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About once a generation, it seems, Harvard College produces a superb satirical
songwriter. The most famous of these, of course, is Tom Lehrer '47, A.M. '47,
whose original 1953 record, Songs by Tom Lehrer, 
reappeared this year (as Songs and More Songs by Tom Lehrer) on CD. As
this magazine has noted ("The Well-Tempered Satirist," November-December 1994,
page 58), Lehrer's only authentic successor is John Forster '69, whose second
CD, Helium, expands the rapier-sharp mockery and melody that he began
in 1994 with Entering Marion. The title cut, which parodies Dave Van
Ronk's classic "Cocaine Blues," opens with Forster singing, in a rough-edged,
boozy baritone, "Cocaine Bill and Morphine Sue/Get out the way/Here comes Helium
Hugh." The song explores the seductive, druggy attractions of inhaling helium,
complete with Forster's helium-altered voice metallically rising several octaves
into a range unexplored even by Mariah Carey. The lyrics include nifty forced
rhymes such as "Helium...is really um-believable stuff."
The satirist also takes a stab at composing a national anthem, and the result, "My Macedonia," sets an all-time record for humility in that genre. Forster's paean to Macedonia progresses through a series of damnings with faint praise, such as "You're not enlightened like Romania/You're not chic and cosmopolitan like Albania," and its denouement might bear study by several newly formed nations: "When you've got autonomy/Who needs an economy?" A satire of EuroDisney, "The Tragic Kingdom," mocks both Disney and the French while recalling the surreal routines of the 1960s comedy ensemble Firesign Theater. In "I'm Determined to Be King," a rollicking takeoff on a Gilbert and Sullivan march, Prince Charles declares his job requirements: "I need a sinecure/Where when your judgment's poor/It doesn't repercuss/Where some incompetence/And lack of common sense/Are actually a plus." For the grand finale--and it is grand--Forster takes on opera: "Figaro Todd (The Demon Barber of Seville)," is a modern Rossini aria concerning a barber who takes his tonsorial skills to homicidal extremes. Like Figaro Todd, Forster kills--but with laughter.
~Craig Lambert