The wait is over. The bad news is, this looks like the final volume in this series, unless I can track down the handful of elusive bits that are out there, somewhere on the planet. (Discussed below.)
As I mentioned before, Sphinx patron Arthur Castro's help was invaluable in pointing me in the direction of the full Bob Claster tapes (which have been cleaned to remove the tape hiss, and boosted a bit), as well as the two parodies that Mr. Lehrer prepared for Garrison Keillor's "American Radio Company" show, both for the Thanksgiving holiday.
Not only that, but he also was kind enough to point out that there were TWO performances of the "Hey Mr. Producer" show (sounds like a volume of HEY, MR. SPACEMAN, now that I notice it). The one recorded for album release was the NIGHT BEFORE the one released on video. Therefore, we now have an additional "Poisoning Pigeons" to enjoy.
While we are on the subject, and as I prepare a package to mail to Mr. Lehrer, let's briefly discuss what's left "out there" that would make a splendid Volume 6:
1) THE REMAINDER OF "THE PHYSICAL REVUE" This exists, and I would hope the owner of the very old wire recorder-made tape would be interested in me improving it, as I did the rest of the songs (see Volume One).
2) "THE SAC SONG" The Tom Lehrer Discography website says there's a soldier who claims to have a recording of Mr. Lehrer performing the whole song, perhaps as a guide for the film-makers working on "A Gathering of Eagles." Who knows if this is even true.
3) WTBS INTERVIEW (October 20, 1965) The rest of the tape that gave us "The Subway Song" contains at least one further in-studio performance.
[2024 EDIT]: This is now on the Tom Lehrer Discography website for download.
4) "WITHOUT AN S" Ah, the "lost" Electric Company song. I can't tell you how many VHS tapes of old episodes I have dug through trying to get lucky here, how many fruitless trades, and how many Internet Search Hours I have wasted. I have researched this quite a bit, and I can tell you it was sung by the great Rita Moreno, it was a parody of a song entitled "Without a Song" (which may be the reason for its elusiveness: rights), and that it was aired in one of the early seasons. The hunt continues.
5) "TREES" This was a song that was newly-recorded for the REMAINS OF TOM LEHRER boxed set, and then not used. It WAS, however, issued on "promo cassette" versions of the set. I seem to recall reading it was a cover, but I can't find my source at the moment. [2024 EDIT]: This has now been officially released on THE CONDUCTED TOM LEHRER!
There you have it. Worry not; I'm on the case.
LINK: Tom Lehrer Rarities Volume 5
NOTE: Please see elsewhere on this very blog for other volumes, Voices of Vista, and MORE!
LINK: Tom Lehrer Rarities Volume 5
NOTE: Please see elsewhere on this very blog for other volumes, Voices of Vista, and MORE!
25 comments:
Please repost this one too
Fixed--thanks for pointing that one out.
About 5 years ago, i came across a BBC acetate disc of Tom Lehrer on a second hand market. The disc features 10 tracks from the first album "Songs By Tom Lehrer", although in a different order. The disc isn't in great condition, and has quite a lot of background noise and a couple of scratches / skips.
Full track list is:
Side 1:
The Hunting Song
My Home Town
When You Are Old And Grey
I Hold Your Hand In Mine
The Wiener Schnitzel Waltz
Side 2
The Irish Ballad
Be Prepared
The Old Dope Peddler
Lobachevsky
I Wanna Go Back To Dixie
The songs "The Wild West" and "Fight Fiercely, Harvard" are not included.
If anyone wants any more info on the disc, my email is:
dreamengine1@yahoo.com
I have just found your site and I'm eager to purchase copies of your collections. Where can I find them?
Petrine:
As I told Mr. Lehrer, who gave me his blessing for this fan-made set (and asked for copies!), these would never be for sale. I'd be happy to re-upload them for you.
If it's easier, drop me a line at samtheq@juno.com and I can give you all the links at once, rather than making you dig through blog posts.
Thank you so much!
