# Tom Lerher lyrics question **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 14, 2007, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223 "2007-02-14T17:24:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223/1 "2007-02-14T17:24:12Z")
In his song about Hubert Humphrey Lehrer has the following lines: “We must protest this treatment, Hubert” Says each newspaper reader As someone once remarked to Schubert “Take us to your leader.” So my question is, what the hell is that supposed to mean? Obviously “Schubert” is one of the few things to rhyme with “Hubert” (although I expect better from a guy who can rhyme “Bauhaus” with “chow house” and “murder” with “Das Lied von der Erde”) but “take us to your leader”? Is that just a rather weak jab at LBJ for supposedly ignoring him or is there something else going on? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223/2 "2007-02-14T17:30:28Z")
Try “lieder” instead of “leader.” ---
**Author:** ![silverfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e480ec/32.png) [@silverfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silverfish)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223/3 "2007-02-14T17:31:17Z")
I think it should be lieder, the plural of Lied (see the wikipedia article: [Lied - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieder)), a type of composition Schubert was associated with. ---
**Author:** ![Ichbin\_Dubist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/51bf81/32.png) [@Ichbin\_Dubist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ichbin_Dubist)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223/4 "2007-02-14T18:20:08Z")
[QUOTE=silverfish] I think it should be lieder, the plural of Lied (see the wikipedia article: [Lied - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieder)), a type of composition Schubert was associated with. [/QUOTE] He says “I’m sorry” after this joke, right? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223/5 "2007-02-14T18:48:54Z")
OK, so it’s “take us to your song”? Is it just the pun he’s going for, based on the supposed snubbing of Humphrey by LBJ, or is thre something more to it? ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223/6 "2007-02-14T18:52:35Z")
Just the pun. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223/7 "2007-02-14T18:55:46Z")
And that was only because there just isn’t anything else that rhymes with Hubert. ---
**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223/8 "2007-02-14T19:01:20Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] OK, so it’s “take us to your song”? Is it just the pun he’s going for, based on the supposed snubbing of Humphrey by LBJ, or is thre something more to it? [/QUOTE] I can’t recall the rest of the song’s lyrics, but I think it is a pun on lieder/leader, with “Take me to your lieder” referring to Schubert, and “Take me to your leader”, the Hump. After all, Humphrey was a VP once, so his “leader” would have been LBJ, no? TOO sophisticated for some circles, maybe. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223/9 "2007-02-14T20:54:10Z")
As long as we’re asking questions about Tom Leher’s lyrics… … In the introduction to the song “George Murphy” Tom quips: > [@](#): > > …I’m from Massachusetts and I feel we have a certain right to gloat over the other states because Massachusetts is after all the only state with three senators. This gets a big laugh from the audience. I don’t get it. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![pinkfreud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pinkfreud/32/17603_2.png) [@pinkfreud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pinkfreud)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223/10 "2007-02-14T21:11:13Z")
I think the “three senators” remark is a reference to Bobby Kennedy, who, though he was from Massachusetts, was elected to the Senate by New York. ---
**Author:** ![rowrrbazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rowrrbazzle/32/414_2.png) [@rowrrbazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rowrrbazzle)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223/11 "2007-02-14T21:13:52Z")
All I remember about that time was that “Take me to your leader” was a cliché used as the first thing an alien would say to the first human they met after landing on the Earth. Its relevance to Humphrey is stretched, thus the apology. This is the only possibly contemporary joke I can find using it. [Take Me To Your Leader](http://www.rpbridge.net/4w69.htm) Another joke, but I can’t tell if it originated from that time. [http://www.huumor.com/joke\_2431](http://www.huumor.com/joke_2431) This page has a lot of cartoons riffing on the phrase, but I can’t tell when they were drawn. [Take Me To Your Leader Cartoons and Comics - funny pictures from CartoonStock](http://www.cartoonstock.com/directory/T/Take_me_to_your_leader.asp) TV references: [The Avengers - Take Me To Your Leader (1968)](http://theavengers.tv/forever/king-22.htm) [“The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” - The Take Me to Your Leader Affair (1966)](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0641148/) ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223/12 "2007-02-14T21:33:44Z")
