Tom Lehrer - The Vatican Rag

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Over the years a lot of people have been offended by this song, also on YouTube.

Now you can read Tom Lehrer's own introduction to the song, given to The Music Show in Australia when he was interviewed on the telephone a few years ago:

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Another big news story of the year (1965) concerned the Ecumenical Council in Rome, known as Vatican II. Among the things they did, in an attempt to make the church more commercial, was to introduce the vernacular into portions of the mass to replace Latin, and to widen somewhat the range of music permissible in the liturgy. But I feel that if they really want to sell the product in this secular age, what they ought to do is to re-do some of the liturgical music in popular song forms. I have a modest example here. It's called The Vatican Rag...

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Lehrer said "OK" to "The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel" on YouTube, as long as the performance is not altered and as long as it's free in the YouTube flash video format. Do NOT ask for any video originals, ever again.

Click on the Lehrer icon and visit the channel's front page. The channel is Lehrer only. And here is a link to a NEW channel support page:



Tom Lehrer on Amazon.com:



© 2008 Tom Lehrer

Channel: Comedy
Uploaded: October 1, 2007 at 7:00 am
Author: 6funswede

Length: 00:01:16
Rating: 4.90
Views: 198400

Tags: Tom Lehrer the vatican rag ragtime musical satirical satire song songs

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numbing numbered numerous Comments:
rainbowheydrich (December 1, 2008 at 10:07 pm)
I love him. xD
He is so amazing! His songs are just fantastic and brilliant! They just don't make them like this anymore ;_-
Has humanity really deteriorated THAT much? In such a short span of time? We have gone from amusement at Lehrer's brilliant and smart humour to merely finding comedy in fart jokes and other unworthy things. Brilliance and wit has been replaced by vulgarity. It is a tragedy. One can be comical without necessarily being completely obscene and Lehrer serves as proof. Smart.
McRat1968 (December 1, 2008 at 6:18 pm)
Actually, it's:

"Base 8 is just like Base 10, really.....if you're missing two fingers."
McRat1968 (December 1, 2008 at 6:13 pm)
Yes, he's alive and well at 80.

He travels between Santa Cruz CA and his origin area of Mass.
Afterthoughtbtw (November 27, 2008 at 2:59 pm)
Endured for 2000 years? Christianity? Only social structure to do so? Quite impressive that Christianity has endured longer than its predecessor, Judaism - which still exists today...

And of course this fact means it is true... After all, belief in magic, witches, a flat earth, and a myriad of other ridiculous things lasted even longer, and we all know that they are true...

What rubbish.
Spirosaur (November 26, 2008 at 6:16 pm)
this is such a fun and catchy song,I really just want to start dancing whenever I hear it.

"Genuflect Genuflect Genuflect and ..."
Spirosaur (November 26, 2008 at 5:42 pm)
The important part of any religion isn't it's mythologies (and even if it's true it's a mythology) it's it's methods, beliefs, and Philosophies. The True Absurdity is that people refuse to see that... (Also, before you say anything about my faith I'm a "pagan" )
chikago312 (November 24, 2008 at 7:34 pm)
hahah i love when musicians forget the lyrics to their own songs, great performance though from a genius
nuazak (November 21, 2008 at 3:23 pm)
the man plays a damn fine tune.
anitsirhceener (November 21, 2008 at 4:43 am)
amen
SethKlan (November 19, 2008 at 9:20 pm)
Fr.Fitzgerald was a chaplain in Vietnam when this came out. His Command asked if it was offensive, and he thought it was great. Mark G. from Buena Park first introduced this to me. I hope he reads this post.