Tom Lehrer 30951 224456139 2008-07-08T22:34:50Z Lincolnite 281300 /* Musical career */ : italics {{Infobox musical artist | Name = Tom Lehrer | Img = | Img_capt = | Img_size = | Background = solo singer | Birth_name = Thomas Andrew Lehrer | Alias = | Born = {{Birth date and age|1928|4|9|mf=y}}<br>[[New York]], [[New York]] | Died = | Instrument = [[Vocals]]<br/>[[Piano]] | Genre = | Occupation = [[mathematics|Mathematician]] | Years_active = [[1945]] - [[1965]] | Label = | Associated_acts = | URL = [http://www.tomlehrer.org/ TomLehrer.org] }} '''Thomas Andrew "Tom" Lehrer''' (born [[April 9]] [[1928]]) is an [[United States|American]] [[singer-songwriter]], [[satire|satirist]], [[pianist]], and [[mathematics|mathematician]]. He has lectured on [[mathematics]] and [[musical theater]]. Lehrer is best known for the pithy, humorous songs he recorded in the 1950s and 60s. His work often parodied popular song forms, notably in "[[The Elements (song)|The Elements]]", where he sets the names of the [[chemical element]]s to the tune of the "[[Major-General's Song]]" from [[Gilbert and Sullivan]]'s ''[[Pirates of Penzance]]''. Lehrer's earlier work frequently dealt with trivial subject matter, but he also produced a number of songs dealing with the social and political issues of the day, particularly when he went on to write for the TV show ''[[That Was The Week That Was]]''. ==Early life== The young Tom Lehrer began studying classical piano music at the age of 7. However, Lehrer truly was interested in the popular music of the age. Eventually he switched piano teachers to satisfy his desire to learn more show tunes. At this early age, he began writing his own show tunes that would eventually help him in his future adventures as a satirical composer/writer in his years at Harvard and beyond. <ref> Tom Lehrer: The Political Musician That Wasn't. By Jeremy Mazner </ref> Before attending college, Lehrer graduated from the [[Loomis Chaffee School]] in [[Windsor, Connecticut]]. As an undergraduate student at [[Harvard University]], he began to write [[comic song]]s to entertain his friends, including "Fight Fiercely, Harvard" (1945). Those songs later became (in a joking reference to a leading scientific journal, ''The [[Physical Review]]'') [http://www.haverford.edu/physics-astro/songs/lehrer/physrev.htm ''The Physical Revue.''] ==Musical career== Influenced mainly by [[musical theater]], Lehrer's style consists of [[parody]]ing various forms of [[popular song]]. For example, his appreciation of [[list song]]s led him to set the names of [[The Elements (song)|the chemical elements]] to the tune of [[Gilbert and Sullivan]]'s "[[Major-General's Song]]". Inspired by the success of his performances of his own songs <!--clarify; what songs? What performances? -->, he paid for some studio time to record, ''[[Songs by Tom Lehrer]]''. Radio stations at the time would not give Lehrer radio time due to the highly controversial subjects he sang about. Instead he sold his album on campus at Harvard for $3, while "supportive record merchants and dorm newsstands bought copies…and marked them up 50 cents."{{Fact|date=May 2008}} After one summer, he also started to receive mail orders from all over the country (as far as San Francisco after ''[[San Francisco Chronicle|The Chronicle]]'' wrote an article on the record). Over the summer friends and supporters brought their records home and played it for their friends who then also wanted a copy of the record. <ref> Jim Bessman. "Rhino Reissues Lehrer's Seminal 'Songs' Albums." Billboard. JUNE 21, 1997. </ref> [[Self-publishing|Self-published]] and unpromoted, the album — which included the macabre "I Hold Your Hand in Mine", the mildly risqué "Be Prepared", and "[[Nikolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky|Lobachevsky]]" (a riposte of plagiarizing mathematicians) — became a cult success via [[word of mouth]]. Lehrer then embarked on a series of [[concert tour]]s and recorded a second album, which was released in two versions: the songs were the same but ''More Songs by Tom Lehrer'' was studio-recorded, while ''[[An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer]]'' was recorded live in concert. Lehrer's major breakthrough in the [[United Kingdom]] came as a result of the citation accompanying an [[honorary degree]] given to [[Princess Margaret]], where she cited musical tastes as "catholic, ranging from [[Mozart]] to Tom Lehrer". This prompted significant interest in his works, and helped secure distributors for his material. It was in the UK where his music achieved real popularity, due to the proliferation of university newspapers referring to the material, and the willingness of the [[BBC]] to play his songs on the radio (something that was a rarity in the USA). By the early 1960s, Lehrer had retired from touring (which he intensely disliked) and was employed as the resident songwriter for the U.S. edition of ''[[That Was The Week That Was]]'' (TW3), a satirical TV show. An increased proportion of his output became overtly political, or at least topical, on subjects such as [[education]] ("[[New Math (song)|New Math]]"), the [[Second Vatican Council]] ("The Vatican Rag"), [[race relations]] ("National Brotherhood Week"), air and water [[pollution]] ("Pollution"), American militarism ("Send the Marines"), [[World War III]] nostalgia ("So Long, Mom", premiered by [[Steve Allen]]), and [[nuclear proliferation]] ("Who's Next?" and "MLF Lullaby"). He also wrote a song that famously satirized the