Tom Lehrer RIP

A number of famous and highly talented figures from the world of entertainment have died over the last two or three weeks, all of whom will be greatly missed.

I'm going to single out Tom Lehrer who died this week at the age of 97 for two reasons. First, he was one of the funniest men who ever lived. Secondly because when he had made all the money he wanted, he renounced copyright on his work and allowed anyone to use it for free. Now that was something special.

Tom Lehrer was a popular song satirist who lampooned marriage, politics, racism and the Cold War, then largely abandoned his music career to return to teaching maths at Harvard and other universities.

Lehrer had remained on the maths 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.

A Harvard prodigy (he had earned a maths degree from the institution at age 18), Lehrer soon turned his very sharp mind to old traditions and current events. He was a superb master of parody, a form of humour I particularly appreciate, but he also wrote some original songs. If you have a favourite comic song or parody written in the second half of the 20th century but have no idea who wrote it, there is a very good chance that it will have been Tom Lehrer.

Accompanying himself on piano, he performed the songs in a colorful 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” Jankovic among others as an influence.

He will be missed.

Rest in Peace.

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