Posted on 05/20/2008 12:53:37 PM PDT by jwalburg
Recently, I reviewed a new American history anthology. I was amused to find included in the book a generous selection of 1960s protest songs. Apparently, lyrics by Bob Dylan, Pete Seeger, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Country Joe MacDonald are making their way into the academic canon, and at least some professors seem to think these are “must-read” documents for our students.
Well, maybe so. But if one really wants song lyrics that reflect the 1960s, I'd point my students instead to some of the songs from math professor and musical satirist Tom Lehrer. In terms of insight into America, Lehrer's “National Brotherhood Week" beats Dylan's “The Times They are A-Changin'' hands down, while Lehrer's “Send the Marines" teaches a lot more about American military intervention than MacDonald's “I-Feel-Like-I'm-Fixing-to-Die Rag" (fish cheer or no).
And then there's the wonderful opening verse of Lehrer's Folk Song Army, “We are the folk song army. Every one of us cares. We all hate poverty war and injustice - unlike the rest of you squares.”
Lehrer captures perfectly both the idealism and the na•vetŽ that typified so many of the young protesters of the 1960s. We were the generation of love, peace, and justice - things (obviously) our parents didn't appreciate or understand. We were going to fix all their mistakes and bring in a new age of harmony, understanding, sympathy and trust, and all by singing about it!
Unfortunately, while correcting our parents' mistakes, we were making plenty of our own. Idealism untempered by experience isn't a great recipe for wise choices, and the “don't trust anybody over 30” attitude of so many 1960s young people meant a deliberate abandonment of lessons we could have learned from the “great generation” that preceded us.
No - we thought we were the great generation. We protested this, we protested that, and we ended up developing a smug feeling of moral superiority to all those who didn't join in with our efforts to save the world.
Ironically, in terms of their personal lives, baby boomers aren't all that admirable, choosing lifestyles that, in most societies would be condemned as selfish and immoral. Particularly when it comes to marriage and family, boomers tend to be utterly selfish: who cares about the kids if I can find a new partner more exciting at the moment than my current spouse?
How does one justify such an attitude? Well, it's easy: We just remember the lessons of the 1960s. Protest the right cause and you're a “good person” no matter what kind of lifestyle you lead. Even the moral midgets of the 1960s could think themselves mighty good people if they protested that awful war in Vietnam. Later, you could earn your “good person seal of approval” by fighting the evil tobacco companies or campaigning against global warming.
The problem is that, for those who tie their self worth to specific political and social causes, it's very, very difficult to consider opposing points of view. If you think you're a good human being because you fight against global warming, then you don't even want to listen to evidence that suggests that global warming isn't man-made, that it isn't necessarily harmful or that (worst case scenario) it isn't even real. If your support for “a woman's right to choose” is part of what gives you a positive self concept, then you certainly don't want to hear about things like post-abortive stress syndrome. And if opposing the war in Iraq is part of what's earning you your good-person-seal-of approval, you'll never, ever consider the possibility that you might be playing the part of an Axis Sally or a Tokyo Rose.
And if - tolerant person that you are - you find yourself seething at columns like this one, well, you're a perfect example of one of Lehrer's most amusing lines, “There are people in this world who do not love their fellow man, and I hate people like that.”
My husband loves this guy. He is really good.
Tom Lehrer is the one exception to the rule that Liberals have no humor. His sense of humor is greatly underappreciated.
“New math”, “Alma”, “Whatever happened to Hubert?” and the “Vatican Rag” are sill priceless.
If he’s still around, he has to be late-80 year old. Anybody know what happpened to Tom?
I think so, too.
Sounds like he might still be around Santa Cruz: from Wikipedia — In 2001, Lehrer taught his last math class (on the topic of Infinity) and retired from academia. [11] He has remained in the area, and still “hangs out” around the University of California, Santa Cruz.[12]
Let’s not forget the “Silent E” song.
Who can turn a can into a cane?
Who can turn a pan into a pane?
It’s not too hard to see
It’s silent E
I am a public high school teacher of Advanced Placement History. On May 9 just passed all high school kids took the same test for college credit.
Just before my kids went into the test room (I could not be present) I reminded them, “always remember, minorities and women most affected”.
It’s the easiest way to get a good score on the big essay.
That’s a great animation to the song. I haven’t heard that one in a long time.
Let’s not forget the “Silent E” song.
Who can turn a can into a cane?
Who can turn a pan into a pane?
It’s not too hard to see
It’s silent E
I don’t remember that one, but I remember Pollution, Pollution.
Liberals have made sure that no one is able to learn from their (or others’) mistakes -
they make the rest of us pay for the consequences of those choices, thereby obliterating the effect of the lesson.
Ah, Age of Destruction. Those were the days. He actually had some pretty decent Christian songs after his conversion. Meek Willy was a good one. Quite a contrast to Age of Destruction.
He was a very witty guy who could rhyme anything. Lehrer even made a credible song out of the Periodic Table! I always assumed he was a political liberal (and may well be, for all I know) but this article by Art Marmorstein makes a good case for Lehrer's songs from the '60's being a perfect portrait as well as a send-up of the narcissistic youth that dominated pop culture back then. Tom Lehrer was apparently even witter and certainly more trenchant that I ever realized.
Good catch. Thanks.
Someone posted above the very song you mentioned, complete with a very cool animation of the words: http://www.privatehand.com/flash/elements.html
Base eight is just like base ten - - if you're missing two fingers."
Still cracks me up just thinking about it.
. . . it's done to a Gilbert & Sullivan patter song tune, more or less ("The Modern Major General") and you can jam almost anything into the tune if you sing it fast enough.
" . . . and these are all the ones of which the news has come to Hahvahd,
< very fast > and there may be many others but they haven't been dis-CAH-vahd. < shave and a haircut, two bits > "
The man is an absolute hoot! We have all his records (on both CD and 33 as well as a strange little undersized 33) and the book that he wrote with Ronald Searle ("Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer, with Not Enough Pictures by Ronald Searle").
Forgot about that part.
It’s so simple, so very simple, that only a child can do it!
How many records did he put out? I think we only have That was the Week that Was and one other one. I’ll look for the book. Sounds great.
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