[QUOTE=pinkfreud] I think the “three senators” remark is a reference to Bobby Kennedy, who, though he was from Massachusetts, was elected to the Senate by New York. [/QUOTE] Ah-ha… thanks, **pinkfreud** , I was only 7 years old at the time and my polictical knowledge was limited at that time to watching Saturday morning episodes of _Super President._ ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223/13 "2007-02-14T23:15:32Z")
[QUOTE=rowrrbazzle] All I remember about that time was that “Take me to your leader” was a cliché used as the first thing an alien would say to the first human they met after landing on the Earth. Its relevance to Humphrey is stretched, thus the apology. [/QUOTE] I think the apology was for the bad pun, actually. I’ll search my complete New Yorker cartoons CD for the first reference there (there must be one.) I remember a cartoon, kind of like joke 2, with an alien saying it to a fire hydrant. I’m sure it predated the cartoon, being much earler than when you could use the word gynecologist in a cartoon. And it all reminds me of this Lehrer intro “The heartwarming story of the necrophiliac who fulfilled his boyhood dream and grew up to be coroner.” \ “the rest of you can look it up when you get home.” ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223/14 "2007-02-14T23:16:51Z")
[QUOTE=BMalion] Ah-ha… thanks, **pinkfreud** , I was only 7 years old at the time and my polictical knowledge was limited at that time to watching Saturday morning episodes of _Super President._ [/QUOTE] What’s especially scary about that song are the big laughs at the concept of Ronald Reagan ever getting elected to anything. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223/15 "2007-02-14T23:56:13Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] OK, so it’s “take us to your song”? Is it just the pun he’s going for, based on the supposed snubbing of Humphrey by LBJ, or is thre something more to it? [/QUOTE] [nitpick]“to your song **s** ” actually—“Lieder” is plural.[/nitpick] (And, at least when used by an English-speaking person, it refers to a specific type of song most famously composed by Schubert. A search on [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com) for Schubert Lieder yields hundreds of results.) Doesn’t look like there’s anything more to it than the pun and the rhyme, unless there’s something we’re missing from the larger context. ---
**Author:** ![akira5822](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/53a042/32.png) [@akira5822](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/akira5822)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2007, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223/16 "2007-02-14T23:59:57Z")
"Spring is here…Spring is here, Life is skittles and life is Beer … ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223/17 "2007-02-15T00:33:34Z")
[QUOTE=akira5822] "Spring is here…Spring is here, Life is skittles and life is Beer … [/QUOTE] …and maybe we’ll do in a squirrel or two, as we poison the pigeons in the park!" My favorite intro was “Last December there appeared in the newspapers, the juiciest, spiciest, _raciest_ obituary it has ever been my pleasure to read.” ---
**Author:** ![CandidGamera](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/candidgamera/32/2878_2.png) [@CandidGamera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CandidGamera)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223/18 "2007-02-15T01:28:26Z")
Dammit, Otto, I thought of this question about a month ago! 'Course, I dug around Google til I figured it out by my lonesome. 😉 Lehrer is a genius. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Knig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/cdc98d/32.png) [@Typo\_Knig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Knig)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223/19 "2007-02-15T02:30:02Z")
[QUOTE=CandidGamera] Lehrer is a genius. [/QUOTE] That’s gen3ius. The three is silent. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223/20 "2007-02-15T03:27:37Z")
“Take me to your leader” gags were popular in the '60s. I recall a cartoon from the period: Flying saucer grounded in background, three diminutive antennaed ET’s talking to a guy in a suit. Caption: “He’s at his ranch, and damned if I’m taking you all the way to Texas!” Hey, that would work **now**. . . if TMTYL gags were not so passe as to be quaint . . . [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tom-lerher-lyrics-question/392223.md?page=2)