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Song Parodies -> "Who's Next"
Original Song Title:
"Who's Next"
Original Performer:
Tom Lehrer
Parody Song Title:
"Who's Next"
Parody Written by:
Phil Alexander
The Lyrics
The original contains the wonderful couplet:
Then France got the bomb, but don't you grieve
'Cause they're on our side (I believe)
...and that was written in the '50s. Some things never change - but I'd like to think that if Tom Lehrer had written this song in the current US-dominated political arena, rather than the scary nuclear proliferation era of the 60s, "Who's Next" might have turned out something like this:
Then France got the bomb, but don't you grieve
'Cause they're on our side (I believe)
...and that was written in the '50s. Some things never change - but I'd like to think that if Tom Lehrer had written this song in the current US-dominated political arena, rather than the scary nuclear proliferation era of the 60s, "Who's Next" might have turned out something like this:
First we attacked Afghanistan
To overthrow the Taliban
Then gave Saddam a nasty shock
By showing blitzkrieg to Iraq
Who's next?
Syria just gets us pissed
It's no surprise they're on the list
The CIA says they aid terror
And these guys never make an error
Who's next?
We don't really give a dang
Just what they do in Pyong Yang
And now Zimbabwe's looking scared:
I guess they're safe, there's no oil over there
Who's next?
Egypt, we might get them too,
Just to help out you know who...
But Israel's rather small
Will take no time at all
We'd occupy in minutes flat
But Congress would never go for that
Who's next?
Belgium hasn't much to fear
(Though I hear that they make good beer)
We'll give Chirac just one more chance
Before we start invading France
Who's next?
Who's next?
Who's next?
Who's next?
To overthrow the Taliban
Then gave Saddam a nasty shock
By showing blitzkrieg to Iraq
Who's next?
Syria just gets us pissed
It's no surprise they're on the list
The CIA says they aid terror
And these guys never make an error
Who's next?
We don't really give a dang
Just what they do in Pyong Yang
And now Zimbabwe's looking scared:
I guess they're safe, there's no oil over there
Who's next?
Egypt, we might get them too,
Just to help out you know who...
But Israel's rather small
Will take no time at all
We'd occupy in minutes flat
But Congress would never go for that
Who's next?
Belgium hasn't much to fear
(Though I hear that they make good beer)
We'll give Chirac just one more chance
Before we start invading France
Who's next?
Who's next?
Who's next?
Who's next?
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| 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | ||||||||
| 5 | 4 | 8 | 5 |
User Comments
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Phil, I give you fives just for having the gonads to tackle the great Tom. I always laughed at Allan Sherman, But Lehrer not only wrote brilliant topical lyrics that have stood the test of time, but composed and played the music. (Except "Elements",of course.) I have tried hard to write things worthy of his standards, as your parody is.
Thank you Rick - you're right that Lehrer wrote lyrics that were not just brilliant and topical *then*, but are still brilliant and topical *now*. It would be great to think that some of these would still be topical forty years from now... So, have you done any Lehrer parodies? What about making your next project, having done all the Beatles songs, to parody all Tom Lehrer's? No, maybe that would be a bit too cruel... you'd probably end up all Wayne-in-front-of-Alice-Cooper ;-)
For me, doing Tom L. is like Mad magazine trying to mock the Marx Brothers or the Simpsons. Very hard to put funny on top of funniest. What you did is an update that can proudly stand beside, but not sit on top of the original. I'm working on getting my MP3's somewhere and I'll let you know.
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