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Quiz about An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer
Quiz about An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer

An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer Quiz


On the live album "An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer", recorded during a series of concerts in 1959, a number of Tom Lehrer's humorous songs are presented along with his witty introductions. Can you recognize the songs from their introductions?

A multiple-choice quiz by looney_tunes. Estimated time: 6 mins.
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Author
looney_tunes
Time
6 mins
Type
Multiple Choice
Quiz #
291,173
Updated
Jul 23 22
# Qns
10
Difficulty
Average
Avg Score
8 / 10
Plays
802
Awards
Top 5% quiz!
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Question 1 of 10
1. The first song for the evening has the following introduction: "I'd like to take you now on wings of song as it were, and try and help you forget, perhaps, for a while, your drab wretched lives. Here is a song all about springtime in general, and in particular about one of the many delightful pastimes that the coming of spring affords us all." What ditty follows? Hint


Question 2 of 10
2. Lehrer starts his introduction for the second song with "For my first encore, I'd like to turn to a type of song that people like myself find ourselves subjected to with increasing frequency as time goes on, and that is the college alma mater. You find yourself at a reunion of old grads and old undergrads, and somebody will start croaking out one of these things and everyone will gradually join in, each in his own key of course, until the place is just soggy with nostalgia." What offering follows? Hint


Question 3 of 10
3. What song, with a title that sounds like a Charles Dickens tale, has an introduction that claims "none of the Christmas carols that you hear on the radio, or in the street, even attempts to capture the true spirit of Christmas as we celebrate it in the United States, that is to say the commercial spirit"? Hint


Question 4 of 10
4. What song's introduction includes, "I'd like to sing a song which is completely pointless, but is something which I picked up during my career as a scientist. This may prove useful to some of you some day, perhaps, in a somewhat bizarre set of circumstances"? Hint


Question 5 of 10
5. Describing the failure of a film version of a famous Greek tragedy, Lehrer says, "And I maintain that the reason it was not a financial success... you're way ahead of me... was that it did not have a title tune which the people could hum, and which would make them actually eager to attend this particular flick." What was the name of the film, and the title of the song being introduced? Hint


Question 6 of 10
6. The next introduction, funny as it is, has virtually nothing to do with the song, which is 'In Old Mexico'. Then comes a song that Lehrer introduces with the assertion, "I should like to consider the folk song, and expound briefly on a theory I have held for some time, to the effect that the reason most folk songs are so atrocious is that they were written by the people." What traditional song is this? Hint


Question 7 of 10
7. In introducing his next song, Lehrer says, "I have only comparatively recently emerged from the United States Army, so that I am now, of course, in the radioactive reserve. And, the usual jokes about the Army aside, one of the many fine things one has to admit is the way that the Army has carried the American democratic ideal to its logical conclusion, in the sense that not only do they prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race, creed and color, but also on the grounds of ability." What military-themed song follows? Hint


Question 8 of 10
8. In introducing his next song, Lehrer says (in part), "I'm sure you're familiar with love songs ... where the girl who sings them tells you that, although the man she loves is antisocial, alcoholic, physically repulsive, or just plain unsanitary, that, nevertheless, she is his because he is hers, and like that. But, as far as I know, there has never been a popular song from the analogous male point of view." What song does he offer to fill this void? Hint


Question 9 of 10
9. For what song does Tom Lehrer use this introduction?

"Another familiar type of love song is the passionate or fiery variety, usually in tango tempo, in which the singer exhorts his partner to haunt him and taunt him and, if at all possible, to consume him with a kiss of fire."
Hint


Question 10 of 10
10. For what "modern, positive, dynamic, uplifting song, in the tradition of the great old revival hymns" does Lehrer start his introduction with the story of "a fellow I used to know whose name was Henry, only to give you an idea of what an individualist he was, he spelled it H-E-N-3-R-Y - the three was silent, you see"? Hint



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Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts
1. The first song for the evening has the following introduction: "I'd like to take you now on wings of song as it were, and try and help you forget, perhaps, for a while, your drab wretched lives. Here is a song all about springtime in general, and in particular about one of the many delightful pastimes that the coming of spring affords us all." What ditty follows?

