A Public Domain Gift

Happy New Year! ‘Tis the season for giving and resolutions, and my resolution is to share more of my time and my discoveries with others. With that in mind, I share the lyrics to Tom Lehrer’s “Without an S.”

“WHAT?!” you say. “How can you print someone else’s material? Isn’t it copyrighted? Call the cops!”

Put down the warrant and take deep breaths, because, my friends, as of October 20, 2020, Tom Lehrer has issued a statement to get around copyright laws and give permission to everyone in the world to use his music as they wish. He has put it in the public domain. That means it is free for anyone to use or enjoy without restrictions such as fees or permissions or risk of copyright infringement or writers’ outrage. Trust me, you do not want to outrage a writer.

So, what is public domain? And who the heck is Tom Lehrer?

First, the legal stuff. 

Smart writers know to copyright their material. When you copyright something, only you own it and nobody else. From the moment the material is legally copyrighted, people need to ask your permission to use it. Often this includes fees and legal paperwork. This blog is not about how to do that, but you can find information on how to copyright your work for free on Wiki How.

When literature, art, and ideas are in the public domain, it means that anyone can use them, but nobody can ever own them. They are out there, free for the quoting, commenting, performing, interpreting, etc., and nobody owes anyone a penny for doing so. 

American copyrights last seventy years (or the life of the author plus seventy years), unless the owner messed up following the rules or gives open permission as Lehrer did. Officially, as of 2020, pretty much anything copyrighted before 1924 is now in the public domain. If you copyright something in 2020 (and do the paperwork correctly), your rights last at least until 2090. If you want to learn more specifics, the Stanford University Libraries is a top-notch resource.

And Tom Lehrer?

He was a genius! A mathematician and professor at the likes of MIT, Harvard, Wellesley, and the University of California, Lehrer studied classical piano from an early age—and he became quite good. But his true love was popular music, so he switched musical gears but not musical instruments. He originally wrote songs and lyrics for his own and his close friends’ entertainment, and, eventually, he went public as a performer and song writer while retaining his day job as a college professor. His dark sense of humor and the politics and issues of the 50s and 60s drove his musical parodies and satires, steering his comic hand to create choruses on war, racism, the environment, capitalism, and science. You know, light stuff. Oh, and for a while he wrote music for the PBS show, The Electric Company. 

By far, his most famous song is “The Elements,” in which he sings the periodic table up to element #102 (after all, it was written in 1959), parodying “The Major-General’s Song” from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Pirates of Penzance. Original tunes and lyrics include “The Vatican Rag,” “New Math,” “Pollution,” and “National Brotherhood Week,” to name a few.

Your Gift

BUT TODAY, a gift! Today I share the lyrics to a Tom Lehrer song because, thanks to his permission to circumvent copyright laws and putting it out there in the public domain, I can! A song from his Electric Company days, its lyrics should tickle all those who inhabit the world of words: “Without an S.” Since it is set to music by Vincent Youmans, which is still copyrighted material, only the lyrics appear here—but they are all you need for a good chuckle.

Interested in more of Tom Lehrer’s public domain offerings? Check out Lehrer’s website for free lyrics and sheet music from his entire collection: https://tomlehrersongs.com. Do it before December 24, 2024, though, as that is the date nonagenarian Lehrer has set for shutting down his website.

Happy New Year, and here’s to a better 2021 in all ways!

~ Nancy

WITHOUT AN S

words by Tom Lehrer
music: "Without a Song'' by Vincent Youmans

Without an S — A nest would be a net. 
Without an S — The west would just be wet. 
What happiness! 
That pest could be a pet, 
Without an S. 

Without an S — A spin would be a pin. 
Without an S — Your skin would be your kin. 
And I confess 
That sin is really in, 
Without an S. 

A spine would then be a pine, 
And swine would turn to wine, 
A stick would be a tick. 
When you were sick, 
You wouldn't feel sick, 
You'd only feel ick! 

Without an S — A slap would be a lap. 
Without an S — A strap would be a trap. 
Your hands can't clasp, 
No, they can only clap, 
Without an S. 

A scar would then be a car, 
A star would turn to tar, 
A mast would be a mat. 
Try running fast, 
You couldn't be fast, 
You'd only be fat! 

Without an S — A ship would be a hip. 
Without an S — A slip would be a lip. 
When you undress, 
A strip would be a trip, 
Without an S.