TOM LEHRER Poisoning Pigeons in the Park from the CD An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer
I'd like to take you now on wings of song, as it were, and try and help you
forget perhaps for a while your drab (1), wretched (2) lives. Here's a song all about spring-time in general, and in particular,
about one of the many delightful pastimes the coming of spring affords (3) us all.
Spring is here, a-suh-puh-ring is here.
X
video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhuMLpdnOjY
Life is skittles and life is beer
(4).
I think the loveliest time of the year is the spring. [X
sound: www.wienerlloyd.net/index.php?p=285]
(no longer working!)
I do, don't you? 'Course you do.
But there's one thing that makes spring complete for me, X
sound: Poisoning Pigeons In The Park.mp3
And makes ev'ry Sunday a treat (5) for me.
All the world seems in tune
On a spring afternoon,
When we're poisoning pigeons in the park.
Ev'ry Sunday you'll see
My sweetheart and me,
As we poison the pigeons in the park.
When they see us coming, the birdies all try an' hide,
But they still go for peanuts when coated with cyan-hide.
The sun's shining bright,
Ev'rything seems all right,
When we're poisoning pigeons in the park.
Lalaalaalalaladoodiedieedoodoodoo
We've gained notoriety,
And caused much anxiety
In the Audubon Society (6)
With our games.
They call it impiety,
And lack of propriety,
And quite a variety
Of unpleasant names.
But it's not against any religion
To want to dispose of a pigeon.
So if Sunday you're free,
Why don't you come with me,
And we'll poison the pigeons in the park.
And maybe we'll do
In a squirrel or two,
While we're poisoning pigeons in the park.
We'll murder them all amid laughter and merriment.
Except for the few we take home to experiment.
My pulse will be quickenin'
With each drop of strychnine
We feed to a pigeon.
It just takes a smidgin!
To poison a pigeon in the park. Tom Lehrer: www.wiw.org/~drz/tom.lehrer
ANNOTATIONS:
1) drab:
a) [here] dull, monotonous
. [hier] eintφnig
b) dull muddy brown
.
.. graubraun
2) wretched: miserable, of poor quality
.....
elend
3) to
afford: [here]
to offer
...
bieten
4a) skittles and beer (or: beer and skittles) [idiom]: fun
..
Spass,
Gaudi
4b)
skittles:
game in which a ball is bowled along an alley with the purpose of knocking
down a number of bottle-shaped pieces of woods (= pins)
..
Kegeln
5) treat: pleasant surprise
.........
Schmankerl [Bavarian]
6) Audubon Society: founded in 1905 for
the preservation of wildlife, especially of birds;
named after the U.S. naturalist John James Audubon 1785 - 1851
7) propriety:
that which is proper (NOT property !!! )
.........
Schicklichkeit
8) to dispose of: to get rid of sth.
....................
sich einer Sache entledigen
9) to do in [infml] ( cf. PYGMALION: Eliza Doolittle): to kill
.................
umbringen
10) smidgin: ( litte) bit
.............................................................................................................:.....
kleines
bisschen
Compare this song
with Georg Kreislers version Taubenvergiften. Both songs
were written in the early 1950s.
The question only is who was "inspired"
by whom. (cf. Tom Lehrers song Lobachevsky:
"Plagiarize, let no one else ' s work evade your eyes!")
X sound: Poisoning Pigeons In The Park.mp3 back to Tom Lehrer index back to homepage
THE
BOTTOM LINE THE BOTTOM LINE THE BOTTOM LINE THE BOTTOM LINE THE BOTTOM LINE THE
BOTTOM LINE THE BOTTOM LINE