Tom Lehrer's iconic songs: ‘The Elements', ‘The Masochism Tango' and more gems from satirical genius
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His unique style influenced generations of comedians.
Lehrer's passing was confirmed by his friend David Herder to the New York Times. With his brilliant mix of intellect and irreverence, he left a lasting mark on the world of music and satire.
Tom Lehrer's iconic songs
'The Elements': This clever tune lists all the chemical elements, set to the melody of Gilbert and Sullivan's 'I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General'. It became a hit among science buffs and comedy fans alike.
' The Masochism Tango ': In this fiery number, Lehrer mixes romance and pain, dancing through twisted desires with lyrics like, 'I ache for the touch of your lips, dear / But much more for the touch of your whips, dear…'
'I Hold Your Hand in Mine': Possibly his darkest love song, this ballad tells the creepy tale of a man holding onto his lover's severed hand, both literally and lovingly.
'I Got It From Agnes': With brilliant wordplay, Lehrer traces the spread of a venereal disease through a social circle, keeping the tone cheeky rather than crude.
'Poisoning Pigeons in the Park': Spring in the city turns deadly in this comical song about lacing bird food with cyanide. It's disturbingly delightful.
'It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier': This marching tune pokes fun at army life and military clichés, gently teasing everything from training routines to uniform pride.
'The Vatican Rag': A bouncy ragtime tune that mocks Catholic traditions with lines urging worshippers to 'genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!'
'Fight Fiercely, Harvard': Lehrer lovingly ridicules Ivy League manners, imagining a football game where players encourage each other with refined politeness.
'The Old Dope Peddler': Told with a wink, this tune follows a local drug dealer who's 'giving the kids free samples' in the hopes of creating lifelong customers.
'Bright College Days': Looking back at university life, Lehrer gives the usual nostalgic college song a twist filled with sarcasm and schoolboy humour.
'Lobachevsky': In this faux-Russian piece, Lehrer praises plagiarism in academia. The key lesson? 'Plagiarise! Plagiarise! Let no one else's work evade your eyes!'
'My Home Town': What starts like a sentimental tribute to small-town life quickly turns into a list of shady characters and back-alley dealings.
'We Will All Go Together When We Go': A cheerful take on nuclear apocalypse, this crowd-pleaser reminds us that at least we'll all be fried together.
'Be Prepared': A twisted version of the Boy Scout motto, the song offers dodgy advice under the guise of helpful readiness.
'The Wild West Is Where I Want to Be': This one celebrates the American West with humour, radioactivity, and military-industrial references.
'I Wanna Go Back to Dixie': Lehrer mocks Southern nostalgia by highlighting the region's history of racism and inequality through upbeat melody and biting irony.
'The Irish Ballad': Don't be fooled by the folky sound. This grim tale tells of a girl committing murder after murder in the sweetest voice imaginable.
'The Hunting Song': A gentle tune disguises the chaos of a hunting trip that goes hilariously and violently wrong.
'When You Are Old and Gray': Romance fades fast in this brutally honest love song, where the singer says his affection will end as soon as his partner's beauty does.
'The Wiener Schnitzel Waltz': Here, food and romance mix in a whimsical tale of love, lust, and Austrian cuisine.
'A Christmas Carol': Christmas commercialism is the real target in this song, with the melody hiding a critique of holiday consumerism.
'Oedipus Rex': Lehrer gives the classic Greek tragedy a cheeky twist, adding mother jokes and academic flair to a bizarrely chipper tune.
'In Old Mexico': An unlucky traveller visits Mexico and finds misfortune at every turn, all told with exaggerated characters and satirical flair.
'Clementine': This parody of the classic folk song takes listeners through increasingly ridiculous musical styles, from operatic to cowboy country.
'She's My Girl': Love and hate collide in this tune, where the singer complains bitterly about his partner, but still insists he's in love.
Free music for the world
In a rare and generous move, Tom Lehrer announced in 2020 that he had given away all rights to his songs. He placed them into the public domain, meaning anyone could use, perform, record, or rewrite them freely.
He even gave up the rights to his own recordings.
