I’ve heard most of Tom Lehrer’s songs multiple times, but until now I’d never seen footage of him performing them. Somehow his performance comes across as edgier – and less merely whimsical – when you can see it as well as hear it; his anger and contempt toward the cold-war political establishment are even more obvious.
BTW, in “The Masochism Tango,” Lehrer later changed the lines:
You caught my nose
in your left castanet, love
I can feel the pain yet, love
every time I hear drums
and I envy the rose
that you held in your teeth, love
with the thorns underneath, love
sticking into your gums
to:
You caught my nose
in your left castanet, love
I can never forget, love,
how this passion was born
how I envied the rose
that your teeth used to clench, love
when I tried something French, love
all I got was the thorn
(which makes better sense, because the woman in the song is supposed to be torturing the man, not torturing herself).
Thank you!
What a treat! I’m fondly recalling some great hours spent listening to The Doctor Demento Show now
… all suffused with an incandescent glow …
Yeah, nobody else could ever do this!