Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

Pointing and laughing at religious lunacy for more than half-a-century

Atheist satirical songwriter Tom Lehrer dies aged 97

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GIVEN that anything that came anywhere close to mocking religion was banned in Apartheid South Africa, it’s pretty damned amazing that The “Vatican Rag”, written by Tom Lehrer above, didn’t fall foul of the censors. After a friend played it to me I rushed out to buy the album which featured it: “That Was The Year that Was.”

It did, however, infuriate many Catholics. According to Wiki, After one show at the Hungry I, Lehrer’s performance of the song led to a confrontation with the actor Ricardo Montalbán, who happened to be in the audience.

A former Hungry I bouncer, Montalbán approached Lehrer in a fit of rage, yelling, “I love my religion! I will die for my religion!” to which Lehrer responded: “Hey, no problem, as long as you don’t fight for your religion.”

The extract below shows why Montalbán got a wasp up his Catholic arse. (Full lyrics here, and the actual performance here.

Get in line in that processional
Step into that small confessional
There the guy who’s got religion’ll
Tell you if your sin’s original.
If it is, try playin’ it safer
Drink the wine and chew the wafer
Two, four, six, eight
Time to transubstantiate.

NBC News reports that the popular and erudite song satirist, who also lampooned marriage, politics, racism and the Cold War, abandoned his music career to return to teaching math at Harvard and other universities.

He died at the weekend at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

“Tom Lehrer is the most brilliant song satirist ever recorded,” musicologist Barry Hansen once said. Hansen co-produced the 2000 boxed set of Lehrer’s songs, “The Remains of Tom Lehrer,” and had featured Lehrer’s music for decades on his syndicated “Dr. Demento” radio show.

On June 7 and 8, 1998, Lehrer performed in public for the first time in 18 years at the Lyceum Theatre, London. The June 8 show was his only performance before Queen Elizabeth II. He sang “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park” and an updated version of the nuclear proliferation song “Who’s Next?”

While “Vatican Rag” somehow got past the South African censors, Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall” did not.

It was originally submitted to the censors by a religious student group at the Pretoria Teaching College, who were alarmed at the popularity of the song (and accompanying album). Its rebellious lyrics, they believed, would cultivate “an environment for communism”.

The censors agreed and also observed that it had become a rallying song for school children protesting Apartheid education. The single had already sold over 70,000 copies nationally, and had reached the top of the charts on SABC’s Springbok Radio and Radio 5, as well as on Capital Radio.

Yet the Directorate banned it anyway and the Publications Appeal Board upheld the ban, which lasted until 1982. Other internationally well-known examples of banned songs included singles which championed anti-apartheid leaders, Peter Gabriel’s “Biko”, and the Special AKA’s “(Free) Nelson Mandela”.

Hat tip: BarrieJohn.

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4 responses to “Atheist satirical songwriter Tom Lehrer dies aged 97”

  1. Avatar
    Anonymous

    I’ve always been a fan of the irreplaceable Tom Lehrer, professor of maths and brilliant clever satirist. Unless, like me, you’re old enough to remember when the Vatican Rag came out, you won’t understand the outrage it caused, religion was never poked fun at, back then – and this was such a hilarious take down. When Youtube was invented, I’d just got my first home computer – and felt so teccy-clever for figuring out how to make a playlist so I could listen to all Lehrer’s songs that I’d not heard for years – and did so, and still do sometimes!

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply
  2. gillyflowerblog Avatar
    gillyflowerblog

    poisoning pigeons in (dove?) park a favourite. Along with I hold your hand in mine.

    Gill

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply
  3. clubschadenfreude Avatar
    clubschadenfreude

    Love Tom Lehr. So long mom, I’m off to drop the bomb!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    1. Matilda Avatar
      Matilda

      ‘The breakfast garbage you throw into the Bay, they drink for lunch in San Jose’

      Liked by 2 people

      Reply

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