'In short, I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs. So help yourselves, and don't send me any money,' he wrote on his website. He also warned that the website would be 'shut down at some date in the not too distant future' although it was still live at the time of his passing
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Hindustan Times
4 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Tom Lehrer, musical satirist and math prodigy, dead at 97
By Bill Trott Tom Lehrer, musical satirist and math prodigy, dead at 97 July 27 - Tom Lehrer, the math prodigy who became an influential musical satirist with his barbed views of American social and political life in the 1950s and 1960s, has died at the age of 97, according to news reports. Lehrer died at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Saturday, his longtime friend David Herder told the New York Times. No cause of death was specified. Lehrer's career as a musician and revered social commentator was little more than a happy accident that began with composing ditties to amuse classmates at Harvard University. His heyday lasted about seven years and, by his own count, produced only 37 songs before the reluctant performer returned to teaching at Harvard and other universities. "There's never been anyone like him," Sir Cameron Mackintosh, the Broadway producer who created "Tom Foolery," a revue of Lehrer songs, told BuzzFeed in 2014. "Of all famous songwriters, he's probably the only one that ... is an amateur in that he never wanted to be professional. And yet the work he did is of the highest quality of any great songwriter." As the U.S. nestled into the post-war complacency of the 1950s, the liberal-leaning Lehrer was poking holes in the culture with his songs while maintaining an urbane, witty air. Some of his works reflected his mathematical interests - "New Math" about subtracting 173 from 342 and "Lobachevsky" about a 19th-century Russian mathematician - but his meatier songs were deemed by some to be too irreverent and shocking. In 1959 Time magazine lumped him in with groundbreaking comics Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl as "sicknicks" who had "a personal and highly disturbing hostility toward all the world." The song "I Wanna Go Back to Dixie" looked at racism in the South while "National Brotherhood Week" took on hypocrites . "Be Prepared" exposed the dark side of a Boy Scout's life, "I Got It from Agnes" was about venereal disease, and "We Will All Go Together When We Go" addressed nuclear Armageddon. "If, after hearing my songs, just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps to strike a loved one, it will all have been worth the while," Lehrer wrote on the notes that accompanied one of his albums. ODE TO ELEMENTS Thomas Andrew Lehrer was born on April 9, 1928, in New York. He grew up in the Big Apple listening to musical theater and one of his first works was "The Elements," a recitation of the periodic table set to a Gilbert and Sullivan tune. He enrolled at Harvard at age 15 and his "Fight Fiercely, Harvard" with the line "Won't it be peachy if we win the game?" became a popular spoof of the school's sports fight song. He performed at campus functions and, while in graduate school, compiled enough material to record an album in a Boston studio. He sold "Songs by Tom Lehrer" around campus and it developed a word-of-mouth cult following around the country. After serving in the U.S. Army from 1955 to 1957, Lehrer began performing and recorded more albums but was losing his zest for music. By the early 1960s, working on his doctorate - which he never finished - and teaching became greater concerns, although he did contribute songs to the TV news satire show "That Was the Week That Was" in 1963 and 1964. Lehrer taught math at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and musical theater at the University of California-Santa Cruz. He said he found math and songwriting to be similar - both a matter of fitting the pieces together in search of a proper and satisfying outcome. When asked why he abandoned musical satire, he said cultural changes had created issues such as abortion and feminism that were too complicated to satirize. Famously, he quipped that "political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize" after the award was given to the controversial secretary of state in 1973. Lehrer, who never married, also said the things he once found to be funny were now scary. "I often feel like a resident of Pompeii who has been asked for some humorous comments on lava," he told People magazine in 1982. Lehrer's impact lasted decades after he stopped performing. His work was often featured on the syndicated Dr. Demento radio show and "Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe dazzled a talk show audience by doing "The Elements" on a television show in 2010. The rapper 2 Chainz sampled part of Lehrer's "The Old Dope Peddler" in a 2012 song. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
