This is one of two Tom Lehrer albums that were not collected on the glorious Rhino box set The Remains of Tom Lehrer (hopefully my next blog post will be about the other one). They were no doubt omitted for the sake of redundancy, but since Tom gave up writing and performing so long ago and no new material will be forthcoming, fans justifiably tend to grab anything they can find with both hands. This Australian import from 1960, which I'd never seen in the wild before I scored a copy last month, is truly wonderful because the enthusiastic audience was well aware that this was no ordinary concert tour.
Before the live performances (Melbourne and Sydney) which form the backbone of this record, Tom had taken his little evening of sick-sick-sick humor to two other Australian cities only to fall under the censor's hammer. In Brisbane, where a year earlier someone tried (and failed) to have Tom's album Songs by Tom Lehrer banned throughout the country, Tom arrived to have the Police Commissioner threaten him not to play his tribute to the Boy Scouts, "Be Prepared". Tom played it anyway. Then in Adelaide a government official refused to let him perform unless he promised not to play five songs: "My Home Town", "The Irish Ballad", "When You Are Old and Gray", "I Hold Your Hand in Mine", and "Be Prepared". (An Adelaide newspaper printed the full lyrics to "I Hold Your Hand in Mine" and was not prosecuted.) So of course all Tom had to say before the final cut on this record was "And now, a song dedicated to the Boy Scouts of America" to get the Melbourne/Sydney audiences to erupt in cheers.
As Tom explains after performing "I Hold Your Hand in Mine", his tender ode to necrophilia: "I have always regarded it as part of my mission in life to follow around after Billy Graham and try and undo some of the work he's done."
Introduction
I Wanna Go Back to Dixie
The Wild West Is Where I Want to Be
Fight Fiercely, Harvard
The Hunting Song
Lobachevsky
The Irish Ballad
When You Are Old and Grey
My Home Town
The Old Dope Peddler
The Wiener Schnitzel Waltz
I Hold Your Hand in Mine
Be Prepared
DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.