Petrine
Hello... like Petrine back in November '14, I too just came upon your site... just a little later than he did! Are the links still available somewhere? Thanks much
Dunno if you are interested, but I did a DES stereo version of the orchestral version of "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park". A friend of mine posted it as a video on his YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMVGvBzmsqw), but I can supply a lossless copy.
@Publius Minor - Hey, that is awesome! Thanks for sharing. I of course have extracted it right away, but if it's no trouble for you to point me to a lossless version, you can email me at my antiquated Juno address at the top of this page! Is it possible for Masochism Tango to be done in the same way?
I started "The Masochism Tango", but I would have to check to see how far I got. I had also intended to do the other two orchestrated versions from the same session, but I got distracted. I have eclectic tastes, and have DESed stuff from Jimmie Rodgers to Frank Sinatra to Hank Williams to Patsy Cline to Bob Wills to The Singing Dogs.
I am not finding your email address anywhere. I can be contacted directly at: g o r o k e AT a o l DOT com
I just have discovered your blog and it is awesome, thank you!
Maybe it would be worth to publish your compilations on youtube? that way it would available for whole world.
@Anonymous - Thank you! That is a good idea and not implausible. When I get the time I will work on that. We need to keep this great body of work out there, for sure.
I think I found 'Trees'! It's on Apple Music (music.apple.com/us/album/trees/1683785199?i=1683785605). I checked the lyrics and it matched up with the one on the website. I unfortunately don't have apple music, so I could only listen to the preview. Please let me know if it actually is the recorded song!
Wait, actually it's on YouTube (the full version). https://youtu.be/kl21zJnQ1y8
I now realized that this was posted 12 hours ago. Wow, I'm lucky!
@Mirnin - You sure did, bless you! I did some research, and a new compilation has been made called "The Conducted Tom Lehrer," which you can buy through the Bandcamp website (on all formats)! As the name implies, it collects Mr. Lehrer's songs recorded with orchestras, including several Electric Company tracks (sadly no "Without an S"). But there IS some new stuff, including instrumental backing tracks, as well as the long-awaited "Trees," which I can confirm for you is only 55 seconds, and turns out to be a country and western parody, who knew! Looks like it won't be released until late July, and my order is already placed. We should really review it here when it finally comes out. Huge thanks for letting me know about this!
Just in case you hadn't seen the youtube link in my comment, here's the full album on youtube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lkZABIXiV4XO-TTEwfEgYQ2qJ8G9HgDtA
Also, here's the tomfoolery album: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLz41CkbmCI-98Xw2nHw_EdJgNv5XsARB4
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kGXSIn5LwilUk4sn1iBLyl8UqoSWEeTI4. The old link went private for some reason
Whoa, the fact all this is still available has me super excited. A couple of things that I've missed if they came up: there's more of the Oct 20, 1965 interview available here (particularly on-air performance of "The Fifty Russion Composers"): http://dmdb.org/discographies/lehrer.disco.html. Also The Subway Song itself was released here: https://thefump.com/store/release/282
Oh, I see Fifty Russian Composers is in there already. But I Hold Your Hand in Mine is also in the recording, if you need it.
@psychoadept - Thank you! Those links weren't active when I first discovered that page.
Another update, of course, is that "Trees" has now too had a proper release on the recent "The Conducted Tom Lehrer" album.
Yes! I've enjoyed that one a lot! I saw there's some stuff from American Radio Company, but I can get you a clip of Ivy Austin doing Hannukah in Santa Monica (1990), if you're interested. Also, a couple of gems I found on youtube that I didn't see in the collection yet: Bing Crosby/Mary Costa (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ULTMsykS7A) and Jane Connell (https://youtu.be/ZHbwNH-eydA?si=FUQzBjB8QCNGEBNC&t=391).
Meanwhile, I'm in the process of adding your releases to MusicBrainz, eg: https://beta.musicbrainz.org/release/07196c44-ed93-4c90-a261-d7d40041a468 (Started to link to them, but usually that's frowned on for bootlegs so I'm checking.)
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