alleged amorality of rocket scientist [[Wernher von Braun]]. (" 'Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? That's not my department', says Wernher von Braun.") Lehrer did not appear on the television show himself (his songs were performed by a female vocalist), and his lyrics were often altered by the network censors. Lehrer would later perform the songs himself on the album, ''[[That Was The Year That Was]],'' so that, in his words, people could hear the songs the way they were intended to be heard. The record deal with [[Reprise Records]] for the ''That Was The Year That Was'' album also gave Reprise distribution rights for Lehrer's earlier recordings, as Lehrer wanted to shut down his own Lehrer Records. The Reprise issue of ''Songs by Tom Lehrer'' was a stereo re-recording. This version was not issued on CD, but the songs were issued on the live ''[[Tom Lehrer Revisited]]'' on CD instead. "The live [recording] also included bonus tracks 'L-Y' and 'Silent E,' which Lehrer wrote for the PBS children's educational series ‘The Electric Company.’" Lehrer later commented that worldwide sales of the recordings under Reprise surpassed 1.8 million units in 1996. On that same year, the album "That Was The Year That Was" went gold. <ref> Jim Bessman. "Rhino Reissues Lehrer's Seminal 'Songs' Albums." Billboard. JUNE 21, 1997. </ref> ===Departure from the scene=== There is a misconception that Lehrer gave up [[political satire]] when the [[Nobel Peace Prize]] was awarded to [[Henry Kissinger]] in 1973. He did say that the awarding of the prize to Kissinger made political satire obsolete, but has denied that he stopped doing satire as a form of protest, and asserts that he had stopped doing satire several years earlier.<ref name="avclub">[http://avclub.com/content/node/22863 Interview with the Onion AV Club], [[May 24]] [[2000]].</ref> Another mistaken belief is that he had been sued for [[Slander and libel|libel]] by [[Wernher Von Braun]], the subject of one of his songs, and been forced to relinquish all of his royalty income to Von Braun. However, Lehrer firmly denied this in a 2003 interview.<ref name="smh">[http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/28/1046407753895.html Interview with the ''Sydney Morning Herald''], [[February 28]] [[2003]]</ref> (He had also mentioned [[Frank Fontaine]] and [[Jerry Lewis]] in "National Brotherhood Week", in an uncomplimentary context, on the same album, but nothing ensued from that.) When asked about his reasons for abandoning his musical career, he cited (in an interview in the 2000 CD box set's accompanying book) a simple lack of interest, a distaste for touring, and boredom with performing the same songs repeatedly. He observed that when he was moved to write and perform songs, he did; when he wasn't, he didn't; and after a while, the latter situation prevailed. It has frequently been observed that though many of Lehrer's songs satirized the [[Cold War]] political establishment of the era, he stopped writing and performing just as the [[1960s counterculture]] movement gained momentum. Lehrer's musical career was notably brief: in an interview in the late 1990s, he pointed out that he had performed a mere 109 shows and written 37 songs over 20 years. Nevertheless, he developed a significant cult following both in the U.S. and abroad. ===Lehrer returns to music=== In the 1970s, Lehrer concentrated on teaching mathematics and musical theater, although he also wrote 10 songs for the children's television show ''[[The Electric Company]]''. (Harvard schoolmate [[Joe Raposo]] was the show's musical director for its first three seasons.) In the early 1980s, ''[[Tom Foolery]]'', a revival of his songs on the London stage, was a surprise hit. Although not its instigator, Lehrer eventually gave it his full support and updated several of his lyrics for the production. ''Tom Foolery'', produced by Cameron Mackintosh, contained 27 Lehrer songs and led more than 200 productions <ref> Jim Bessman. "Rhino Reissues Lehrer's Seminal 'Songs' Albums." Billboard. JUNE 21, 1997. </ref> On [[June 7]]/[[June 8]] [[1998]], Lehrer performed in public for the first time in 25 years at the [[Lyceum Theatre]], [[London]] as part of the gala show ''[[Hey, Mr. Producer!]]'' celebrating the career of impresario [[Cameron Mackintosh]] (who had been the producer of ''[[Tom Foolery]]''). The [[June 8]] show was his only performance before [[Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom|Queen Elizabeth II]]. Lehrer sang "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" and an updated version of the nuclear proliferation song "Who's Next". The DVD of the event includes the former song.<ref>[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhuMLpdnOjY&feature=related Poisoning Pigeons in the Park] (original version) at youtube.com (accessed 25 March 2008)</ref> In 2000, a CD [[box set]], ''The Remains of Tom Lehrer'', was released by [[Rhino Entertainment]]. It included live and studio versions of his first two albums, ''That Was The Year That Was'', the songs he wrote for ''The Electric Company'', and some previously unreleased material, accompanied by a small hardbound book containing an introduction by [[Dr. Demento]] and lyrics to all the songs. ===Other endeavors=== Lehrer earned his BA in mathematics ([[Latin honors|Magna Cum Laude]]) from [[Harvard University]] in 1947, when he was 18. He received his MA the next year, and was inducted into [[Phi Beta Kappa]]. He taught classes at [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology|MIT]], Harvard, and [[Wellesley College|Wellesley]]. He remained in Harvard's doctoral program for several years, taking time out for his musical career and to work as a researcher at [[Los Alamos, New Mexico]]. He joined the [[United States Army|Army]] from 1955 to 1957, working at the [[National Security Agency]]. (Lehrer has stated that he invented the [[b:Bartending/Cocktails/Glossary#J|Jell-O Shot]] during this time, as a means of circumventing liquor restrictions.