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The Vatican Rag

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"The Vatican Rag"
Song by Tom Lehrer
from the album That Was the Year That Was
Released1965
Recorded1965
VenueHungry I, San Francisco, California, U.S.
Genre
Songwriter(s)Tom Lehrer
Audio

"The Vatican Rag" is a ragtime parody song by American satirist Tom Lehrer. The song purports to be a response to the Second Vatican Council, a meeting that proposed reforms to the Catholic Church. First performed in 1965, it is controversial for its irreverent depiction of Catholic traditions.

Music and lyrics

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"The Vatican Rag" takes musical inspiration from ragtime pieces such as "Spaghetti Rag" (1910) and "The Varsity Drag" (1927).[1][2] A spoken introduction describes the song as a response to the "Vatican II" council—which, among other things, broadened the range of music that could be used in services—and humorously proposes this rag as a more accessible alternative to traditional liturgical music.[3][4] The song begins:

First you get down on your knees
Fiddle with your rosaries
Bow your head with great respect
And genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!

The lyrics mockingly list a number of Catholic rituals such as confession, the Eucharist, and Rosaries, and suggest the irony of modernizing an age-old institution like the church.[5] Amy Richlin notes that the song is funny "not only because of the words but because it's a rag".[1] According to Jesse David Fox of Vulture, "Lehrer doesn't just poke fun at a sacred cow, he slaughters it."[3] Eruptions of shock and laughter can be heard in recordings as the audience reacts to both the song's blasphemous tone and its creative rhymes.[6]

Composition and performances

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In the early 1960s Lehrer wrote satiric topical songs for the US version of the television show That Was the Week That Was.[7] Inspired by the ongoing Second Vatican Council, he composed "The Vatican Rag" during this period, but he decided not to submit it because he thought the show would "[do the song] badly or [take] out the satiric parts".[5][7] He instead debuted the song at the Hungry I in San Francisco in a series of shows that were recorded for his last album, That Was the Year That Was (1965).[7]

Lehrer later played "The Vatican Rag" in videotaped performances. In April 1967, he played the song on a benefit show for WNET-TV in New York, prompting hundreds of people to complain to the station.[8][9] In September 1967, Lehrer included "The Vatican Rag" on his Live in Copenhagen TV special recorded in Denmark.[10]

Reception and legacy

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Some Catholics criticized "The Vatican Rag" as blasphemous.[8][11][12] After one show at the Hungry I, Lehrer's performance of the song led to a confrontation with the actor Ricardo Montalbán, who happened to be in the audience.[13][14] According to a former Hungry I bouncer, Montalbán approached Lehrer in a fit of rage, yelling, "I love my religion! I will die for my religion!" to which Lehrer responded: "Hey, no problem, as long as you don't fight for your religion."[13] In May 1967, a Putnam County, New York, schoolteacher used Lehrer's "Vatican Rag" and "National Brotherhood Week" as examples of modern satire for her seventh-grade class; the outcry was such that the school board banned the songs and censured the teacher, and she quit three months later and left the area.[9][15][16]

Conversely, fans of Lehrer consider the song one of his best compositions.[17] Vulture included the song on its 2016 list of "The 100 Jokes That Shaped Modern Comedy".[3] Stop the Church (1991), a short documentary about an HIV/AIDS demonstration in New York City, uses the song as the background music to church services.[11][18] In 2000, "The Vatican Rag" was the last song played by the jazz radio station WNOP before it converted to a Catholic talk format.[19]

References

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  1. ^ a b Richlin, Amy (December 12, 2005). "Introduction". Rome and the Mysterious Orient: Three Plays by Plautus (PDF). University of California Press. p. 50. ISBN 9780520938229.
  2. ^ Blacker, Terence. "The Anno Domini Rag – The Story of a Song". terenceblacker.com. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c Fox, Jesse David (January 2016). "The 100 Jokes That Shaped Modern Comedy". Vulture. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
  4. ^ "Papal Get Ready: Songs About the Pope". The New Yorker. February 27, 2013. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
  5. ^ a b Harris, Alana (November 1, 2015). "Chapter 1: Introduction – A Vatican rag". Faith in the Family: A Lived Religious History of English Catholicism 1945–82. Manchester University Press. ISBN 9781526102447.
  6. ^ Bianculli, David (April 30, 2010). "Tom Lehrer: '60s Satirist Still Strikes A Chord". Fresh Air. NPR. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
  7. ^ a b c Hinckley, David (June 8, 1998). "Nuclear Tests Make Tom Lehrer Relevant Again". Chicago Tribune. Archived from the original on October 12, 2023.
  8. ^ a b Cohn, Al (May 16, 1967). "Nasty Tom Keeps Coming Back Like a Song". Newsday. p. 3A – via Newspapers.com.
  9. ^ a b Folsom, Merrill (May 12, 1967). "Tom Lehrer Song Barred at School". The New York Times. p. 49 – via TimesMachine.
  10. ^ "Tom Lehrer – Live In Copenhagen 1967". New Hampshire PBS. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
  11. ^ a b Masters, Kim (August 14, 1991). "Here is 'The Church'". The Washington Post. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
  12. ^ "Stop clapping, this is serious". The Sydney Morning Herald. March 1, 2003. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
  13. ^ a b Nachman, Gerald (August 26, 2009). Seriously Funny: The Rebel Comedians of the 1950s and 1960s. Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. p. 143. ISBN 9780307490728 – via Google Books.
  14. ^ Reynolds, Alan (April 1, 2013). "Whatever Happened to Tom Lehrer?". The American Spectator. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
  15. ^ "2 Songs Played In Class Bring Teacher Reprimand". The Standard-Star. New Rochelle, New York. May 26, 1967. p. 20 – via Newspapers.com.
  16. ^ "Teacher Out After Row On Record Plays". The Reporter Dispatch. August 18, 1967. p. 17 – via Newspapers.com.
  17. ^ Schnedler, Jack (April 11, 2010). "Pop Notes: 'Vatican Rag,' many more lively Lehrer oldies". Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
  18. ^ Bernstein, Sharon (September 6, 1991). "KCET Unworthy of Public Support, Mahony Declares". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
  19. ^ "Rosemary and Mark Schlachter". Showcase with Barbara Kellar. PBS. January 30, 2021. Event occurs at 10:20. Retrieved November 3, 2023.
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