Wild West Is Where I Want To Be, The

artist:Tom Lehrer

, writer:Tom Lehrer

Chords:

 {t:Wild West Is Where I Want To Be, The}
{artist: Tom Lehrer}
{key: D}
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1U2fpzw4qNI  Capo 1

[D]  [G]/ [Gm]/ [A] [D]

A-[A]long the [D] trail you'll find me lopin',
Where the [G] spaces are wide [D] open,
[Ddim] In the [D] land of the [B7] old A.E.-[E7] C. [A7]
[A] Where the [D] scenery's attractive,
[D7] And the [G] air is radio-[E7]active,
Oh, the [A7] Wild West is where I wanna [D] [A7] be.

'Mid the [D] sagebrush and the cactus
I'll [G] watch the fellas [D] practice
[Ddim] Droppin' [D] bombs through the [B7] clean desert [E7] breeze. [A7]
[A7] I'll have [D] on my som-[D7]brero,
And of [G] course I'll wear a [E7] pair o'
Levis [A7] over my lead B.V.-[D]D.'s.  [G] [Gm] [D]

[D]I will leave the city's rush,
[A7] Leave the [D] fancy [A] and the [B7] plush,
Leave the [Em7] snow and leave the [A7] slush
And the [D] crowds.
[D7] I will [G] seek the desert's hush,
[A7] Where the [D] scene-[Am]ry is [B7] lush,
How I [E7] long to see the mushroom [A7] clouds.

'Mid the [D] yuccas and the thistles
I'll [G] watch the guided [D] missiles,
[Ddim] While the [D] old F.B.-[B7]I. watches [E7] me. [A7]
Yes, I'll [D] soon make my appearance
([D] Soon as [G] I can get my [E7] clearance),
'Cause the [A7] Wild West is where I wanna [D] be [G] [Gm] [D]

Song Info

Title: Wild West Is Where I Want To Be, The

Artist: Tom Lehrer

Writer: Tom Lehrer

Song Types: Comedy, Musical

Key: D

Info: Thomas Andrew Lehrer born April 9, 1928, is a retired American musician, singer-songwriter, satirist, and mathematician. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater. He is best known for the pithy and humorous songs that he recorded in the 1950s and 1960s. His songs often parodied popular musical forms, though he usually created original melodies when doing so. A notable exception is "The Elements", in which he set the names of the chemical elements to the tune of the "Major-General's Song" from Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance.

Lehrer's early musical work typically dealt with non-topical subject matter and was noted for its black humor in songs such as "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park". In the 1960s, he produced a number of songs that dealt with social and political issues of the day, particularly when he wrote for the U.S. version of the television show That Was the Week That Was. The popularity of these songs has far outlasted their topical subjects and references. Lehrer quoted a friend's explanation: "Always predict the worst and you'll be hailed as a prophet." In the early 1970s, Lehrer largely retired from public performances to devote his time to teaching mathematics and musical theater history at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

He was drafted into the U.S. Army from 1955 to 1957, working at the National Security Agency (NSA). (Lehrer has stated that he invented the Jello shot during this time, as a means of circumventing the base's ban on alcoholic beverages.)[16] Despite holding a master's degree in an era when American conscripts often lacked a high school diploma, Lehrer served as an enlisted soldier, achieving the rank of Specialist Third Class (later retitled "Specialist-4" and currently "Specialist"), which he described as being a "corporal without portfolio". These experiences became fodder for songs, such as "The Wild West is Where I Want to Be" and "It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier". It was many years before Lehrer publicly revealed that he had been assigned to the NSA, since the mere fact of its existence was classified at the time; this left him in the interesting position of implicitly using nuclear weapons work as a cover story for something more sensitive.

In 1960, Lehrer returned to full-time math studies at Harvard.

From 1962, Lehrer taught in the political science department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). In 1965 he gave up on his mathematical dissertation on modes in statistics, after having worked on it intermittently for 15 years.

In 1972, he joined the faculty of the University of California, Santa Cruz, teaching an introductory course entitled The Nature of Mathematics to liberal arts majors - "math for tenors", according to Lehrer. He also taught a class in musical theater. He occasionally performed songs in his lectures, primarily those relating to the topic.

In 2001, Lehrer taught his last mathematics class, on the topic of infinity, and retired from academia. He has remained in the area, and in 2003 said he still "hangs out" around the University of California, Santa Cruz

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Wild West Is Where I Want To Be, The

artist:Tom Lehrer

, writer:Tom Lehrer

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