Some notes on "The Liar-Man"
                     Noam D. Elkies

Imagine an English speaker hearing a performance in German,
recognizing a few words, and filling in a ludicrously wrong
idea of what the song might be about.  Note that each of the
three occurrences of "Leier" is matched by an English "Liar";
likewise for much of the second line: Und -> under,
starren -> Starr, Fingern, kann (v.) -> can (n.);
"wankt" and "liedern" become "wanks" and "leaders";
"hunde" becomes "hound", for once a true cognate but
used as a verb rather than a noun.  All of the final
rhyming ends, and some full syllables, are preserved:
besides Man/kann there's also "leer", and will/still
becomes still/Bill -- NB "Bill" is here a form of "Will[iam]".

These lyrics can be sung to Schubert's famous song: "cower"[ing] and
"[pot]ty, he" as one note split into two (if the Italians can elide
consecutive vowels then so can we); likewise "The Ameri[can]" as four
16th notes, or if you prefer "Th'Amer'[can]" which is close to some
colloquial pronunciations (as in "Merkin"); an extra upbeat in
"They won't let it blow over"; and either an extra upbeat or
(if one insists on preserving "Will" on the downbeat, as in "Willst")
a contrived word accent in the last line.  The portmanteau phrase
"The American Peoping Toms" is a variation on a political cartoon
seen in the Fall of 1998, showing the Declaration of Independence
starting "We The Peephole"; this pun has also been seen in other
guises during the Fornigate scandal.

This parody inspired Jim Propp to compose another song parody
with the same title and subject.  In a Nov.1998 e-mail, Jim wrote:

  In a more popular vein, I suggest:

    "Liar-Man, Liar-Man / Does whatever a liar can /
    Put aside / what he says / Open wide / He's the prez /
    Look out! / Here comes the Liar-Man."

;-)