The song Wernher von Braun, written well before 1964 and recorded to Ampex video in 1967, was originally published on The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel in July of 2007. The original 4:3-version is still on YouTube. This converted version is just an experiment, but if you watch this copy, you will get to hear Tom Lehrer's spoken intro.
Try to click under the video window for higher playback quality or add &fmt=18 to the url to manually alter the playback resolution. It will not change too much though, because of the test conversion to wide screen.
To make this song even more spot on, Lehrer used eight bars from the well-known German national anthem "Das Lied der Deutschen" as a song intro :-)
Tom Lehrer has accepted the publishing of the songs on The Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel. Click on the Lehrer icon to visit the channel front page. The channel is Lehrer only.
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An excellent discussion between Wayne Biddle, author of the new book "Dark Side of the Moon - Wernher von Braun, the Third Reich and the Space Race," and Dr. Bob McDonald, host of CBC Radio's science program "Quirks & Quarks" can be heard at the program's website: cbc-dot-ca/quirks (19 December, 2009 program, last segment).
Tom Lehrer has been sued for libel by the estate of Wernher Von Braun, the subject was this song. He has been forced to relinquish all of his royalty income to Von Braun. However, Lehrer firmly denied this in a 2003 interview.
borcer, well, that's a myth. Wernher von Braun never sued Lehrer. And Lehrer, on the other hand, is a man who always tells the truth. And he would never sue anyone, not even the Austrian artist Georg Kreisler (a ripper) or me (the indiscrete hacker).
borcer, I'm not sure, but of course von Braun never liked it (I guess). It's interesting that Wikipedia have now made a link from the von Braun article to this 42 year old video recording. People will also find the song on video by searching for von Braun in Google. This is clever satire and Lehrer's correction to history. A better version of the song in HQ is also on the channel.
must add: von braun got America, I repeat, America to the moon, not once, not twice, but five times. The tax money was being used on American soil, creating jobs. The man was a bloody genius, so, although it's a hilarious song, it's harsh!
@121421rms: I heard that Lehrer wrote the Pigeons song about 8 years before he finally put it on disc, so if that's true then it's probably the other way round.
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But I bet this song haunted von Braun to the end of his life :)
Have fun Swede ;)