According to US media reports, the esteemed American musician and satirist Tom Lehrer has passed away at the ripe age of 97. Trained as a mathematician at Harvard, Lehrer composed darkly humorous tunes often laden with political undertones that gained widespread popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. Modern comedic luminaries such as Weird Al Yankovich have openly acknowledged the profound influence Lehrer's work has had on their careers. David Herder, a close friend, confirmed Lehrer's passing to the New York Times.
Born in the bustling borough of Manhattan in 1928, Lehrer was a classically trained pianist from an early age. However, despite achieving significant musical success, he dedicated the bulk of his life to academia. His teaching journey took him to prestigious institutions such as Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and the University of California.
A prodigy in his own right, Lehrer graduated ahead of his peers from the Loomis Chaffee School in Connecticut. He then enrolled at Harvard, where he majored in mathematics and earned his bachelor's degree at the tender age of 18 in 1946. He went on to complete a master's degree there and pursued a PhD at Columbia University, albeit unfinished.
While at Harvard, Lehrer began penning lyrics as a means to entertain his friends. Some of his most enduring songs include "The Elements," a cleverly arranged list of chemical elements set to the tune of "I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General" from Gilbert and Sullivan's comic opera, "The Pirates of Penzance." Other fan favorites like "The Masochism Tango" feature lyrics where the singer extols his beloved's violent passions with whimsical lines such as, "I ache for the touch of your lips, dear / But much more for the touch of your whips, dear..."
Lehrer was renowned for his darkly comic ballads, such as the necrophiliac epic "I Hold Your Hand in Mine, I Got It From Agnes," which tells a tale of venereal disease transmission, and "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park," a humorous account of the birds' apparent fondness for "peanuts coated with cyanide."
In 1953, he released "Songs by Tom Lehrer," a record sold exclusively through the mail. It gained momentum through word of mouth and is estimated to have sold half a million copies. The BBC, however, banned most of the songs from airplay the following year.
Following the album's success, Lehrer took to the stages of nightclubs in New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, as well as events organized by anti-war and left-wing groups. He contributed songs to the US edition of the satirical British show "That Was the Week That Was," which were compiled into an album in 1965.
Among his controversial compositions was "The Vatican Rag," a ragtime Catholic hymn that poked fun at the Church, featured alongside songs condemning nuclear weapons. Perhaps the most notable of these was "We Will All Go Together When We Go," with lyrics such as, "Oh, we will all fry together when we fry / We'll be French-fried potatoes by-and-by / There will be no more misery / When the world is our rotisserie / Yes, we all will fry together when we fry."
In the 1970s, he wrote for the educational children's show "The Electric Company." In 1980, his songs experienced a revival when theater producer Cameron Mackintosh staged the musical revue "Tomfoolery," showcasing his work. From 1972 to 2001, Lehrer taught mathematics and musical theater courses at the University of California.
In a generous gesture in 2020, Lehrer placed his songwriting copyrights in the public domain, allowing anyone to perform, record, or interpret his work free of charge. He also relinquished all rights to his recordings. In a statement on his website at the time, he wrote, "In short, I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs. So help yourselves, and don't send me any money." He also warned that the website would soon be "shut down at some date in the not too distant future," although it remained active at the time of writing.
