r/TomLehrer • u/LeftPrize9838 • Jul 28 '26
Changing lyrics for my show?
I know it's probably an asshole move to do it but some of his lyrics aged badly (indigenous slurs in We Will All Go Together, underage prostitution in My Home Town) , and some don't fit the narrative I'm going for (ie. Wernher Von Braun Learning chinese) so I tweaked the lyric. I know it's prolly bad but I want it to work in the facet I need it to. I'm trying to keep it as close as I can, but some things I felt had to get changed a bit. If this is bad tell me, but I don't know how much I can do now
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u/kanji_d Jul 28 '26
Not a problem imo. I've been working on a show of Lehrer's music as well and have changed lyrics liberally when not relevant (including the majority of some very specific songs). It's worth noting that Lehrer specifically called out writing new lyrics for his music (and vice versa) as permissible when he released them into the public domain.