Tom Lehrer - Pollution - with intro - widescreen - now on DVD

[abbyflavorful]

Just so y'all know, this guy was actually a highly respected Harvard Collage professor and an even more respected civil rights leader. What he is singing may sound like a comedy act, but he is really fighting for everyone's rights and you would know this if you look beyond the comedic surface layer, the comparisons to then and now, and if you could just look deeper into what he is saying. In this song he lyrically singing about pollution but he is cryptically sing about the part of the preamble

[thefenderbluesking]

Pollution is the real terrorism because it is the blindest form of stupidity and it kills all blindly with little discrepancy.Pollution is the silent terror and the invisible killer.Pollution is what remains after modern humans profit from what they claim to own, claim to understand, and claim to offer.I guess it mostly started with the industrialization of the world...Just imagine ..If the resources are all gone and used up or difficult to utilize.. then no start up after the next ice age...

[caleby117]

I guess that one person was the source of pollution..

[Thesocalledzombie]

Did anyone else get the Show Boat reference?....

[SpockRocksMySox]

This is so very true, even to this day! He may joke, but I'm personally glad to not be living in a large city... Too much Pollution!

[Kazisho]

Why did I laugh?

[GaleStream]

Just something I decided to experiment on - Turn on Captains by Audio :P

[GaleStream]

@GaleStream Captions* My mistake.

[AvmanM]

The Norwegian crowd was rather late to laugh at his mentioning "our fjords".

[6funswede]

@AvmanM, yes, they (we) were, because we´re generally slow :-)

[utubesnamepolsux]

I love that he couldn't use *any* of his standard lines in this song, for this audience, and just had to go with the obvious.

[6funswede]

@utubesnamepolsux, yes, and remember: At this time Lehrer was already an experienced university lecturer (mathematics). He knew how to adapt his messages, just to get them through :-)

[porthrepta]

Ahead of his time? He was ahead of o u r time. By today's US standards he was a left-wing extremist.

[loudmxr]

I was just in the Philippines. In the great city of Tacloban where MacArthur planned the Pacific Campaign after he returned to... It was also the first provisional seat of government of the Philippines after the Japanese invasion. They have their water problems and I could not think of the lyrics to this song!! thanks for posting it I will send it to my friends there. Because in my home town we are fighting for our water rights too.

[ZmapperSC4]

This song was written in the 60s and is still very true today. Too bad we still haven't learned from the song.

[invisizoe]

to bad he didn't make a song about our health care system

[mabarry3]

@invisizoe Totally. I would make everybody in the government watch it :) He is so far ahead of his time, he could have easily directy related to it too ;).

[postatility]

In light of the Gulf/BP travesty going on right now,how timely is this.

[TheRimben]

LOL this is still happening today

[MrSpockify]

Ah... America and it's fine pollution. :)

[Jill57L]

brilliant... these songs are cheering my spirit again....

[BankScamTakeover]

Brilliant. This could be contemporary.

[eileenkjb]

When this song was done live in the 60's in San Francisco - the line was "the breakfast garbage that you throw in the Bay - they drink at lunch in San Jose" . This song is about as current now as it was when it was written.

[xXGlitchridersXx]

fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly.....but they dont last long if they try ha ha love it :)

[GrumpusRed]

He may be the only one who can keep this eco-crap from being irritating, there sure hasn't been anyone since.

[ThatIsNotDeadWhich]

Bah. "This eco-crap" is the reason you can still eat fish for dinner.

And it's the reason you'll still be able to get across the continent by electrified rail when the price of light sweet crude hits € 200 to the barrel.

[GrumpusRed]

...I don't like fish anyway. ;D

[ThaMahstah]

Believe it or not, the world is probably cleaner NOW than it was in the 1960s.

[ThatIsNotDeadWhich]

In many ways it is. Certainly, heavy metals and many of the really nasty petrochemicals have been phased out or heavily restricted. Acid rain is mostly under control too, and the ozone hole is shrinking.

