless English acronyms. Lehrer's nonchalant approach on language is what makes him such a genius in my eyes, daft rhymes inclusive.
We're having this song played at my dad's funeral. He loved this song, it was exactly his humour, and he'd have loved the thought of offending some people with how inappropriate it is for the circumstances. 😊
Yes, I understand. But "We will all go together" was the last song in his set. No extra encore. So "The Tom Lehrer wisdom channel" will continue to exist (for a while) with these 12 songs. I sincerely hope that more people - who have recordings of Mr. Lehrer - will post them on RU-vid and let me include them in my favorites :-)
Sadly there seem to be very few videos of Tom Lehrer. This set I think was from a club performance in Copenhagen and at times the response feels quite inhibited compared to recorded US performances on audio.
If you'd told me 20 years ago that this song would become relevant again, I'd have laughed in your face. And now it's the 24th of February 2022, and here we are...
I've been humming this to myself for the last 6 weeks- suddenly thought I'd like to actually hear it again. Delighted to find it here. As someone else commented it's actually oddly cheering.
When you attend a funeral, It is sad to think that sooner or Later those you love will do the same for you. And you may have thought it tragic, Not to mention other adjec- Tives, to think of all the weeping they will do. But don't you worry. No more ashes, no more sackcloth. And an armband made of black cloth Will some day never more adorn a sleeve. For if the bomb that drops on you Gets your friends and neighbors too, There'll be nobody left behind to grieve. And we will all go together when we go. What a comforting fact that is to know. Universal bereavement, An inspiring achievement, Yes, we all will go together when we go. We will all go together when we go. All suffuse with an incandescent glow. No one will have the endurance To collect on his insurance, Lloyd's of london will be loaded when they go. Oh we will all fry together when we fry. We'll be french fried potatoes by and by. There will be no more misery When the world is our rotisserie, Yes, we will all fry together when we fry. Down by the old maelstrom, There'll be a storm before the calm. And we will all bake together when we bake. There'll be nobody present at the wake. With complete participation In that grand incineration, Nearly three billion hunks of well-done steak. Oh we will all char together when we char. And let there be no moaning of the bar. Just sing out a te deum When you see that I.c.b.m., And the party will be "come as you are." Oh we will all burn together when we burn. There'll be no need to stand and wait your turn. When it's time for the fallout And saint peter calls us all out, We'll just drop our agendas and adjourn. You will all go directly to your respective valhallas. Go directly, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dolla's. And we will all go together when we go. Ev'ry hottenhot and ev'ry eskimo. When the air becomes uranious, And we will all go simultaneous. Yes we all will go together When we all go together, Yes we all will go together when we go.
Hmm, just noticed that in this video, the line "You will all go directly to your respective valhallas. Go directly, do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dolla's" is missing.
Ben Jamin Oh my! It’s anti-climactic. I didn’t mean to do that. He said “This is Tom Lehrer calling about your ad.” I said “TOM LEHRER Tom Lehrer??” He said yes and I told him I didn’t think my apartment would be right for him. He insisted on seeing it, so we shook hands and he essentially agreed with me. Sorry it’s not better. I easily could write a book on celebrity encounters over the decades that make that one insignificant.
While we are talking Apocalypse, I wish he had an interpretation of LIFE DURING WARTIME by The TalkingHeads. It's late and my imagination is in a weird and wonderful place.
I was very lucky to be attending UC Santa Cruz in the early 70’s when he was teaching there. He gave a performance at one of our “college nights,” just him and Steinway Grand: it sold out quickly and it was marvelous.
This is genius! I've loved this song for a while now. But this version doesn't have "You will all go directly to your respective Valhallas Go directly, do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred dollars" I love that part
The most 'full' version with all of the additional lines that seem to appear and disappear (the 'maelstrom' bit and '$200' bit!) is on An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer, released in 1959.
As children, we were forbidden to listen to Tom Lehrer on the LPs my parents bought. That translated into our knowing all the songs by heart, word perfect. (Hugely helpful education.) Memory has us singing them loudly in the car on a family holiday driving through France.
Congratulations on Your 94th birthday today, Mr. Lehrer! You were and are always a legend! May Your timeless and genius music and lyrics live on forever!
