That Was Tom Lehrer's Year That Was Trivia Game | Music

Quiz Answer Key and Fun Facts

1. The songs on the album "That Was the Year That Was" were originally written to be performed on an American television show. What was its name?

Answer: That Was the Week That Was

"That Was the Week That Was", often referred to as TW3, was a satirical television show featuring David Frost which originally aired on the BBC in 1962 and 1963. The American version ran on NBC from January 1964 to May 1965. Tom Lehrer was a regular guest, producing pieces of topical humor.

He included these songs in his live performances, and recorded the album "That Was the Year That Was" during a concert at the hungry i in San Francisco during July of 1865.

2. "I'm sure we all agree that we ought to love one another, and I know there are people in the world who do not love their fellow human beings, and I hate people like that! Here's a song about National Brotherhood Week." After this introduction, who are we told will be dancing cheek-to-cheek during "National Brotherhood Week"?

Answer: Lena Horne and Sheriff Clark

These are all unlikely combinations (although some of the obvious clashes date from a few years after Lehrer's song was recorded), but he chose to have us consider Lena Horne and Sheriff Clarke. Lena Horne (born June 30, 1917 in Brooklyn, NY) is an American jazz singer, actress and activist in the movement to achieve civil rights for African-Americans. James Gardner Clark, Jr. was one of the officials responsible for the violent arrests of civil rights protestors in Selma, Alabama in 1965.

As Lehrer sings,
"Oh, the white folks hate the black folks,
And the black folks hate the white folks;
To hate all but the right folks
Is an old established rule.
But during National Brotherhood Week,
National Brotherhood Week,
Lena Horne and Sheriff Clark are dancing cheek to cheek.
It's fun to eulogize
The people you despise
As long as you don't let 'em in your school."

3. "A considerable amount of commotion was stirred up during the past year over the prospect of a multilateral force, known to the headline writers as MLF. Much of this discussion took place during the baseball season, so the Chronicle may not have covered it, but it did get a certain amount of publicity." From the introduction to what ostensibly-soothing song is this extracted?

Answer: MLF Lullaby

As the introduction ironically continues, "The basic idea was that a bunch of us nations, the good guys, would get together on a joint nuclear deterrent force including our current friends, like France, and our traditional friends, like Germany." The song goes on to explore reasons why the media had fomented public distrust of this proposal, with lyrics including:

"Once all the Germans were warlike and mean,
But that couldn't happen again.
We taught them a lesson in 1918
And they've hardly bothered us since then."

4. Name the subject of the song introduced by the following: "During the last election we had a good deal of fun back east following your senatorial contest out here. I'm from Massachusetts, and I feel that we have a certain right to gloat over the other states because Massachusetts is, after all, the only state with three senators. Anyway, here's a salute to your new junior senator."

Answer: George Murphy

All of these show business celebrities had political careers, but George Murphy is the subject of this song. Lehrer suggests that the ability to entertain is not necessarily the most appropriate indicator of political expertise.
"Hollywood's often tried to mix
Show business with politics
From Helen Gahagan
To Ronald Reagan?
But Mr. Murphy is the star
Who's done the best by far.
Oh, gee, it's great!
At last we've got a senator who can really sing and dance.
We can't expect America to win against its foes
With no one in the Senate who can really tap his toes."

The reference to Massachusetts having three senators (each US state has two senators) is an allusion to the fact that Robert Kennedy was representing New York in the Senate. Nonetheless, he was felt to be 'one of us' by many residents of Massachusetts.

5. "One type of song that has come into increasing prominence in recent months is the folk song of protest. You have to admire people who sing these songs. It takes a certain amount of courage to get up in a coffee house or a college auditorium and come out in favor of the things that everybody else in the audience is against, like peace and justice and brotherhood and so on." Of course, Lehrer has a modest example for which this is part of the introduction - what is it called?

Answer: The Folk Song Army

The introduction to 'The Folk Song Army' reveals Lehrer's awareness that political protest/satire is unlikely to effect change, since only those who are already predisposed to agree are likely to hear the message, as he has explicitly stated in later interviews. Here, he merely suggests it:

"Remember the war against Franco?
That's the kind where each of us belongs.
Though he may have won all the battles,
We had all the good songs!"