However, the use of hormone-like chemicals is rising, and a pesticides remain a problem. And, of course, we emit far more greenhouse pollutants than ever before in history. Responsible antibiotics use is a somewhat mixed story.

And then there's GMOs, which is a whole new can of worms...

[ThatIsNotDeadWhich]

And of course this only applies to first world countries and some parts of the US.

Go to third-world countries, and all bets are off. Most are using late 20th century technology with early 19th century environmental regulations.

[ThaMahstah]

You sure about that? There's a ton of restrictions and protocols regarding where and how much you can pollute that didn't exist before. I mean, before people really had no problem just dumping toxic chemicals into major rivers.

And cars emit something like 90% less pollution than they did a few decades ago.

And personally, I'm not one to really criticize the use of pesticides and other chemicals in our food considering that's what allows us to have food in such abundance and so cheaply.

[ThatIsNotDeadWhich]

Most of the hormone-look-alikes didn't exist in the '60s, so yeah I'm pretty sure they're up.

Also, halogenic fire retardants (think consumer electronics - that didn't exist either in the '60s).

Cars emit less of many kinds of pollution (in the first world - Cairo or Delhi is a whole 'nother kettle of fish), but they emit more greenhouse pollutants than ever, on account of being used much more.

Fertiliser and (many) pesticides are fine when used appropriately. They frequently are not.

[ThatIsNotDeadWhich]

As an aside, fertiliser production as currently done is dependent on the Haber-Borch process, which essentially converts natural gas into nitrate fertiliser.

Peak NatGas is going to happen sometime in this century or early in the next, unless we do something serious about consumption in non-agricultural uses (and maybe even so, if the Russians are lying about their reserves).

This doesn't precisely bear on the issue of pollution (except for GHGs), but is worth keeping in mind.

[ThaMahstah]

You certainly seem very informed on this subject. Much more than me.

It's just that I seem to be under the impression that pesticides are safer and cars are cleaner and pollution is controlled much more than in previous decades. While use of things like cars, pesticides and chemicals may be up, it seems to be much more cleaner and safer.

In the third world, as you said, these rules don't exist. But then again, in the third world they don't use these things nearly as much.

[ThatIsNotDeadWhich]

Well, I do think things are better overall (in the first world, at least) than 50 years ago - but it's not an across-the-board improvement, and the areas where we are worse off are a lot less visible than the areas where we've improved, hence the need to point them out.

Also, the third world carries much more industrial production than you'd think. Many industrial consumer goods used by American households are made in China or SE Asia these days. This is not a trifling amount of production.

[Overlord807]

Nothing has changed in the US

You would think they might have lean't by now!

[tomwmloppe]

''Once we wrap this place up,...

watch out Mars''...-Pollution

[CountryBoy749]

I remember this from the days of The Frost Report! Tom's songs were the highlight of the programme for me in those days.

[obifongkenobi]

different from the cassette i had in the early 70's. one part - " the breakfast garbage that they throw into the bay.... they drink for lunch in San Jose"....

[0ShadowG0]

This song has variations, depending on where it was performed-

[ShanaNoFlameHaze]

Seems like I have a little story to nearly every Tom Lehrer song i know. Especially for this one I have to thank him. Two weeks after hearing it for the first time and learning it by heart, we had an important english exam in school about... pollution.

Well, with my knowledge from the discussions over this song with my dad and the quotes from Tom Lehrer, i got a fabulous A.

Thank you~ ^-^

[toygirl46]

HE ROCKS I LOVE HIM ! I LOVE THIS SONG !

[6funswede]

All the twelve Tom Lehrer songs from this channel have now been republished in better quality. Click the Lehrer icon or the username, go to the channel and select one of the uploaded HQ-versions :-) Don't forget to click the HQ-button.

