OEDIPUS REX
(Tom Lehrer)
Tom Lehrer


From The Bible to the popular songs
There's on theme that we find all along
With all the things we hail as good
The most sublime is motherhood

There once was an whom so it seems
Once carried this ideal to extremes
He loved his mother and she loved him
And yet his story is rather grim

There once was a man named Oedipus Rex*
You may have heard about his odd complex
His name appears in Freud's index
Cause he loved his mother

His rivals used to say quite a bit
That as a monarch he was quite unfit
But still in all they had to admit
That he loved his mother

Yes, he loved his mother like no other
He daughter was his sister 
And his son was his brother
One thing on which you can depend is
He sure knew who a boy's best friend is

When he found what he had done 
He tore his eyes out one-by-one
A tragic end for a loyal son
Who loved his mother

So be sweet and and kind to mother 
Now and then have a chat
About her candy-coloured blossoms
Or a brand new hat 
But P'raps you'd better let it go at that

Or you might end up with a quite complex, Complex
And you may end up like Oedipus*
I'd rather marry a duck-billed platypus
Than end up like old Oedipus Rex*!

*Oedipus was a king who was created by the greek playwright Sophocles.
He was lost as a baby and when he grew up he killed a king and married 
the kings widow Jocasta. Oedipus was however, unaware that the king 
he'd killed was in fact his father, and his new wife was his mother! 
When he found out the awful truth he gouged out his own eyes and died in poverty.



(Transcribed by Henry Watkinson - March 2004)