There are two songwriters whose works regularly run through my mind as I read the news and think about the things happening in the world. The first, Phil Ochs, took his own life in 1976. The second died on July 26th at the age of 97. His satire was stunning, then and now.
It wasn’t just the classics like National Brotherhood Week, but even his lesser-known pieces, like the Hunting Song.
People ask me how I do itAnd I say, “There’s nothin’ to itYou just stand there lookin’ cuteAnd when something moves, you shoot!”And there’s ten stuffed heads in my trophy room right nowTwo game wardens, seven hunters, and a pure-bred Guernsey cow
And a pure-bred Guernsey cow. Rest in peace, Tom Lehrer, and know that your memory will always be a blessing. We still need you now as much as then. You will be missed.
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AFAICT, Lehrer was not referring to Trump when he wrote; “Disclaimer: If anyone disagrees with anything I say, I am quite prepared to not only retract it, but also to deny under oath I ever said it.”
Though, I can’t be entirely certain.
He’d been reported as dead a few times already (I guess that’s no surprise, with as long as he lived). Sorry to hear that it’s true. I think it’s time to listen to Poisoning Pigeons in the Park and the Masochism Tango in his memory.
Rest in peace, Tom.
The pigeons have been waiting for you.
The longer you carry on in this old world, the greater your collection of dead people singing to you. A century ago, most people didn’t have this luxury. They had to get their music “live,” and when the singers died, that was that. Now, with vinyl, magnetic tape, CDs and digital streaming, we can still hear our favorite dead performers in our living rooms, during our morning commute and on our computer headphones at work. “At the going down of the sun and in the morning we will remember them.”
His STEM songs were gleefully sung in the wee hours of study sessions for our math and chemistry classes.
And lets not forget, he had a math degree from Harvard and taught math there.
Truly one of the giants.
He will be missed.
My introduction to Tom Lehrer came in my first year of college, when an anthropology professor launched into Oedipus Rex from the auditorium stage. I cherish that memory.
I must have been 9 or 10 when I first heard and loved “The Irish Ballad” and it’s “maid” who killed everyone in her family but wouldn’t deny it to the police because “lying she knew was a sin.” I suspect it may have been an early influence on my eventual career as a criminal defense lawyer.
I wonder if they’ll put “When they saw him coming, the birdies all tried to hide” on his tombstone…?
RIP. 🙁
Tom Lehrer also did educational songs. My childhood was split between “Lobachevsky” and “Silent E”.
Lehrer should also be remembered for declaring “satire is dead” in response to Henry Kissinger’s Nobel prize
“I don’t think this kind of thing has an impact on the unconverted, frankly. It’s not even preaching to the converted; it’s titillating the converted … I’m fond of quoting Peter Cook, who talked about the satirical Berlin Kabaretts of the 1930s, which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the Second World War.”
Interview with Tom Lehrer, 24 May 2000, The A.V. Club.
To what end would you post this, other than to conclusively prove you’re an asshole?
And Scott, why didn’t you trash this?
[Ed. Note: Not everyone felt about Lehrer as I did, even if Joseph is an insufferable asshole.]