My parents had the “An Evening Wasted With…” album.
8 thoughts on “Tom Lehrer”
Sad. Even though he didn’t think much of us who could count backward from 10… But I give him a lot of cred for explaining “New” Math. He will be missed.
I have three Tom Lehrer albums, all (some time since) ripped to MP3’s: “An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer,” “Tom Lehrer Revisited,” and “Tom Lehrer – The Year That Was.” My faves: “The Elements,” “The Wild West Is Where I Want To Be,” “National Brotherhood Week,” and “Wernher Von Braun.” (“‘Za rockets go up…who knows vere zey come down…zat’s not my department,’ says Wernher Von Braun!”)
Back in the 90’s? I saw him playing at UCSB…worth a drive up from WLA.
I may not agree with his politics but his songs were funny. My backseater would sing “So Long Mom” when we were training to drop a bomb on eastern Europe.
In high school, the little social circle of which I was part would gather for weekend parties at one another’s homes and listening to Tom Lehrer albums was pretty much a mandatory part of these affairs. Absolutely wonderful stuff which holds up very well decades later. I am particularly enamored of ‘In Old Mexico,’ which is delightfully non-PC and couldn’t possibly have gotten published much later than it actually was.
Mr. Lehrer had a good long run, but he will be missed all the same. Fortunately, he public domained all of his works a few years back so there will be no “estate managers” to restrict access or bowdlerize his songs.
My first Tom Lehrer song was almost certainly “Pollution”, from a bunch of green propaganda videos they showed in grade school. The next one was “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park”. I eventually bought his songbook (Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer, With Not Enough Drawings by Ronald Searle) to share with my daughter. I think her favorite was “The Masochism Tango”, although “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park” is up there.
A brilliant satirist. (I met my second wife at a room party at a science fiction convention when we sang a duet of ‘So Long, Mom, I’m Off to Drop the Bomb.’) As a man —
His comments on the ‘Columbia’ disaster:
“They’re calling these people heroes. The Columbia isn’t a disaster. The disaster is that they’re continuing this stupid program.” [The reference is to manned spaceflight in general, not the Shuttle program specifically.]
“When seven people blow up or become confetti, then they’ve asked for it.”
Sad. Even though he didn’t think much of us who could count backward from 10… But I give him a lot of cred for explaining “New” Math. He will be missed.
I have three Tom Lehrer albums, all (some time since) ripped to MP3’s: “An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer,” “Tom Lehrer Revisited,” and “Tom Lehrer – The Year That Was.” My faves: “The Elements,” “The Wild West Is Where I Want To Be,” “National Brotherhood Week,” and “Wernher Von Braun.” (“‘Za rockets go up…who knows vere zey come down…zat’s not my department,’ says Wernher Von Braun!”)
Oh, and…Riders in the Sky did a terrific rendition of “The Wild West Is Where I Want To Be.”
Had every song on TWTYTW memorized in my teen years. Can probably still sing half of them from memory in my late 60s.
Back in the 90’s? I saw him playing at UCSB…worth a drive up from WLA.
I may not agree with his politics but his songs were funny. My backseater would sing “So Long Mom” when we were training to drop a bomb on eastern Europe.
In high school, the little social circle of which I was part would gather for weekend parties at one another’s homes and listening to Tom Lehrer albums was pretty much a mandatory part of these affairs. Absolutely wonderful stuff which holds up very well decades later. I am particularly enamored of ‘In Old Mexico,’ which is delightfully non-PC and couldn’t possibly have gotten published much later than it actually was.
Mr. Lehrer had a good long run, but he will be missed all the same. Fortunately, he public domained all of his works a few years back so there will be no “estate managers” to restrict access or bowdlerize his songs.
My first Tom Lehrer song was almost certainly “Pollution”, from a bunch of green propaganda videos they showed in grade school. The next one was “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park”. I eventually bought his songbook (Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer, With Not Enough Drawings by Ronald Searle) to share with my daughter. I think her favorite was “The Masochism Tango”, although “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park” is up there.
A brilliant satirist. (I met my second wife at a room party at a science fiction convention when we sang a duet of ‘So Long, Mom, I’m Off to Drop the Bomb.’) As a man —
His comments on the ‘Columbia’ disaster:
“They’re calling these people heroes. The Columbia isn’t a disaster. The disaster is that they’re continuing this stupid program.” [The reference is to manned spaceflight in general, not the Shuttle program specifically.]
“When seven people blow up or become confetti, then they’ve asked for it.”
(Sydney Morning Herald 1 March 2003)