Customer Reviews

That Was The Year That Was

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

After hearing "An Evening (Wasted) With Tom Lehrer," I thought, "Whoa! This is funny as hell! It just can't get better than this!" Well, it can. The bottom line is, if you did not enjoy An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer, you will certainly, undeniably, and most definitely not enjoy "That Was The Year That Was." Of the three albums released by this maniac this is unquestionably the best.

Last year, I took a course at school titled Western Civilization. During the last half of the year, we discussed the majority of the events that Mr. Lehrer sings about on this album (one of my teacher's lessons included in our World War II unit even contained a lecture of which countries "got the bomb, and that was okay, 'cause the balance of power is maintained that way, who's next?"). The background information I gathered through this course helped me to better understand the lyrics to the songs, thereby making me roll on the floor laughing my posterior end (I am writing this on a school computer and therefore can't say the "correct" word) off. "National Brotherhood Week" has become an anthem for my CD player, as have "So Long Mom (A Song For World War III)", "New Math", and my very most personal favorite, "The Vatican Rag."

So, calling all comedy, music, and political satire fans everywhere--if you've got some spare time you are just dying to waste, check it out!"

I recall listening the songs of Tom Lehrer while I was in junior high school and how we would annoy the teachers by singing the 'elements' song on school field trips. After graduating from high school, Tom Lehrer was always in the background thanks to the talented DJ's of a local radio station. But it was not until the Beirut tragedy that I really stopped to think about Dr. Lehrer. This is not to be considered disrespectful of those that were ordered into Lebanon. Not long after those Marines were killed, I pulled out my LP and listened to it, really listened to it. His songs were still as potent and relevent 16 years after he recorded them. Besides the Marines, Hubert Humphery had recently died, pollution was the big topic what with the fairly recent removal of lead from gasoline, the question of did Isreal really have the bomb? (They did, and South Africa would soon have one as well.) And President Reagan was walking a fine line between peace and WW III, forcing the Soviet's hand in Europe that would bring the Berlin Wall crashing down by the end of the decade. I have played this and every other Tom Lehrer song to my family, to my friends, and to my neighbors. We all agree, 33 years later, this is still, one must have CD. Major Michael K. La Violette, Armor, US Army.

I remember sitting in junior high school, singing Mr. Lehrer's songs in music class (I should mention that I went to private school). His music, though written a few decades ago,is still timely and still musical and outrageously funny. A review he often quotes from the New York Times: "Mr. Lehrer's muse is not fettered by such inhibiting factors as taste." My own extremely Catholic grandmother cried in her laughter while listening to the "Vatican Rag." My boyfriend can't believe some of the lines in "National Brotherhood Week", a song which still applies to all such weeks in these less than brotherly United States. Tom Lehrer's music is well worth the twelve dollars requested here. END

Of the three classic Tom Lehrer albums, the material on "This Was The Year That Was" always struck me as being somehow different from the other two. Now as I have attained the pinnacle of wisdom I believe I have an explanation for my intuitive feeling: the songs on this album were written for the NBC television show "This Was The Week That Was" (affectionately known as TW3), which meant Lehrer was working with a deadline each week. Consequently, while I am impressed that he could come up with such ditties each week to help skewer the people in the headlines, I think that most of the songs contained within are not particularly memorable (e.g., "M.L.F. Lullaby," "George Murphy") although he does rhyme "commie" and "salami" in "So Long Mom," but you know some would never have been written if he had not needed a new song for that week's show (e.g., the overlong "Alma"). I also did not find Lehrer's pre- and post-song chatter about semi-current events to be as enjoyable as on the other albums where he is the subject under observation.

