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Related: Culture Forums, Support Forums88 Years on 88 Keys: Tom Lehrer, The Salinger of the Satirical Song
http://www.hesherman.com/2016/04/09/88-years-on-88-keys-tom-lehrer-the-salinger-of-the-satirical-song/Tom LehrerWhile Lehrer was a genuinely formative influence, who is rarely far from my mind, I think of him specially today because April 9, 2016 marks his 88th birthday. With Sherman gone for than 40 years and Freberg having passed just a couple of years ago, Lehrer is the last surviving member of my own sung comedy superteam, and while its quite clear that there is nothing Lehrer would like less than to be celebrated for work he largely stopped doing 50 years ago (this BuzzFeed piece from two years ago explains), and even further back, its hard to restrain oneself.
This, of course, is the challenge of being a Tom Lehrer fan. While much of the work is evergreen, the majority of it was written in the 1950s and first half of the 60s, and Lehrer largely stopped performing by the time 1970s rolled around. Some have written that Lehrers withdrawal from performance was because he is as a mathematician by training and primary trade a perfectionist, and that he took no pleasure from concerts because he was determined to reproduce his recordings. Others have suggested that what was daring and ribald in the 50s ran smack against the counterculture of the late 60s, which Lehrer didnt care for.
tom lehrer tomfooleryIn any event, to the dismay of fans of funny, topical songs, Lehrer refocused himself on teaching. The result for comedy geeks was that he became, almost, our J.D. Salinger. Although he hid in plain sight, his students knew better than to discuss his performing fame; though almost no new work appeared, it was clear that he had not shunned his piano and verbal repartee, as the occasional song slipped out, or the odd public appearance. He gave a rare interview to National Public Radio in 1979; he spoke with The New York Times in 2000. Perhaps his last burst of general public fame came when the producer Cameron Mackintosh brought the musical revue Tomfoolery, comprised of Lehrers songs, to the stage in London and later New York. But that was in the early 1980s, almost two generations ago now, so Lehrer fans can even be nostalgic for that moment of nostalgia.
We'll all try to stay cool and calm when Alabama gets the bomb! Who's next? Who's next?
The Second Stone
(2,900 posts)and avenged America against Denmark for Victor Borge.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Or so I was told at Yale. Lehrer is a Hahvahd man.
nemo137
(3,297 posts)I was just re-listening to "We Will All Go Together When We Go" the other day.
annabanana
(52,791 posts)when I was growing up. They didn't like me listening to the Irish Ballad, as it features a young girl murdering her entire family. Consequently, of course, whenever they left the house I pulled Lehrer out and put him on the turntable.
All the lyrics to all the songs are imprinted on my memory (except "The Elements".. for that I need a song sheet)
Paladin
(28,264 posts)grasswire
(50,130 posts)Brilliant lyrics.
grasswire
(50,130 posts)snip
Get in line with that processional
Head into the small confessional
There's a man who's got religion'll
Tell you if your sin's original
If it is try playin' it safer
Drink the wine and chew the wafer
Two four six eight
Time to transubstantiate!
So get down on your knees
Fiddle with your rosaries
Bow your head with great respect
And genuflect, genuflect, genuflect
Make a cross on your ab-do-men
When in Rome do like a Roman
Ave Maria, gee it's good to see ya
Gettin' dramatic and sort of ecstatic
And doin' the Vatican Rag!
CBHagman
(16,986 posts)I believe it was in a course on German Expressionism that the professor made reference to Alma Schindler, and I piped up, "I know a song about her!" Whereupon the professor replied, "I know that song too."