That Was the Year That Was
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That Was The Year That Was | ||
Studio album by Tom Lehrer | ||
Released | 1965 | |
Recorded | July 1965 | |
Genre | Satire | |
Length | 31:42 | |
Label | Reprise | |
Producer(s) | Jimmy Hilliard | |
Professional reviews | ||
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Tom Lehrer chronology | ||
Tom Lehrer Revisited (1960) |
That Was The Year That Was (1965) |
That Was "That Was the Week That Was" (1981) |
That Was The Year That Was (1965) is an album made up of a collection of satiric topical songs performed by Tom Lehrer for the NBC version of the BBC series That Was The Week That Was. All of the songs related to items then in the news
[edit] Track listing
- "National Brotherhood Week" – 2:35
- "MLF Lullaby" – 2:25
- "George Murphy" – 2:08
- "The Folk Song Army" – 2:12
- "Smut" – 3:15
- "Send the Marines" – 1:46
- "Pollution" – 2:17
- "So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III) – 2:23
- "Whatever Became of Hubert?" – 2:13
- "New Math" – 4:28
- "Alma" – 5:27
- "Who's Next?" – 2:00
- "Wernher Von Braun" – 1:46
- "The Vatican Rag" – 2:14
[edit] Topics of songs
- "National Brotherhood Week"—National Brotherhood Week.
- "MLF Lullaby"—An ultimately failed U.S. proposal for a multilateral nuclear force as part of NATO.
- "George Murphy"—George Murphy, dancer, actor, U.S. Senator from California.
- "The Folk Song Army"—Topical songs as part of the folk revival of the 1960s; also alludes to songs of the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War, especially "Venga Jaleo" which it excerpts musically.
- "Smut"—Censorship of obscenity, and the 1957 U.S. Supreme Court case Roth v. United States, which coined the expression "redeeming social importance".
- "Send the Marines"—Miltarism in United States foreign policy.
- "Pollution"—Pollution of the environment.
- "So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III)"—Nuclear war, Mutually Assured Destruction, nostalgia over past wars, and television news coverage.
- "Whatever Became of Hubert?"—Hubert Horatio Humphrey, then U.S. vice president under Lyndon B. Johnson.
- "New Math"—New Math, a trend at the time in the teaching of mathematics.
- "Who's Next?"—Nuclear proliferation.
- "Alma"—Alma Mahler, who had recently died. Composer and painter; wife, successively, of Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius, and Franz Werfel.
- "Wernher Von Braun"—Rocket scientist Wernher Von Braun.
- "The Vatican Rag"—The Second Vatican Council and the reform of Roman Catholic liturgy.