That being said I must acknowledge that this album does include three absolute classic gems from Lehrer. First, there is "New Math," the lyrics to which I have been inscribing on black boards in math classes for years, undeterred by the fact I was teaching English and they were not my classes rooms. Who knew numbers could be funny? Second, there is "Who's Next?", a witty look at the nuclear arms race that is as timely today as it was way back when and which popped up once on "Picket Fences" being sung by Douglas Waumbaugh ("for the Harvard-educated musician with the nimble fingers and glib tongue, your Honor. We plead not guilty."). Finally, there is "The Vatican Rag," which brings the Catholic Church from the dim dark past into a place it most assuredly did not want to be. Along with "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park," this is the quintessential Tom Lehrer. "This Was The Year That Was" is the least of his albums, but in this particular genre you are not going to find anybody better. Class dismissed.

It takes mischievous talent to pen skits and ditties of the sort we're used to hearing from today's political satirist; the songs from Capital Steps for example; the occasional witty observance from the Daily Show. It takes irrascable genious to write a song in 1965 poking fun at the Pentagon's unpenetrable logic which appears taken from the headlines of 2005:

"When someone makes a move/ Of which we don't approve,
Who is it that always intervenes? /The UN and OAS all have their place I guess/But first send the Marines!"

Lest you think, however, that this is yet another bash-the-hawkish-conservatives comedian, Lehrer leaves nobody unscathed by his wit. This includes the Sputnik-phobic education system, which is so intent on producing brilliant mathematicians it has just introduced the "new math" policy (being a mathematician--Lehrer was at the time a mathematics professor at Harvard--he is especially good at lampooning this benighted lunacy), which Mr. Lehrer dices, slices and juliennes in a song for which he provides absolutely useless visual aids in the jewel cover insert. "The Vatican Rag" could hurt the feelings of the Catholic feint of heart, but in truth, it's just a hyperbole on the fact that everyone expected Vatican Two to get the church to really let things loose. Which, of course, it didn't. After all, it's the church. They couldn't exactly go back and re-write everything. My two very favorite songs have also stood the test of time: "National Brotherhood Week" and "The Folk Song Army." Both attack what we now call "political correctness" , the first by reminding us of that old adage, you can't legislate morality. But "The Folk Song Army" is an absolute gem. "We all hate poverty, war and injustice,unlike the rest of you squares." You will never hear folk music the same way again, you'll always be asking yourself....but isn't everyone against that? Do these people ever take an unpopular or courageous stand?

It's hard to choose which CD to buy first from Tom's collection; the songs on this CD happen to be the most memorable for me. You can't lose with any of his recordings, but this one will certainly do as an introduction to his sharp wit and breezy interaction with the audience.

This is a fine recording, which I believe stands the test of time. Many British Comedians have been influenced by Tom Lehrer. I remember this record being banned at the school in England that I was at, mainly due to The Vatican Rag, and it was at that time that I realised that it must therefore, be worth listening to Tom Lehrer, and I have never looked back. National Brotherhood Week is appalingly apt even now in England. Mr Lehrer is always welcome in England. I wish he would come out of retirement and play the London Palladium. He'd sell out for months.

DAVID PIBWORTH (Comedy writer/Performer.)

My parents exposed us as children to Tom Lehrer's irreverent humor, and of course, now our children listen to this and his other CDs. They love "Pollution", "elements" (surely we're due for a new verse by now!), new math. I'm a little worried about my 6-year old singing the masochism tango or Oedipus Rex at school, though!

I was first exposed to the lunacy/wonderful satire of Tom Lehrer in 1968, courtesy of our 8th grade History teacher. She actually brought in/played this album for the entire class twice during that year (even including the song "Smut" for our amusement/enjoyment the second time, which surprised me quite a bit, given lyrics such as, "When correctly viewed, everything is lewd...").

I was instantly hooked, both by the humor and the enjoyable compositions. My own LP was quickly purchased with allowance money, and remains in playable condition today.

Highly recommended to any fan of Tom Lehrer would be the Rhino collection, "The Remains of Tom Lehrer." It includes the complete "That Was the Year that Was" album, and both studio/live versions of many of his other compositions.

