Tom Lehrer, song satirist and mathematician, dies at 97

Ottawa Citizen

5 days ago

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LOS ANGELES — Tom 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.
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Longtime friend David Herder said Lehrer died Saturday at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He did not specify a cause of death.
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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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A Harvard prodigy (he had earned a math degree from the institution at age 18), Lehrer soon turned his very sharp mind to old traditions and current events. His songs included Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, The Old Dope Peddler (set to a tune reminiscent of The Old Lamplighter), Be Prepared (in which he mocked the Boy Scouts) and The Vatican Rag, in which Lehrer, an atheist, poked at the rites and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church. (Sample lyrics: 'Get down on your knees, fiddle with your rosaries. Bow your head with great respect, and genuflect, genuflect, genuflect.')
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Accompanying himself on piano, he performed the songs in a colourful style reminiscent of such musical heroes as Gilbert and Sullivan and Stephen Sondheim, the latter a lifelong friend. Lehrer was often likened to such contemporaries as Allen Sherman and Stan Freberg for his comic riffs on culture and politics, and he was cited by Randy Newman and 'Weird Al' Yankovic among others as an influence.
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He mocked the forms of music he didn't like (modern folk songs, rock 'n' roll and modern jazz), laughed at the threat of nuclear annihilation, and denounced discrimination. But he attacked in such an erudite, even polite, manner that almost no one objected.
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'Tom Lehrer is the most brilliant song satirist ever recorded,' musicologist Barry Hansen once said. Hansen co-produced the 2000 boxed set of Lehrer's songs, The Remains of Tom Lehrer, and had featured Lehrer's music for decades on his syndicated Dr. Demento radio show.