A number of publishers told me that no one would want to read a book about a boastful black dope peddler.
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When 2 Chainz, a rapper, asked to sample "The Old Dope Peddler" in one of his tracks, Mr Lehrer was keen to help.
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"The Old Dope Peddler" was one of Tom Lehrer's most controversial songs, and Mr Lehrer was once one of the most cutting satirists in America.
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There was "The Old Dope Peddler," Tom Lehrer's mock-sentimental tribute to a shady neighborhood character who gives the kids free samplesBecause he knows full wellThat today's young innocent facesWill be tomorrow's clientele.
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When the aptly named Sporting Life, a dope peddler (the vibrant Frederick Ballentine), debunks a literal reading of the Bible in "It Ain't Necessarily So," even the churchgoers who find him objectionable laugh, carry on and sing along.
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His record of avoiding conviction inflated his ego, to the point where in 1977 this dashing dope peddler flaunted his supposed invulnerability by posing — recklessly, as it turned out — in a blue denim suit and a red, white and blue tie for the cover of The New York Times Magazine.
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Actor Dennis Hopper sings a line from "Be Prepared""'Be prepared'; that's the Boy Scouts' marching song" in the 1994 motion picture Speed. In 2012, rapper 2 Chainz sampled "The Old Dope Peddler" for his song "Dope Peddler," from his album Based on a T.R.U. Story.
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Lehrer's parody switches the song's protagonist to "the Old Dope Peddler" selling "powdered happiness". It has lines like this: : "He gives the kids free samples : because he knows full well : that today's young, innocent faces : will be tomorrow's clientele" The song was banned from broadcast by the BBC. Lehrer's performance is sampled in the track "Dope Peddler" by U.S. rapper 2 Chainz on his 2012 album Based on a T.R.U. Story, and on UK electronica duo Akasha's track "Interzone (Tapping a Guitar with Beef on a Lonely Summer Day in Menlo Park)", remixed by Menlo Park on the 1999 album Cinematique - The Remixes. The song was covered by Meat Puppets.
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He said he saw Birns arrive home at 12:07 a.m., about the time of the shooting several miles away. It took the jurors four hours to reach a verdict, which resulted in Birns's acquittal. They expressed their refusal to believe the changing testimony of Coleman, who had been a dope peddler and police informant.
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Crown, a strong and brutal stevedore, storms in with his woman, Bess, and buys cheap whiskey and some "Happy Dust" off the local dope peddler, Sportin' Life. Bess is shunned by the women of the community, especially the pious Serena and the matriarchal cookshop owner Maria, but Porgy softly defends her. The game begins. One by one, the players get crapped out, leaving only Robbins and Crown, who has become extremely drunk.
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His oldest brother Leo formed the Lanzetta Gang with Ignatius and their other brothers in the early 1920s. Ignatius, Leo, and another brother Pius ran the gang. The brothers controlled bootlegging in Little Italy. They were allied with Italian gangsters Michael Falcone and Louis "Fats" Delrossi and their rivals included: Polish mob boss William Michael Cusick, Sicilian Mafia and Bruno crime family boss Salvatore Sabella, Jewish mob boss Max "Boo Boo" Hoff, and Italian Mafia made man and rival dope peddler and bootlegger Joseph Bruno.
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Leo formed the Lanzetta Gang with Ignatius, Pius, and their other brothers in the early 1920s. Leo, Ignatius, Pius, and their other brothers ran the gang. The brothers controlled bootlegging in Little Italy. They were allied with Italian gangsters Michael Falcone and Louis "Fats" Delrossi and their rivals included: Polish mob boss William Michael Cusick, Sicilian Mafia and Bruno crime family boss Salvatore Sabella, Jewish mob boss Max "Boo Boo" Hoff, and Italian Mafia made man and rival dope peddler and bootlegger Joseph Bruno.
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At various times, the brothers feuded with several different groups of racketeers in South Philadelphia, as well as Mickey Duffy and some of his partners. Between 1924 and 1939, at least one brother was involved as a suspect or a material witness in no less than fifteen murder cases, including Pius' imprisonment and dismissal during the early stages of the investigation into the murder of Mickey Duffy. The brothers were also rivals of Max Hoff's criminal organization. Leo and Ignatius killed rival dope peddler and bootlegger Joe Bruno on August 18, 1925, at 8th and Catherine Streets.
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"The Old Dope Peddler" is a satirical song by Tom Lehrer. It was on Lehrer's first album Songs by Tom Lehrer from 1953, and a new live recording on Tom Lehrer Revisited in 1960. The song is a parody of a popular tune well known at the time titled "The Old Lamp-Lighter" by Charles Tobias and Nat Simon, a hit first for Kay Kyser in 1947, and continued to have popular new recordings to 1960. The verses of the original asserted that :"He made the night a little brighter :Wherever he would go :The old lamplighter :Of long, long ago" It goes on to say that if there were sweethearts in the dark, "he'd pass the light and leave it dark," and concludes by explaining that now, the old lamplighter turns the stars on at night and turns them off at dawn.
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