The Vatican Rag
(Introduction, spoken:)
Another big news story of the year concerned the
ecumenical council in Rome, known as Vatican II.
Among the things they did, in an attempt to make
the church more... commercial, was to introduce
the vernacular into portions of the Mass to replace
Latin, and to widen somewhat the range of music
permissible in the liturgy. But I feel that if they
really want to sell a product in this secular age,
what they ought to do is to redo some of the liturgical
music in popular song forms. I have a modest example
here; it's called The Vatican Rag!
First you get down on your knees,
Fiddle with your rosaries,
Bow your head with great respect,
And genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!
Do whatever steps you want if
You have cleared them with the Pontiff.
Everybody say his own
Kyrie eleison,
Doin' the Vatican Rag.
Get in line in that processional,
Step into that small confessional.
There the guy who's got religion'll
Tell you if your sin's original.
If it is, try playin' it safer,
Drink the wine and chew the wafer,
Two, four, six, eight,
Time to transubstantiate!
So get down upon your knees,
Fiddle with your rosaries,
Bow your head with great respect,
And genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!
Make a cross on your abdomen,
When in Rome do like a Roman;
Ave Maria,
Gee, it's good to see ya.
Gettin' ecstatic an' sorta dramatic an'
Doin' the Vatican Rag!
Another big news story of the year concerned the
ecumenical council in Rome, known as Vatican II.
Among the things they did, in an attempt to make
the church more... commercial, was to introduce
the vernacular into portions of the Mass to replace
Latin, and to widen somewhat the range of music
permissible in the liturgy. But I feel that if they
really want to sell a product in this secular age,
what they ought to do is to redo some of the liturgical
music in popular song forms. I have a modest example
here; it's called The Vatican Rag!
First you get down on your knees,
Fiddle with your rosaries,
Bow your head with great respect,
And genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!
Do whatever steps you want if
You have cleared them with the Pontiff.
Everybody say his own
Kyrie eleison,
Doin' the Vatican Rag.
Get in line in that processional,
Step into that small confessional.
There the guy who's got religion'll
Tell you if your sin's original.
If it is, try playin' it safer,
Drink the wine and chew the wafer,
Two, four, six, eight,
Time to transubstantiate!
So get down upon your knees,
Fiddle with your rosaries,
Bow your head with great respect,
And genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!
Make a cross on your abdomen,
When in Rome do like a Roman;
Ave Maria,
Gee, it's good to see ya.
Gettin' ecstatic an' sorta dramatic an'
Doin' the Vatican Rag!
Credits
Writer(s): Tom Thomas Lehrer
Lyrics powered by www.musixmatch.com
Link
Other Album Tracks
- Introduction
- Poisoning Pigeons in the Park
- Wernher Von Braun
- Whatever Became of Hubert
- Smut
- Alma
- The Vatican Rag
- I Wanna Go Back to Dixie
- Lobachevsky
- The Irish Ballad
All Album Tracks: Tom Lehrer - Satirical, Witty, Musical, Irreverent, Vol. 1 >
Altri album
- Tom Lehrer - Satirical, Witty, Musical, Irreverent, Vol. 1
- The Conducted Tom Lehrer
- Tom Lehrer - Lobachevsky
- Tom Lehrer - New Math
- Tom Lehrer - The Masochism and his hits
- Live! That Was The Year That Was
- Remastered Classics, Vol. 77, Tom Lehrer
- Satirical Witty Musical Irreverent, Vol.4
- The Best & Worst of Tom Lehrer
- An Evening with the Infinite Genius of Tom Lehrer
© 2024 All rights reserved. Rockol.com S.r.l. Website image policy
Rockol
- Rockol only uses images and photos made available for promotional purposes (“for press use”) by record companies, artist managements and p.r. agencies.
- Said images are used to exert a right to report and a finality of the criticism, in a degraded mode compliant to copyright laws, and exclusively inclosed in our own informative content.
- Only non-exclusive images addressed to newspaper use and, in general, copyright-free are accepted.
- Live photos are published when licensed by photographers whose copyright is quoted.
- Rockol is available to pay the right holder a fair fee should a published image’s author be unknown at the time of publishing.
Feedback
Please immediately report the presence of images possibly not compliant with the above cases so as to quickly verify an improper use: where confirmed, we would immediately proceed to their removal.