Posted on 07/27/2025 9:59:50 AM PDT by Borges
Tom Lehrer, the Harvard-trained mathematician whose wickedly iconoclastic songs made him a favorite satirist in the 1950s and ’60s on college campuses and in all the Greenwich Villages of the country, died on Saturday at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 97.
His death was confirmed by David Herder, a friend.
Mr. Lehrer’s lyrics were nimble, sometimes salacious and almost always sardonic, sung to music that tended to be maddeningly cheerful. Accompanying himself on piano, he performed in nightclubs, in concert and on records that his admirers purchased, originally by mail order only, in the hundreds of thousands.
But his entertainment career ultimately took a back seat to academia. In his heart he never quit his day job; he just took a few sabbaticals.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Here’s his most requested song:
https://youtu.be/I9C2v1oLXQo?si=292gfZScmvIIcsoy
Most requested to not play, that is.
LOVED HIM. Years ago, John Backus of FORTRAN and Backus-Naur fame got his team together after work to watch a lot of my Tom Lehrer videos. Good memory.
NCIS - The Elements
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mlk2ZY-0Gn4
Starsky and Hutch - Fight Fiercely Harvard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRq9yUTsKOo
Star Trek - New Math
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pgE0HQtxpTc
Get Smart - Poisoning Pigeons In The Park
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgWsWvxzJa0
Simon and Simon - Old Mexico
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJNUYTNe9SM
Blakes 7 - We’ll All Go Together
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMixeJSlBNQ
Star Trek - Proud to be a Soldier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UuGXSNSdy4
Blakes 7 - Old Dope Peddlar
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_vS0iyTxTU
The Professionals - Send the Marines
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ca1iQ-ZJ6Mw
The Professionals - Hunting Song
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kz9Z3Iud89A
Get Smart - Pollution
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKFwMhy7lpw
Starsky and Hutch - Vatican Rag
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxRVaWTW_wo
Blakes 7 - Be Prepared
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiAlbkTstwo
Blakes 7 - Masochism Tango
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5O1tfNmnNNs
Starsky and Hutch - Be Prepared
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UemjhMIA4AA
Man from Uncle - So Long Mom
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGrNCn4roe0
Mixed - Old and Grey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_SbIZ2_SxHI
Get Smart - LY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vjTiGCSizhI
Blakes 7 - Poisoning Pidgeons
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sktz70MACQ
The Professionals - Be Prepared
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDYShSoK4JM
Cadfael - The Old Dope Peddler
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6SnV20UB-o
Farscape - Oedipus Rex
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZ9NzIkm9SE
Blakes 7 - Fight Fiercely Harvard
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vc-RHm3Tq8M
Farscape - New Math
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNCPnPQK06k
Due South - Masochism Tango
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdTqeruRdis
I do remember him but I don’t know where I would’ve seen him but I’m pretty sure I did see him on some tv shows. Can’t find it on the net though.
Those days, even though if was leftist stuff, somehow are far more intelligent, intellectual, than what we have now.
Somehow makes me think of guys like William F. Buckley.
Poisoning Pigeons in the Park!
Unfunny and juvenile after the third hearing. But he made some people feel smart and hip, and I guess they cherished him for that.
‘Who’s Next’.
It seems a little odd to have laughed at that, when we were kneeling under our little desks during bombing drills...
But humans are resilient.
Tomorrow Lehrer bookmark.
He was contracted to write songs for “That Was the Week That Was,” an NBC satirical show based on a BBC show. He appeared on occasion.
He reminds me of Mark Russell, who says Tom Lehrer was an influence.
I worked in a war zone for a few years. Gallows humor was the norm there and got us through it. I remember once when mortars were landing very close to and rocking our office trailer, we were all under our desks (like particleboard is going to do any good, but it made us feel safer…LOL) and one of the guys started taking pictures of us from under his desk. We found that hilarious for some reason and it generated much needed laughter from us all.
TL could be quite funny sometimes, we will miss him
I think emergency medical service people have a lot of ‘gallows humor’ too.
Bookmarking
In all probability, I’ll lose my virility and you, your fertility and desirability.
And this liability of total sterility will lead to hostility and a sense of futility.
So let’s act with agility while we still have facility or we’ll soon reach senility and lose the ability.
RIP Tom Lehrer! Was singing “we’ll all go together when we go” just the other day. Can’t remember why!
Oh, there will be no more misery
When the world is a rostissere
We all will go together when we go!
Absolutely. And first responders in general.
RIP Tom. I loved his songs, especially Poisoning the Pigeons in the Park.
He was great, another favorite I didn’t see posted:
https://youtu.be/lCveIYSwLqk?si=U7kDSWdA6anm5HCm
National Brotherhood Week
I remember every one of those songs. We listened to Tom Leher all the time when we were kids. My favorite was Vatican Rag.
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