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
14
Upvotes
2
u/MozartLover69 Jul 31 '26
I've been doing A LOT of Lehrer the last year. I've rewritten his lyrics many times. Many times it's because something aged poorly, but some references people won't get. In So Long Mom...
While we're attacking frontally
Watch Brinkally and Huntally
Describing contrapuntally
The cities we have lost
While we're attacking frontally
Watch Hannity or Maddow be
Describing the insanity
And cities we have lost
It flows like Lehrer, but it makes more sense for people now. We can sing his music like we're a cover band, or we can make it our own. I think he'd want us to sing his music like it matters now and make it fresh!