I was about six when I started playing my parents record collection on our Dansette in the 60s. This was my favourite and I committed all of the songs to memory. With subject matter ranging from nuclear annihilation to incest; animal cruelty; sadomasochism; and an overwhelming sense of general schadenfreude coupled with shall we say – an offbeat sense of humour, there’s something for everyone. I played this, along with Songs by Tom Lehrer (1953) relentlessly. Tom is still alive, and I would encourage you to have a look at him performing on You Tube. On the back of the cover to this album the critics reviews are reproduced with gay abandon; viz – ‘Mr. Lehrer’s muse (is) not fettered by such inhibiting factors as taste.’ – gushed the New York Times. Delicious. Anyway, upon emigrating to Australia in the 1980s I decided that this should come with me, and the 1959 platter was liberated from my parents’ collection and continues to outrage people to this very day, here on the other side of the planet.
