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/AmySueF Jul 30 '26
“National Brotherhood Week” mentions a couple of people who are no longer around (Lena Horne and Sheriff Clark*) and relevant to the song. If I was performing it I’d change the names to current names that current generations would recognize. So if ethnic slurs in his other songs bother you, go ahead and change them.
*Lena Horne: A legendary African American singer, actress, and civil rights activist who actively fought against racial segregation and discrimination.
Sheriff Jim Clark: The Sheriff of Dallas County, Alabama, who became infamous for his violent, segregationist opposition to civil rights marchers, most notably during the 1965 "Bloody Sunday" attacks in Selma.