"When you attend a funeral, It is sad to think that sooner or l- ater..." "And you may have thought it tragic, Not to mention other adjec- tives..." DAMMIT TOM THAT'S CHEATING! ;)
@@TheRealEvilkitten3 Burnham's older stuff is better than his recent stuff, I just don't think his stuff ages as well even though they both do the same thing essentially
I added "Beds are burning" because it seemed appropriate with the whole bushfires in Australia and climate change and stuff, this song, and a couple of others.
What's the story, Pitch me right now. What's his journey? What's his conflict? Who is he trying to beat? Himself, Another person. There are reasons to make movies. Otherwise, they are bios or documentaries. I don't know, does he have an interesting story? My 8 year old daughter turned me on to him her Hanukkah because of the Hanukkah in Santa Monica song she learned and I loved it and have heard every song. I think he's amazing.
rabbit “ hey if you don’t like this thing and think it’s this thing nobody talks about anymore, even though only I said it was this thing then you don’t know anything about ‘ insert two subjects that I said we’re definitely that thing because I have a degree in these two specific subjects of music now ‘ “
My kids, now in their 60s, memorized all of his marvelous satirical songs, and we sang them together. We still have those amazing lyrics! What a fabulously creative man ... whose politics and ours are the same.
This guy was amazing!!! For perspective, this is from the Cold War era, when people were afraid global nuclear war would break out between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Do you know that upon his death, his will stipulated that ALL of his copyrights and works would immediately become public domain? What a guy!
I mean . . . He's still alive. He *is* amazing. And possibly wondering if we're headed toward ww3, at which point this will become terribly relevant again
It would genuinely be an insult and a crying shame if they didn't put this song and "So long mom" on the radio in Fallout 4. It's set in Boston after all! Harvard's going to be there, why not its greatest (and most nuclear-themed) humourist?
Tom Lehrer would have given it. He's still alive, and the last request was granted in the most humorous manner possible to the a singer called Chainz (or something to that effect)
@@DoomFinger511 Maybe some of his songs are actually owned by him, and some by the company? Becasue he did grant permission for 2 Chainz. In case you're wondering, here's what he said: "As sole copyright owner of 'The Old Dope Peddler', I grant you motherfuckers permission to do this. Please give my regards to Mr. Chainz, or may I call him 2?"
I enjoyed this a few years back, when I thought it was all about the humour. Now that Putin is on high alert (& the world is waiting with bated breath to see if we’re facing nuclear war), I looked this up for the comforting side I was still too young & naive to appreciate. Whatever happens, I hope we can face it together as a nation in unity. ✨❤️✨
I heard his stuff in the 60s and 70s but never saw any video, (as was common back then), so I never realized that not only was he intelligent, witty, and talented, he was also a total babe.
Brilliant! I first met his music about 20 years ago when accompanying a singer who performed Poisoning Pigeons, and I quickly realized that this man is a total genius!
"When you attend a funeral, it is sad to think that sooneralll-, -later those you love with do the same for you. And you may have thought it tragic, not to mention other adjec- -tives to think of all the weeping they will do." This man's rhymes are fire.
What did he write 23 years ago when 19 Western countries bombed Serbia and what did Tom write when America bombed Serbia as an ally from 1944-1945. only the Serbian capital Belgrade 16 times !! Serbia, a liberal country, which has always defended only its house and garden and did not come to bomb America. The fear and sadness of human civilization that America and the West give themselves the right to bomb other countries and take away their territories.
@@nadacvetic9289 23 years ago he gave his last lecture and retired. Also, he’s very liberal, so acting like the attacks you speak,of wouldn’t of horrified him is just silly.
This was my first ever favourite song. Mid 60s my dad had an old record player and despite my mother trying to stop us we played Tom Lehrer a lot. This was my favourite. We were all expecting the nuclear holocaust at any time, it’s hard to explain how much this song meant to me. I was five or six when I first learned the words by heart. Laughing was, even then, the antidote to fear and dread. Less than 3 billion people on earth back then. If you’re a young person you won’t understand what I just said. Kind of hope you don’t tbh. Love to you.