[gramofaun]

Very nice -- and good to have the "Wisdom Channel" too. (But no full screen button there?) One thing though: In most large cities, pollution was a worse problem in the 60's -- and long before that. Rivers caught fire in the earlier 20th century. All waste went into the rivers, and coal burning made it hard to breathe. Fish had disappeared in many rivers and lakes. Things are much better now, after strong legislation passed in the 1970s -- though it's still a problem.

[RileyGuilbeau]

I LOVE HIM!

[toygirl46]

same

!!!!!!!!! HE ROCKS

[apanapane]

Nice musical reference to "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man" and "Sixteen Tons". Such a musical genious, this man.

[ilubeeyou]

ah lehrer is amazingly charming and lovable =)

[Potts132]

God id do anything to go to just one on his prefomances. Gues i was born a little late for that though :(

[wolfrellik]

yah me to

[Chaosblade777]

He's still alive, according to Wikipedia, wonder if he still does concerts..

[bananachip33]

Unfortunatly he has given up satire, so i doubt he does any concerts. wish i was alive when he was in his prime.

[BassTromboneJ]

I feel the exact same way!

[6funswede]

bananachip33 and BassTromboneJ, if you click on the Lehrer icon or "6funswede" and visit the channel, you'll also be directed to the Lehrer interviews online. Then you'll find out why he didn't want to perform anymore. Thanks for watching :-)

[fennerd]

Way ahead of his time.

[Zyxzyva]

And still wonderfully offensive.

[TnseWlms]

On his That Was The Week That Was LP which was recorded in San Francisco, he sang "The breakfast garbage you throw into the bay, they drink at lunch in San Jose."

[blinddj49]

And the liner notes had a suggested East Coast version: "The breakfast garbage you throw out in Troy, they drink at lunch in Perth Amboy."

[timedragontheater]

horray a showboat reference fish gotta swim birds gotta fly

showboat one of my favourite musicals

tom lehrer very talented guy hes like a modern oscar wilde on the piano

[luciferthecopy]

@timedragontheater

You are completely correct! I love Wilde as well

[6funswede]

April 2009 - 6funswede YouTube log. Errors July 2007-April 2009. "Pollution": Sound deteriorated. "When You Are Old And Gray": Video stuttering. "Send the Marines": Video stuttering. This is ALL YouTube errors, have written to them, but I don't expect any answers. Viewers: PLEASE use the annotation boxes with links in the videos.

[WeavingInk]

I have, several times, and I've listened to you "evening wasted with Tom Lehrer" playlist several nights in a row now. :D

[6funswede]

Weavinglink thank you, that's nice to hear. If you know any future Lerhrer buff's, please spread the word :-)

[WeavingInk]

I'm pretty much in love with Tom Lehrer right now. He tickles my funny bone.

[6funswede]

Weavinglink, thanks. Can you please click the Lehrer icon or the username and visit the channel's front page?

[askice77]

Happy Earth day.. how appropriate

[RickmanLoverin]

thx for posting this genius guy^^

heard it in our english lessons.

i´m from germany but never heard of this guy before...<3

[gabrielx2games]

I know more or less 9 songs of Tom Lehrer by heart -Alma

-so long mom

-send the marines

-who's next

-werner von braun

-the vatican rag

-the MLF lullaby

-the irish ballad

-folk song army

-

[xavierrrr]

get poisoning pigeons in the park into that list lol

[microblah]

try memorising the element song!

i'll bet that'd be hard

[grooveyloop]

No, not all that much haha.

[wolfrellik]

i managed to learn half of it

[Lydalice]

Haven't heard this in years, it's great, thaks for posting this !

So actual too...

[uDisConnect]

WOOHOO love tis guy

[countessbreeze]

love it!

GENIUS.

[cacadeamca]

5 stars

[6funswede]

This wideo was published in 4:3 aspect ratio in 2007. Strangely enough, the sound (and image) quality became more polluted (deteriorated) on YouTube in 2008. So I've taken the liberty to post this new version. For those of you who prefer the old 4:3 video, it is still on the channel. Thanks!

[tintinlover123]

Is there any way you could lay your hands onto the San Fransisco version?