Answer: Poisoning Pigeons in the Park

As he sings,
"But there's one thing that makes spring complete for me,
And makes every Sunday a treat for me.
All the world seems in tune
On a spring afternoon,
When we're poisoning pigeons in the park."

'The Hunting Song' celebrates the joys of hunting (he bags two game wardens, seven hunters and a cow); 'The Old Dope Peddler' is a paean to those who spread joy via powdered happiness; 'Springtime for Hitler' is not a Tom Lehrer song: it comes from "The Producers".
2. Lehrer starts his introduction for the second song with "For my first encore, I'd like to turn to a type of song that people like myself find ourselves subjected to with increasing frequency as time goes on, and that is the college alma mater. You find yourself at a reunion of old grads and old undergrads, and somebody will start croaking out one of these things and everyone will gradually join in, each in his own key of course, until the place is just soggy with nostalgia." What offering follows?

Answer: Bright College Days

Only 'Bright College Days' is on this album; the other three songs can be heard on the live album "Tom Lehrer Revisited." From

"Let's drink a toast as each of us recalls
Ivy-covered professors in ivy-covered halls" to

"Hearts full of youth,
Hearts full of truth,
Six parts gin to one part vermouth",

this is a tribute to undergraduate years well wasted (in several senses of the word).

'Fight Fiercely, Harvard' is offered as a football fight song, not an alma mater. 'I Want to Go Back to Dixie' is described as "the southern type song about the wonders of the American south". 'My Home Town' is described as belonging to "the 'Dear Hearts And Gentle People' school of songwriting."
3. What song, with a title that sounds like a Charles Dickens tale, has an introduction that claims "none of the Christmas carols that you hear on the radio, or in the street, even attempts to capture the true spirit of Christmas as we celebrate it in the United States, that is to say the commercial spirit"?

Answer: A Christmas Carol

Cutting to the commercial heart of the Christmas season, Lehrer tells us:
"It doesn't matter how sincere it is,
Nor how heart felt the spirit,
Sentiment will not endear it,
What's important is the price."

The other answers are books by Dickens, but not songs by Lehrer.
4. What song's introduction includes, "I'd like to sing a song which is completely pointless, but is something which I picked up during my career as a scientist. This may prove useful to some of you some day, perhaps, in a somewhat bizarre set of circumstances"?

Answer: The Elements

'The Elements' is a patter song to the tune of 'The Major-General's Song' from Gilbert & Sullivan's "The Pirates Of Penzance".

It starts with
"There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium"
and ends with
"And chlorine, carbon, cobalt, copper, tungsten, tin and sodium.
These are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard,
And there may be many others but they haven't been discovered."

The later synthesis of transactinide elements that had not been created at the time when Lehrer wrote his song shows the wisdom of his final two lines!

'Lobachevsky' describes the value of plagiarism in achieving academic success; 'New Math' takes the audience through the joys of arithmetic described with new terminology and using number bases other than 10 (a trend which caused much confusion for parents trying to help their primary children with arithmetic homework); 'Wernher von Braun' is about the German rocket scientist.
5. Describing the failure of a film version of a famous Greek tragedy, Lehrer says, "And I maintain that the reason it was not a financial success... you're way ahead of me... was that it did not have a title tune which the people could hum, and which would make them actually eager to attend this particular flick." What was the name of the film, and the title of the song being introduced?

Answer: Oedipus Rex

Sophocles' play 'Oedipus Rex' tells the tragic story of a man who was exiled as a child because of a prophecy that he would kill his father and have children by his mother. Ignorant of his actual parentage, he accidentally fulfills this dire prophecy. When it is all revealed, his mother hangs herself, and Oedipus first stabs out his eyes then sends himself into exile. Sigmund Freud popularized the phrase 'Oedipus Complex' to refer to a male child's unconscious desire for the exclusive love of his mother. Lehrer ends his song with a cautionary note: love your mother, but not excessively, or

"You may find yourself with a quite complex complex
And you may end up like Oedipus.
I'd rather marry a duck-billed platypus
Than end up like old Oedipus Rex."
6. The next introduction, funny as it is, has virtually nothing to do with the song, which is 'In Old Mexico'. Then comes a song that Lehrer introduces with the assertion, "I should like to consider the folk song, and expound briefly on a theory I have held for some time, to the effect that the reason most folk songs are so atrocious is that they were written by the people." What traditional song is this?

