The Folk Song Army

By Tom Lehrer (1965)

Thank you for joining me for this week’s song, The Folk Song Army by Tom Lehrer (1965).

Comments and questions are welcome. Please be respectful of others’ opinions if they should differ from yours.

For Japanese students, vocabulary words in bold are provided in Japanese below.

Tom Lehrer recently opened all of his songs to the public domain, so I feel free to copy the lyrics and his introduction below in italics.

The introduction

(371 words)

In the 1950s and 1960s, Tom Lehrer, a musician and mathematician, was quite well-known for his humor and satirical songs about the state of the world.

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Tom introduces the song he is going to sing:

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.

The next comment he makes is about standing up in a “coffee house”. In the 1960s, people in cities like New York or Chicago would go to a coffee house. These were not coffee shops or cafes. They were places where people went to talk, to listen to music (usually live music by singers who were hoping to become famous), and drink a cup of coffee. They were often loud, but they were popular, especially with younger people. The stage was sometimes just one part of the room. Musicians were paid with tips that people would leave in a bowl.

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.

Notice that he is making a joke. Why is this funny? In the first part of the sentence, we agree that it’s hard to get up in front of people and tell people the things you believe in, but we are surprised when he mentions what other people are against (peace, justice, brotherhood) because we assume that everyone agrees with these things.

The nicest thing about a protest song is that it makes you feel so good.

I have a song here which I realize should be accompanied on a folk instrument in which category the piano does not, alas, qualify, so imagine, if you will, that I am playing an 88-string guitar.

In other words, folk instruments were things like guitars, ukuleles, banjos, flutes, or autoharps because people could carry them easily from place to place. The piano wasn’t a folk instrument.

an autoharp

Tom now sings a “folk song” that is written from the viewpoint of someone who wants to stop things like poverty, war, and injustice…

The Song

(562 words)

We are the folk song army

Every one of us cares

We all hate poverty, war, and injustice

Unlike the rest of you squares

A “square” was someone who wasn’t “cool”. They didn’t follow the latest fashions or music, for example. In the 60s, many young people wanted peace and justice, but the “squares” didn’t.

There are innocuous folk songs

Yeah, but we regard ‘em with scorn

The folks who sing ’em have no social conscience

Why they don’t even care if jimmy crack corn*

“Jimmy Crack Corn” was an old song from the 1840s that became popular with the folk music revival in the 1940s. In this verse, Lehrer is saying that simple folk songs aren’t that good. You have to sing about social issues for a folk song to be important.

If you feel dissatisfaction

Strum your frustrations away

Some people may prefer action

But give me a folk song any old day

Here, he’s saying that just singing the songs is enough. You don’t actually have to DO anything about the issues.

The tune don’t have to be clever

And it don’t matter if you put a coupla (couple of) extra syllables into a line

It sounds more ethnic if it ain’t good English

And it don’t even gotta rhyme--excuse me--rhyne

Many folk songs of the 1960s had lyrics that went against traditional song-writing rules. For example, some songs had more syllables than usual which made it hard to sing with the beat. Using slang or non-standard English was acceptable in folk songs, and sometimes they didn’t rhyme (that is, the lyrics didn’t end with the same sound as they usually do in an English song). Here, he also adds a joke - he changes the word rhyme, which sounds like but isn’t exactly like the word line to rhyne, which doesn’t exist, but it rhymes with line.

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

“The war against Franco” was the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). It was a war between the elected government, the Republicans, and the Nationalists who wanted to make sure that the king, the Catholic church, and the landowners stayed in power. The Nationalist army was led by General Franco. With the help of Nazi Germany and Italy, he won the war and became Spain’s dictator from 1939 to his death in 1975.

The people who supported the Republicans wrote many songs to encourage each other in the fight. They had catchy melodies, and the lyrics could be changed easily to fit the situation. Not many people today remember the songs of the Nationalists which were more formal and more military. Lehrer is saying that, although Franco won the war, the Republicans (“we”) had the better songs.**

So join in the folk song army

Guitars are the weapons we bring

To the fight against poverty, war, and injustice

Ready! Aim! Sing!

The folk song army is not a real army, but Lehrer is using the metaphor of a group of singers who are “fighting” for things like peace and justice. The leader of a group of soldiers would tell them “ready, aim, fire” when they were shooting at the enemy. Here, Sing! is a surprising ending, showing how the folk singers “attack” the enemy.

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VOCABULARY

mathematician 数学者

satirical 風刺的

prominence 台頭

admire 称える

auditorium 講堂

audience 観客

justice 正義

brotherhood 兄弟愛

accompanied 同伴

innocuous 無邪気

scorn 軽蔑

social conscience 社会的良心

revival 復活

dissatisfaction 不満

Strum your frustrations away ギターをかき鳴らしてイライラを解消する

syllables 音節

Don’t even gotta rhyme 韻を踏む必要はない

dictator 独裁者

encourage 勇気づける

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Click this link to listen to the song (with lyrics). Link will open in YouTube:

—> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9tDZ5lriIIc

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* Possible meanings of “Jimmy Crack Corn”:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Crack_Corn#Meaning

** You can read about and listen to two of those songs from the Spanish Civil War here:

Joven Guardia:

https://louisehaynes.substack.com/p/joven-guardia-the-young-guard

Anda jaleo, jaleo:

https://louisehaynes.substack.com/p/anda-jaleo-jaleo