Reader Sigmund has done some wonderful parodies at his anti-accommodationist Sneer Review website, and there’s a good one today.
If you’re of a certain age, you’ll remember Tom Lehrer’s “Vatican Rag”, an amazingly popular parody of Catholicism from the 1960’s. (“2, 4, 6, 8—time to transubstantiate”, etc). Lehrer, by the way, is still alive: he’s 83, but no longer makes music.
Sigmund has written new words to the song, whose original you can hear on the site, and retitled it “The Inter-Faith Rag.” You might want to sing along with the tune, for he’s really matched his words to Lehrer’s music. It’s a hoot.
This piece joins Sigmund’s other masterpieces, the two most notable being “Bohemian Rosenau” and “Downfall of Chris Mooney’s Uncientific America” (still my favorite; the L. A. Times editorial mentioned in the piece is here).
Since the world (and Universe) ends today, I’ve been thinking more of “We’ll All Go Together When We Go.”
“What is he after? A job at the Discovery Institute?
…
“This is the end of the National Academy strategy.
And it was working so well: “Science *IS* compatible with Religion.
“Complete bollocks, of course, but an easy slogan for the masses.”
My favourite is the Agnostic Bible Choir of Harlem, a satirical gospel song from the revue Abroad with Two Men.
I feel a greater presence
A guiding hand above
Where all the peoples of the world
Are warmed by someone’s love
But who or what that someone is
I’m not entirely sure
Are we all alone?
Will there be someone home?
When I knock, I knock on heaven’s door
Well I’d clap my hands
And praise the lord
If I was sure he’s there
But I can’t shut out
The nagging doubt
I’m talking to thin air
And I truly pray
On judgement day
My inner soul is reached(?)
But did he shed his blood or send the flood
Well I am unconvinced
Wholly unconvinced
I am simply not persuaded
Wholly unconvinced
By the faith that gets paraded
etc
P Scott/J Biggins/L Nagle
A magnificent adaptation of “Valkyrie”.
Tom Lehrer’s recordings were released pretty much in their entirety on commercial CD. Wouldn’t surprise me to discover they’re now available through iTunes.
There’s not a one of them that I’d do without and having listened to them as a kid, I was very happy to find the CDs when they came out.
Go ye and buy!
Many are at YouTube, including the Vatican Rag.
Make a cross on your abdomen,
When in Rome do like the Romans.
Ave Maria, gee it’s good to see ya,
Gettin’ ecstatic and melodromatic and
Doin’ the Vatican Rag!
“You might think that all religion,
Reminds you of Spooner’s pigeon,”
Spooner’s? Or Skinner’s? The Wikipedia article on William Archibald Spooner does not pension a midgeon.
You’re right – That’s who I meant – I’ll change it.
Was is Spooner who parked pigeons in the poison?
/@
No, that was Lom Tehrer.
Yay, Sigmund–great job!
But somehow, this–“Lehrer, by the way, is still alive: he’s 83, but no longer makes music”–is the part that arrested my attention. I hadn’t really thought about it, but I guess I assumed he was dead. Iconic parts of one’s formative years tend to remain frozen in time, I guess.
Tom, wherever you are–thanks just doesn’t cut it, but my life was better because of you.
I second that.
I went to hear him in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1959. You’ve no idea how iconoclastic he was back then.
(No, it must have been April 16, 1960.)
Close enough. 🙂
I was a child in the US in the Eisenhower 50’s; so I can sort of imagine…