Don't shy away because of the topical references in "That Was the Year that Was." Some of the issues addressed in the album are indeed dated, but not the music. And songs such as "Pollution" are just as fresh/funny today ("The city streets are really quite a thrill/If the hoods don't get you, the monoxide will!") as they were in 1965.

Mr. Lehrer is a one-of-a-kind genius in the world of music. If you have a slightly warped perspective, and a love for the piano, purchase ANY of his titles without hesitation!

I had this recording in LP form when I was a teenager, and practically wore the thing out. Unlike many comedy albums, you can listen to it again and again and still laugh. And I must admit that I do not own this CD -- this review is written entirely from memorizing practically every word 30+ years ago.

Other reviewers have commented on the truly great bits here ("Vatican Rag", "Werner von Braun", etc.), so I'll mention a few of the lesser-known songs. In "Whatever Became of Hubert", Lehrer has one of best plays on words in all of musical comedy. In a song lamenting how Hubert Humphrey was shoved into the political background when he became LBJ's VP, he sings "We must protest this treatment, Hubert / Says each newspaper reader. / As someone once remarked to Schubert, / 'Take us to your Lieder.'". It takes the audience a moment to get the pun, but then comes the roar of laughter.

In a song that has weathered the test of time better than most, "Send the Marines", Lehrer satirizes America's penchant for "gunboat diplomacy". One of the best lines, speaking of the people of an anonymous country the US has just invaded, says "They've got to be protected / all their rights respected / Until somebody we LIKE can be elected".

"Who's Next?" is a slightly dark satire of the Cold War. A number of countries had acquired the capability to produce an atomic bomb, so Lehrer takes the idea "ad absurdum". Egypt and Israel "get the bomb", with the latter saying "The Lord's our Shepherd, says the Psalm / but just in case... / we gotta get a bomb". Then "Luxembourg's the next to go / and who knows? maybe Monaco / we'll try to stay serene and calm / when ALABAMA gets the bomb". This at a time of high racial tension in the US.

A brave soul, this satirist. (The notes on the original recording included a couple of short newspaper reviews of his performances, like "tasteless japes and tired wheezes".) Then again, he plays the role of the Shakesperean "fool": the only one who can really tell the king the truth, because he cloaks the truth in humor. "National Brotherhood Week" mixes lunacy and ugly truth about racism. "Pollution" is a sprightly calypso, sung from the viewpoint of a foreigner visiting the US, "Just two things of which you must beware, / Don't drink the water and Don't breathe the air!".

Only a few tunes are so dated as to require a significant amount of explanation to anyone under about 45 (and these are the ONLY reason I'm knocking off a star). The "MLF Lullaby" is one, and is just as well forgotten -- it's not one of his better efforts. Ditto for "George Murphy", which has only one really good line: "At last we have a senator who can really sing and dance". And while "So Long Mom" contains some very funny lines, a WW III of apocalyptic proportions seems so very remote nowadays that much of the punch of the song is lost.

Anyone born near of before the mid-50's will find something delightful here, and for the rest of you -- just ask your parents to explain it. (If you can stop them from laughing long enough...)

I was only recently introduced to Tom Lehrer a few months ago through a Christmas present from my parents and this was an album that received the honored distinction of my undivided attention. Rarely do I sit rapt in front of my CD player for an hour (transportation aside) and this CD grabbed me from the first track.

As a fan of the Onion newspaper and Comedy Central's The Daily Show, Tom Lehrer's biting humor was a welcome look at the 1960s. Chillingly, many of the tracks could be transported 40 years later with little alteration. National Brotherhood Week, Pollution, and (...) being three prime examples of the transcendance of human folly.

I played my new found interest for several of my friends and each time, the CD garnered the same response: awe at the audacity of this one man to say what so many others have only thought. One can only wonder how this show survived on public television outlets.

Don't let the dated references fool you, this CD is as relevant today as it was 40 years ago and, as if you would need another reason to listen, it now serves as a living history lesson for those of us untimely born.