That Was the Year That Was

Track listing

1. "National Brotherhood Week" – 2:35
2. "MLF Lullaby" – 2:25
3. "George Murphy" – 2:08
4. "The Folk Song Army" – 2:12
5. "Smut" – 3:15
6. "Send the Marines" – 1:46
7. "Pollution" – 2:17

1. "So Long, Mom " – 2:23
2. "Whatever Became of Hubert?" – 2:13
3. "New Math" – 4:28
4. "Alma" – 5:27
5. "Who's Next?" – 2:00
6. "Wernher von Braun" – 1:46
7. "The Vatican Rag" – 2:14

   Topics of songs

• "National Brotherhood Week" – race relations in the U.S.; specifically, a week-long program sponsored by the National Conference for Community and Justice held generally during the third week of February from the 1940s through the 1980s. The song criticizes liberal hypocrisy.
• "MLF Lullaby" – An ultimately failed U.S. proposal for a multilateral nuclear force as part of NATO
• "George Murphy" – George Murphy, dancer, actor, U.S. Senator from California, and Robert F. Kennedy, the putative third senator from Massachusetts. Democratic voters of the time questioned whether an actor with no political experience could function as a Senator.
• "The Folk Song Army" – Topical songs as part of the folk revival of the 1960s; also alludes to songs of the Republican side in the Spanish Civil War, especially "Venga Jaleo" which it excerpts musically
• "Smut" – Censorship of obscenity, and the 1957 U.S. Supreme Court case Roth v. United States, which coined the expression "redeeming social importance"
• "Send the Marines" – The history and habit of using the United States Marine Corps to intervene in other, usually weaker, countries, the latest example being the most recent U.S. intervention in the Dominican Republic in April 1965.
• "Pollution" – Environmental pollution

• "So Long, Mom " – Nuclear war, Mutually Assured Destruction, nostalgia over past wars, and television news coverage. In this, he references a 1904 George M. Cohan song and show, Little Johnny Jones.
• "Whatever Became of Hubert?" – Hubert Humphrey, then U.S. Vice President under Lyndon B. Johnson. The song underscores the idea that going from any office to that of Vice President was actually a step down, because of traditional restrictions imposed by the President.
• "New Math" – New Math, a trend at the time in the teaching of mathematics. Like today's Common Core Math, the New Math of that time often baffled even the experts.
• "Who's Next?" – Nuclear proliferation An example of one of Lehrer's favorite styles, the List Song, it rattles off numerous places that might get The Bomb, including a U.S. state In later years, Lehrer replaced "Alabama" with "Neiman-Marcus."
• "Wernher Von Braun" – Before heading up the U.S. rocket development program during the 1960s Space Race with the Soviet Union, German-American rocket scientist Wernher von Braun had helped develop the infamous V-2 rocket for Nazi Germany. Hence the verse: "Once the rockets are up / Who cares where they come down? / That's not my department / Says Wernher Von Braun". Contrary to popular belief, von Braun did not sue Tom Lehrer for defamation, nor has Lehrer been forced to relinquish all of his royalty income to Von Braun. Lehrer firmly denied those claims in a 2003 interview.
• "The Vatican Rag" – The Second Vatican Council and the reform of Roman Catholic liturgy