6. In introducing 'Smut', Lehrer states, "I do have a cause, though, it is obscenity. I'm for it!" Which of the following is NOT referred to in the lyrics of 'Smut'?

Answer: Lolita

According to the lyrics:
"When correctly viewed,
Everything is lewd.
I could tell you things about Peter Pan
And the Wizard of Oz -- there's a dirty old man!
I thrill
To any book like Fanny Hill,
And I suppose I always will
If it is swill
And really fil--thy."

Lady Chatterley also gets a mention, but Lolita does not.

7. In an introduction that is still relevant over 40 years later, Lehrer describes a climate of unease over international events, and adds "Fortunately, in times of crisis like this, America always has its number one instrument of diplomacy to fall back on." What is this instrument of diplomacy?

Answer: The Marines

As the song 'Send the Marines' says,

"When someone makes a move
Of which we don't approve,
Who is it that always intervenes?
U.N. and O.A.S.,
They have their place, I guess,
But first -- send the Marines!"

8. In introducing the song 'Pollution', Lehrer says, "Time was when an American about to go abroad would be warned by his friends or the guidebooks not to drink the water. But times have changed, and now a foreigner coming to this country might be offered the following advice." Which of the following does he NOT suggest a tourist to America might encounter?

Answer: Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink.

'Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink' comes from "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. The others are warnings offered by Lehrer on the way to the song's climax:

"So go to the city,
See the crazy people there.
Like lambs to the slaughter,
They're drinking the water
And breathing [cough] the air!"

9. "This year we've been celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the Civil War and the fiftieth anniversary of the beginning of World War I and the twentieth anniversary of the end of World War II. So all in all, it's been a good year for the war buffs." For what song is this the introduction?

Answer: So Long Mom (A Song for World War III)

As the introduction continues, "I feel that if any songs are gonna come out of World War III, we'd better start writing them now. I have one here. Might call it a bit of pre-nostalgia. This is the song that some of the boys sang as they went bravely off to World War III."
This bright, upbeat little number starts
"So long, mom,
I'm off to drop the bomb,
So don't wait up for me"
and finishes
"I'll look for you when the war is over,
An hour and a half from now!"

10. In one of his introductions, Lehrer says, "From time to time you read something about him pinning a medal on somebody or making a speech, or every now and then you read something in one of those 'where are they now' columns." About which American Vice President is the song that follows?

Answer: Hubert Humphrey

Hubert Humphrey was Lyndon Johnson's Vice President, and ran as the Democratic candidate for the presidency in 1968 against Richard Nixon. Spiro Agnew was Nixon's running mate in that election.

'Whatever Became of Hubert' muses on the obscurity of the office of Vice President.

"Are you sad? Are you cross?
Are you gathering moss
While you wait for the boss to sneeze?
Does Lyndon, recalling when he was VP,
Say "I'll do unto you like they did unto me"?
Do you dream about staging a coup?
Hubert what happened to you?"

11. Lehrer introduces 'New Math' by saying, "Some of you who have small children may have perhaps been put in the embarrassing position of being unable to do your child's arithmetic homework because of the current revolution in mathematics teaching known as the New Math." He then sings us through a subtraction problem with a twist. What is the twist?

Answer: The calculation is to be done using base 8

As the introduction continues: "Tonight, we're gonna cover subtraction. This is the first room I've worked for a while that didn't have a blackboard, so we will have to make do with more primitive visual aids, as they say in the ed biz. Consider the following subtraction problem, which I will put up here: 342 minus 173. Now, remember how we used to do that: Three from two is nine, carry the one, and if you're under 35 or went to a private school, you say seven from three is six, but if you're over 35 and went to a public school, you say eight from four is six ...and carry the one, so we have 169. But in the new approach, as you know, the important thing is to understand what you're doing, rather than to get the right answer." After carrying us giggling through a rapid explanation of the steps required, Lehrer stops the song to say, "Now, that actually is not the answer that I had in mind, because the book that I got this problem out of wants you to do it in base eight. But don't panic! Base eight is just like base ten really -- if you're missing two fingers! Shall we have a go at it? Hang on..." and repeats the exercise even faster and more bewilderingly, finishing with

"Hooray for New Math,
New-hoo-hoo Math!
It won't do you a bit of good to review math.
It's so simple,
So very simple,
That only a child can do it!

