Tom Lehrer sang this incisive satire of "American" star Wernher von Braun in 1965. 50 years later, Foundring brilliantly expanded it for the 21st century. I recorded this cover while camping just Southwest of Flagstaff, Arizona, all in one take as always.

Original Tom Lehrer version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjDEsGZLbio Updated Foundring version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohOVPjjVxPo

I feel pretty well-aware of CIA coups and other atrocities, but I definitely learned a lot while researching what imagery to use in this video. Foundring helpfully left us breadcrumbs, but reader beware, they are nightmare fuel: https://web.archive.org/web/20221028000309/https://www.reddit.com/r/conspiracy/comments/3cgzje/tom_lehrers_wernher_von_braun_updated_for_the/

Guitar: Taylor 814ce Audio recorder: Zoom H6 Vocals microphone: SM7B Guitar microphone: SM81 Cameras: GoPro 10, GoPro 9, GoPro 9, GoPro 9

Lyrics & chords: G7 C Gather round while I sing you of Wernher von Braun G7 C G7 C A man whose allegiance is ruled by expedience G7 C A7 Call him a nazi he won’t even frown Dm C G7 C "Nazi, schmazi!" says Wernher von Braun

B7 Em Don’t say that he’s hypocritical B7 Em Say rather that he’s apolitical G7 C A7 "Once the rockets go up who cares where they come down? Dm C G7 C That’s not my department" says Wernher von Braun

G7 C Some have harsh words for this man of renown G7 C G7 C But some think our attitude should be one of gratitude G7 C A7 Like the widows and cripples in old London town Dm C G7 C Who owe their large pensions to Wernher von Braun

B7 Em You too may be a big hero B7 Em Once you’ve learned to count backwards to zero G7 C A7 "In German und English I know how to count down Dm C G7 C Und I’m learning Chinese" says Wernher von Braun

    G7                        C

When he first launched Explorer into the great beyond G7 C G7 C He tried to alleviate when it started to deviate G7 C A7 We had to catch up to those commies somehow Dm C G7 C It’s a good thing we had lots of Wernher von Brauns

  B7                  Em

While Paperclip was a depravity B7 Em What’s worse is they lied about gravity G7 C A7 But von Braun didn’t frown and said "this rings a bell Dm C G7 C Now go fetch me more Germans and do it mach schnell"

   G7                        C

At the end of his days with more time to reflect G7 C G7 C He chose to disclose some notions verboten G7 C A7 They plan to deceive us with make-believe threats Dm C G7 C And the Cold War was nothing compared to what’s next

B7 Em After the Russians it’s the terrorists B7 Em And then third-world countries will be scariest G7 C A7 And soon asteroids become the new enemy Dm C G7 C And the best part will be the fake war with ET

G7 C When the good old OSS took from old Berlin town G7 C G7 C They fed us with platitudes as they pillaged each latitude G7 C A7 And Gehlen told Allen "I’ve got this one down Dm C G7 C We’ll tell them the commies just won’t come around"

See the rest here: https://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/tab/foundring/wernher-von-braun-chords-4246414