The Hindu
5 hours ago
- The Hindu
Tom Lehrer, musical satirist and math prodigy, dead at 97
Tom Lehrer, the math prodigy who became an influential musical satirist with his barbed views of American social and political life in the 1950s and 1960s, has died at the age of 97, according to news reports. Lehrer died at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Saturday (July 26, 2025), his longtime friend David Herder told the New York Times. No cause of death was specified. A well-calculated move: On Tom Lehrer Lehrer's career as a musician and revered social commentator was little more than a happy accident that began with composing ditties to amuse classmates at Harvard University. His heyday lasted about seven years and, by his own count, produced only 37 songs before the reluctant performer returned to teaching at Harvard and other universities. "There's never been anyone like him," Sir Cameron Mackintosh, the Broadway producer who created "Tom Foolery," a revue of Lehrer songs, told BuzzFeed in 2014. "Of all famous songwriters, he's probably the only one that ... is an amateur in that he never wanted to be professional. And yet the work he did is of the highest quality of any great songwriter." As the U.S. nestled into the post-war complacency of the 1950s, the liberal-leaning Lehrer was poking holes in the culture with his songs while maintaining an urbane, witty air. Some of his works reflected his mathematical interests - "New Math" about subtracting 173 from 342 and "Lobachevsky" about a 19th-century Russian mathematician - but his meatier songs were deemed by some to be too irreverent and shocking. In 1959 Time magazine lumped him in with groundbreaking comics Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl as "sicknicks" who had "a personal and highly disturbing hostility toward all the world." The song "I Wanna Go Back to Dixie" looked at racism in the South ("The land of the boll weevil where the laws are medieval") while "National Brotherhood Week" took on hypocrites ("It's only for a week so have no fear / Be nice to people who are inferior to you"). "Be Prepared" exposed the dark side of a Boy Scout's life, "I Got It from Agnes" was about venereal disease, and "We Will All Go Together When We Go" addressed nuclear Armageddon. "If, after hearing my songs, just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps to strike a loved one, it will all have been worth the while," Lehrer wrote on the notes that accompanied one of his albums. Ode to elements Thomas Andrew Lehrer was born on April 9, 1928, in New York. He grew up in the Big Apple listening to musical theater and one of his first works was "The Elements," a recitation of the periodic table set to a Gilbert and Sullivan tune. He enrolled at Harvard at age 15 and his "Fight Fiercely, Harvard" with the line "Won't it be peachy if we win the game?" became a popular spoof of the school's sports fight song. He performed at campus functions and, while in graduate school, compiled enough material to record an album in a Boston studio. He sold "Songs by Tom Lehrer" around campus and it developed a word-of-mouth cult following around the country. After serving in the U.S. Army from 1955 to 1957, Lehrer began performing and recorded more albums but was losing his zest for music. By the early 1960s, working on his doctorate - which he never finished - and teaching became greater concerns, although he did contribute songs to the TV news satire show "That Was the Week That Was" in 1963 and 1964. Lehrer taught math at Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and musical theater at the University of California-Santa Cruz. He said he found math and songwriting to be similar - both a matter of fitting the pieces together in search of a proper and satisfying outcome. When asked why he abandoned musical satire, he said cultural changes had created issues such as abortion and feminism that were too complicated to satirize. Famously, he quipped that "political satire became obsolete when Henry Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize" after the award was given to the controversial secretary of state in 1973. Lehrer, who never married, also said the things he once found to be funny were now scary. "I often feel like a resident of Pompeii who has been asked for some humorous comments on lava," he told People magazine in 1982. Lehrer's impact lasted decades after he stopped performing. His work was often featured on the syndicated Dr. Demento radio show and "Harry Potter" star Daniel Radcliffe dazzled a talk show audience by doing "The Elements" on a television show in 2010. The rapper 2 Chainz sampled part of Lehrer's "The Old Dope Peddler" in a 2012 song.