Come back tomorrow night...we're gonna do fractions!"

12. The introduction to 'Alma' starts, "Last December 13th, there appeared in the newspapers the juiciest, spiciest, raciest obituary it has ever been my pleasure to read. It was that of a lady named Alma - who had, in her lifetime, managed to acquire as lovers practically all of the top creative men in central Europe. And, among these lovers, who were listed in the obituary, by the way, which is what made it so interesting, there were three whom she went so far as to marry." Which of the following did she NOT marry?

Answer: Carl Moll, landscape painter and co-founder of the 'Vienna Secession'

As Lehrer says, "It's people like that who make you realize how little you've accomplished. It is a sobering thought, for example, that when Mozart was my age, he had been dead for two years!"

Alma Maria Schindler was born in Vienna in 1879. Carl Moll was Alma's step-father, a pupil of her father's who married Alma's mother after the death of Emil Jakob Schindler. In 1902 Alma married Gustav Mahler, who was twenty years her senior. During that marriage she had an affair with Walter Gropius, whom she married in 1915, several years after Mahler's death and another romantic relationship with Oskar Kokoschka. In 1917 she fell in love with Franz Werfel, and had his child. Following a divorce from Gropius in 1920, Alma lived with Werfel, marrying him in 1929. Werfel died in 1945, and Alma in 1964. As Lehrer sings:

"Her lovers were many and varied
From the day she began her -- beguine.
There were three famous ones whom she married,
And God knows how many between."

13. What song follows this introduction? "One of the big news items of the past year concerned the fact that China, which we call 'Red China', exploded a nuclear bomb, which we called a 'device'. Then Indonesia announced that it was gonna have one soon, and proliferation became the word of the day. Here's a song about that."

Answer: Who's Next

"First we got the bomb and that was good,
'Cause we love peace and motherhood.
Then Russia got the bomb, but that's OK,
'Cause the balance of power's maintained that way!
Who's next?"

According to Lehrer's song, it is/will be: France, China, Indonesia, South Africa, Egypt, Israel, Luxembourg, Monaco, and
"We'll try to stay serene and calm
When Alabama gets the bomb!
Who's next, who's next, who's next?
Who's next?"

14. "And what is it that put America in the forefront of the nuclear nations? And what is it that will make it possible to spend twenty billion dollars of your money to put some clown on the moon? Well, it was good old American know how, that's what, as provided by good old Americans like" which man, who is the subject of the next song?

Answer: Wernher von Braun

Wernher Magnus Maximilian Freiherr von Braun (March 23, 1912 - June 16, 1977) is considered one of the pre-eminent rocket scientists of the 20th century. He led German development of the V-2 combat rocket during World War II, and moved to the United States in 1945, where he continued his work, and was one of the driving forces in the NASA program which would, several years after this song was written, succeed in putting a man on the moon.

Ivan Kleimenov was chief of Russia's Reactive Scientific Research Institute during the 1930?s and led rocket research there.

Julius Robert Oppenheimer, who managed the Manhattan Project to develop a nuclear bomb, was born on New York of German-Jewish background.

Albert Einstein was one of the great scientific minds of the 20th century, but was opposed to the development of nuclear weapons, and was not involved in space research.

15. "Another big news story of the year 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." What song does Lehrer offer as 'a modest example' of a popular form adapted for church use?

Answer: The Vatican Rag

'The Vatican Rag' is perhaps one of Lehrer's most enduring satirical pieces, making frequent appearances at annual parish revue shows. The descriptions it contains of traditional ritual behaviors lend themselves to energetic dance routines, leading to a grand finale with

"Ave Maria,
Gee, it's good to see ya.
Gettin' ecstatic an' sorta dramatic an'
Doin' the Vatican Rag!"

Source: Author looney_tunes

This quiz was reviewed by FunTrivia editor ertrum before going online.
Any errors found in FunTrivia content are routinely corrected through our feedback system.

That Was Tom Lehrer's Year That Was Quiz

The spoken introductions on Tom Lehrer's album "That Was the Year That Was" provide humorous links and contexts for the songs. How well do you recall this satirical masterpiece?

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