RIP Tom Lehrer
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Link to videoTom Lehrer, the popular song satirist who lampooned marriage, politics, racism and the Cold War, then largely abandoned his music career to return to teaching math at Harvard and other universities, has died. He was 97.
Longtime friend David Herder said Lehrer died Saturday at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He did not specify a cause of death.
Lehrer had remained on the math faculty of the University of California at Santa Cruz well into his late 70s. In 2020, he even turned away from his own copyright, granting the public permission to use his lyrics in any format without any fee in return.
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His website:
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Such a giant of social criticism. Unafraid to shake people's self-importance or their beliefs.
Vatican Rag didn't sit well with millions. Too bad.
Werner von Braun ends with an astute forecast (learning Chinese).
I doubt his Dixie would have been well received in Mississippi.
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His musical humour was a skilled scalpel no one has matched.
So rare to have the ability to write humorous lyrics, suitable music, and perform solo.
I can think of only another 5 similar talents.When our girls were aged 9 and 5, I learned a handful of his songs including 'I got it from Agnes'.
They loved it, singing and dancing along with me; and why not, a jaunty tune about sharing with your friends.And into their primary school they took it, singing merrily "I love my friends, and they love me..."
"Daddy, Miss Hilton has asked if you could give her the music for the friends song"
How could I resist sending their teacher a photocopy.It came straight back
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I was just talking about this to a friend of mine from high school yesterday. My first exposure to Lehrer was a 78 rpm record that my Dad bought in the 1950s of his first songs. When the Vatican rag came out, the sheet music wasn’t readily available so it was one of the first pieces my brother Bruce learned to play by ear. For the wild and crazy crowd we hung around with at the Methodist youth fellowship, This was a big hit..
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“Political satire became obsolete when they awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Henry Kissinger”
-Lehrer
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I wasn't familiar with him.
I am aware Nobel Prizes are a joke.
I know from being a baptized Methodist that it was the most boring, most white, most insular, most judgemental to fellow members, church imaginable.
I ran as far away from it as as I could as soon as I could. The last time I was in a Methodist church was 30 years ago for a wedding. The next time will be on the 1st of never.
It sounds like he meant a lot to many.
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Tom Lehrer in Copenhagen, the full video.
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I became acquainted with Tom Lehrer's songs early in my college days in the '60s. I still pull out my song book now and then. In some ways, it's disturbing how timeless some of the songs are.
Big Al
