"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.
| "The Vatican Rag" | |
|---|---|
| Song by Tom Lehrer | |
| from the album That Was the Year That Was | |
| Released | 1965 |
| Recorded | 1965 |
| Venue | Hungry I, San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Genre | |
| Songwriter(s) | Tom Lehrer |
| Audio | |
Music and lyrics
"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
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
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
External links
- "The Vatican Rag" at tomlehrersongs.com, Tom Lehrer's official Web site
- "The Vatican Rag" – live performance from Copenhagen via YouTube