Answer: Clementine

'Clementine' takes the traditional song and presents several verses in the style of Cole Porter, Mozart, 'cool school' and Gilbert & Sullivan.

Despite (or perhaps because of) performing in the sort of venue which he would have shared with folk singers, and in front of audiences who would have included folk music as a popular form of entertainment, Tom Lehrer regularly takes a swipe at this 'trendy' music form. As he says in his introduction to 'The Irish Ballad' on the album "Tom Lehrer Revisited", "Now I'd like to turn to the folk song, which has become in recent years the particularly fashionable form of idiocy among the self-styled intellectual." 'The Folk Song Army' takes a swipe at protest singers who have (according to the introduction on "That Was the Year That Was"), "a certain amount of courage to get up in a coffee house or a college auditorium and come out in favor of the things that everybody else in the audience is against, like peace and justice and brotherhood and so on."
7. In introducing his next song, Lehrer says, "I have only comparatively recently emerged from the United States Army, so that I am now, of course, in the radioactive reserve. And, the usual jokes about the Army aside, one of the many fine things one has to admit is the way that the Army has carried the American democratic ideal to its logical conclusion, in the sense that not only do they prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race, creed and color, but also on the grounds of ability." What military-themed song follows?

Answer: It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier

'It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier' is offered by Lehrer as a possible anthem for the Army; as he says, "The fact that it did not win the contest I can ascribe only to blatant favoritism on the part of the judges."

'Be Prepared' is a Boy Scouts anthem; 'So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III)' is described as 'a bit of pre-nostalgia'; 'Send the Marines' is described as a song about America's number one instrument of diplomacy. All three of these songs can be heard on the album "That Was the Year That Was."
8. In introducing his next song, Lehrer says (in part), "I'm sure you're familiar with love songs ... where the girl who sings them tells you that, although the man she loves is antisocial, alcoholic, physically repulsive, or just plain unsanitary, that, nevertheless, she is his because he is hers, and like that. But, as far as I know, there has never been a popular song from the analogous male point of view." What song does he offer to fill this void?

Answer: She's My Girl

As the first verse tells us,
"Sharks gotta swim, and bats gotta fly,
I gotta love one woman till I die.
To Ed or Dick or Bob,
She may be just a slob,
But to me, well,
She's my girl."

'When You are Old and Grey' describes the fleeting nature of romantic love; 'I Hold Your Hand in Mine' is a post-mortem love song of gruesome detail; 'Alma' is a tribute to the romantic prowess of the woman who married Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius and Franz Werfel.
9. For what song does Tom Lehrer use this introduction? "Another familiar type of love song is the passionate or fiery variety, usually in tango tempo, in which the singer exhorts his partner to haunt him and taunt him and, if at all possible, to consume him with a kiss of fire."

Answer: The Masochism Tango

'The Masochism Tango' is exactly as advertised in the introduction:

"I ache for the touch of your lips, dear,
But much more for the touch of your whips, dear.
You can raise welts
Like nobody else,
As we dance to the Masochism Tango."

'The Wiener Schnitzel Waltz' is a sentimental song from the Viennese waltz school; 'The Senior Samba' and 'The Fiery Foxtrot' do not (to the best of my knowledge) exist.
10. For what "modern, positive, dynamic, uplifting song, in the tradition of the great old revival hymns" does Lehrer start his introduction with the story of "a fellow I used to know whose name was Henry, only to give you an idea of what an individualist he was, he spelled it H-E-N-3-R-Y - the three was silent, you see"?

Answer: We Will All Go Together When We Go

'We Will All Go Together When We Go' offers advance consolation for a nuclear holocaust:

"When the air becomes uraneous,
We will all go simultaneous.
Yes, we all will go together
When we all go together,
Yes we all will go together when we go."

The other three songs can all be heard on the album "That Was the Year That Was". 'Who's Next' deals with the paranoia caused by nuclear proliferation; 'MLF Lullaby' discusses concerns potentially caused by a proposed "joint nuclear deterrent force including our current friends, like France, and our traditional friends, like Germany" (as described in its introduction); 'Pollution' addresses environmental concerns with the advice, "Just two things of which you must beware: Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!"

And that brings us to the end of another evening NOT wasted with Tom Lehrer.
Source: Author looney_tunes

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