Time of India
6 hours ago
- Time of India
Tom Lehrer's iconic songs: ‘The Elements', ‘The Masochism Tango' and more gems from satirical genius
Tom Lehrer, the musician and satirist known for his razor-sharp wit and dark humour, has passed away at the age of 97. A Harvard-trained mathematician, Lehrer rose to fame in the 1950s and 1960s with his clever songs that blended comedy with biting political and social commentary. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now His unique style influenced generations of comedians. Lehrer's passing was confirmed by his friend David Herder to the New York Times. With his brilliant mix of intellect and irreverence, he left a lasting mark on the world of music and satire. Tom Lehrer's iconic songs 'The Elements': This clever tune lists all the chemical elements, set to the melody of Gilbert and Sullivan's 'I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General'. It became a hit among science buffs and comedy fans alike. ' The Masochism Tango ': In this fiery number, Lehrer mixes romance and pain, dancing through twisted desires with lyrics like, 'I ache for the touch of your lips, dear / But much more for the touch of your whips, dear…' 'I Hold Your Hand in Mine': Possibly his darkest love song, this ballad tells the creepy tale of a man holding onto his lover's severed hand, both literally and lovingly. 'I Got It From Agnes': With brilliant wordplay, Lehrer traces the spread of a venereal disease through a social circle, keeping the tone cheeky rather than crude. 'Poisoning Pigeons in the Park': Spring in the city turns deadly in this comical song about lacing bird food with cyanide. It's disturbingly delightful. 'It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier': This marching tune pokes fun at army life and military clichés, gently teasing everything from training routines to uniform pride. 'The Vatican Rag': A bouncy ragtime tune that mocks Catholic traditions with lines urging worshippers to 'genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!' 'Fight Fiercely, Harvard': Lehrer lovingly ridicules Ivy League manners, imagining a football game where players encourage each other with refined politeness. 'The Old Dope Peddler': Told with a wink, this tune follows a local drug dealer who's 'giving the kids free samples' in the hopes of creating lifelong customers. 'Bright College Days': Looking back at university life, Lehrer gives the usual nostalgic college song a twist filled with sarcasm and schoolboy humour. 'Lobachevsky': In this faux-Russian piece, Lehrer praises plagiarism in academia. The key lesson? 'Plagiarise! Plagiarise! Let no one else's work evade your eyes!' 'My Home Town': What starts like a sentimental tribute to small-town life quickly turns into a list of shady characters and back-alley dealings. 'We Will All Go Together When We Go': A cheerful take on nuclear apocalypse, this crowd-pleaser reminds us that at least we'll all be fried together. 'Be Prepared': A twisted version of the Boy Scout motto, the song offers dodgy advice under the guise of helpful readiness. 'The Wild West Is Where I Want to Be': This one celebrates the American West with humour, radioactivity, and military-industrial references. 'I Wanna Go Back to Dixie': Lehrer mocks Southern nostalgia by highlighting the region's history of racism and inequality through upbeat melody and biting irony. 'The Irish Ballad': Don't be fooled by the folky sound. This grim tale tells of a girl committing murder after murder in the sweetest voice imaginable. 'The Hunting Song': A gentle tune disguises the chaos of a hunting trip that goes hilariously and violently wrong. 'When You Are Old and Gray': Romance fades fast in this brutally honest love song, where the singer says his affection will end as soon as his partner's beauty does. 'The Wiener Schnitzel Waltz': Here, food and romance mix in a whimsical tale of love, lust, and Austrian cuisine. 'A Christmas Carol': Christmas commercialism is the real target in this song, with the melody hiding a critique of holiday consumerism. 'Oedipus Rex': Lehrer gives the classic Greek tragedy a cheeky twist, adding mother jokes and academic flair to a bizarrely chipper tune. 'In Old Mexico': An unlucky traveller visits Mexico and finds misfortune at every turn, all told with exaggerated characters and satirical flair. 'Clementine': This parody of the classic folk song takes listeners through increasingly ridiculous musical styles, from operatic to cowboy country. 'She's My Girl': Love and hate collide in this tune, where the singer complains bitterly about his partner, but still insists he's in love. Free music for the world In a rare and generous move, Tom Lehrer announced in 2020 that he had given away all rights to his songs. He placed them into the public domain, meaning anyone could use, perform, record, or rewrite them freely. He even gave up the rights to his own recordings. 'In short, I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs. So help yourselves, and don't send me any money,' he wrote on his website. He also warned that the website would be 'shut down at some date in the not too distant future' although it was still live at the time of his passing
