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can believe it if it helps you to sleep.'"
What is impressive about Lehrer's
complete works is how many of his
songs, dealing with long past issues of
the 1960s, still skewer prejudices of
the present.
Each Lehrer fan will have his or her
favorite, but few will forget the lyrics
of his top hits — including those he
wrote but did not perform himself on
the 1964 American version of the
British television show That Was the
Week That Was. This boxed set
includes Lehrer's own recording of
those songs.
In "National Brotherhood Week,"
Lehrer sings out, "Oh, the Protestants
hate the Catholics / And the Catholics
hate the Protestants / And the Hindus
hate the Muslims / And ev'rybody
hates the Jews" — a sentiment which
voiced today would likely impel our
defense groups to raise the barricades.
An equal opportunity offender,
Lehrer says he has been reviled most
often for his immortal "Vatican Rag,"
which contains such lines as:

Get in line in that processional,
Step into that small confessional,
There the guy who got religion'll
Tell you if your sin's original.
If it is, try playin' it safer,
Drink the wine and chew the wafer,
Two, four, six, eight,
Time to transubstantiate!

Many of the same songs, includ-
ing favorites like "Poisoning Pigeons
in the Park," "We Will All Go
Together When We Go" and "The
Machismo Tango," are repeated on
each of the three CDs in different
versions. Lehrer on the piano, some-
times with comments, sometimes
without — and, offensive to Lehrer
purists, with orchestral backing.
Also included are never-before-
issued recordings of five songs,
including the "Hanukkah" ditty,
which was written in the early '90s
for Garrison Keillor's Saturday radio
show, The American Radio Company.
In his introduction to the song,
Keillor pointed out that there just
aren't any popular Chanuka songs
because no gentile songwriter ever
thought about writing one, and the
great Jewish songwriters were busy
writing Christmas songs.
"There was thus a deplorable
lacuna in the repertoire, which this
song, a sort of answer to 'White
Christmas,' was intended to reme-
dy," Lehrer noted.
The full lyrics go like this, using
Lehrer's own spelling:

IM spending Hanukkah
In Santa Monica,
Wearing sandals,
Lighting candles
By the sea.
I spent Shevuos
In East St. Louis,
A charming spot,
But clearly not
The spot for me.
Those Eastern winters,
I can't endure rem,
So ev'ry year
I pack my gear
And come out here
Till Purim.
Rosh Hashonah
I spend in Arizonah,
And Yom Kippuh (Southern accent)
Way down in Mississippuh
But in December there's just one place
for me.
Amid the California flora
I'll be lighting my menorah,
Like a baby in the cradle,
I'll be playing with my dreidel,
Here's to Judas Maccabeus,
Boy, if he could only see us,
Spending Hanukkah
In Santa Monica
By the sea."

Lehrer's influences are far ranging. His
father, the child of immigrant parents, was
a successful necktie manufacturer, and
his parents often took him to Broadway
musicals, like 1941's Let's Face It, starring
Danny Kaye, who remained a special
favorite of Lehrer's. The showman's influ-
ence can be heard in such Lehrer ditties
as "Lobachevsky" and "The Elements."
Lehrer also spent a lot of time at
the movies, and he noted, "The Marx
Brothers still hold up for me."
In 1980, producer Cameron
Mackintosh (Les Miserables) compiled
a theater revue of 27 songs and link-
ing material by Lehrer, called
Tomfoolery; it ran in London for one
year. Since then there have been more
than 200 productions in the United
States and around the world.
Lehrer has taught mathematics at,
successively, Harvard, MIT, Wellesley
and the University of California at
Santa Cruz. He currently divides his
time living half the year in
Cambridge, Mass., in the same house
he's lived in since the 1960s, and in
Santa Cruz, Calif, for the other half.
His tongue-in-cheek bio concludes,
"He earns a precarious living peddling
dope to local schoolchildren and
rolling an occasional drunk. He
spends his declining years with his
shrunken head collection, his Nobel
Prizes and his memories. ❑

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