<ref>"[http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2000-04-19/feature_full.html That Was the Wit That Was]", Jack Boulware, [[San Francisco Weekly]] [[April 19]] [[2000]]. Accessed [[February 1]] [[2007]].</ref> ) All of these experiences eventually became fodder for songs: "[[Fight Fiercely, Harvard]]", "[[The Wild West Is Where I Want To Be]]" and "[[It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier]]", respectively. There was perhaps some truth to his comment in the intro to the latter song, in which he said he had left the Army and was now in the "Radioactive Reserve". In 1960, Lehrer returned to full-time studies at Harvard, however, he never completed his doctoral studies and never received a [[PhD]] in mathematics. From 1962, he taught in the Political Science department at MIT.<ref>"[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_g1epc/is_bio/ai_2419200709]",Eric Longley, [[Tom Lehrer in St. James Encyclopedia of Pop Culture]] [[2002]]. Accessed [[Dec 21]] [[2007]].</ref> In 1972, he joined the faculty of the [[University of California, Santa Cruz]], teaching an introductory course entitled "The Nature of Mathematics" to liberal-arts majors &mdash; "Math for Tenors", according to Lehrer. He also taught a class in musical theater. He occasionally performed songs in his lectures, primarily those relating to the topic.<ref>[http://www.archive.org/details/lehrer Internet Archive: Details: Tom Lehrer<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> In 2001, Lehrer taught his last math class (on the topic of Infinity) and retired from academia. <ref>[http://www.buckswoodside.com/stories/tomlehrer.shtml I hope Tom doesn't read this. He doesn't like the attention]</ref> He has remained in the area, and still "hangs out" around the [[University of California, Santa Cruz]].<ref>[http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/28/1046407753895.html Interview with the ''Sydney Morning Herald''], [[February 28]] [[2003]]</ref> ==Legacy== Lehrer has commented that he doubts his songs had any real effect on those not already critical of the establishment: "I don't think this kind of thing has an impact on the unconverted, frankly. It's not even preaching to the converted; it's titillating the converted... I'm fond of quoting [[Peter Cook]], who talked about the satirical [[Berlin]] [[cabaret]]s of the '30s, which did so much to stop the rise of [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] and prevent the [[World War II|Second World War]]."<ref name="avclub" /> In 2003 he commented that his particular brand of political satire is more difficult in the modern world: "The real issues I don't think most people touch. The [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] jokes are all about [[Monica Lewinsky]] and all that stuff and not about the important things, like the fact that he wouldn't ban [[land mine|landmines]]... I'm not tempted to write a song about [[George W. Bush]]. I couldn't figure out what sort of song I would write. That's the problem: I don't want to satirise George Bush and his puppeteers, I want to vaporise them."<ref name="smh" /> In a phone call to [[Gene Weingarten]] of the ''[[Washington Post]]'' in February 2008, Lehrer instructed Weingarten to "Just tell the people that I am voting for [[Barack Obama|Obama]]."<ref>[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2008/02/05/DI2008020502027.html "Chatalogical Humor"], [[February 12]], [[2008]].</ref> A play called ''[[Letters from Lehrer]]'' was written by [[Canada|Canadian]] [[Richard Greenblatt (playwright)|Richard Greenblatt]], and performed by him at [[CanStage]], from [[January 16]] to [[February 25]] [[2006]]. It follows Lehrer's musical career, the meaning of several songs, the politics of the time, and Greenblatt's own experiences with Lehrer's music, while playing some of Lehrer's songs. There are currently no plans for more performances, although low-quality audio recordings have begun to circulate around the net. Lehrer was praised by [[Dr. Demento]] as "the best musical satirist of the [[20th Century]]". Other artists who cite Lehrer as an influence include [["Weird Al" Yankovic]], whose work generally addresses more popular and less technical or political subjects.<ref>[http://www.weirdal.com/faq.htm Weird Al's FAQs]</ref> More stylistically influenced performers include American political satirist [[Mark Russell]],<ref>[http://www.holecity.com/asp/newshole.asp?issue=10&sec=7&hole=1 NewsHole<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> and the British duo [[Kit and The Widow]].{{Fact|date=November 2007}} ==Reviews selected by Lehrer for his liner notes== *"Mr. Lehrer's muse is not fettered by such inhibiting factors as taste." &mdash; ''[[New York Times]]'' ([http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60815FE3B5A137B93CBA91789D85F4D8585F9 9 February 1959]) *"More desperate than amusing" &mdash; ''[[New York Herald Tribune]]'' *"He seldom has any point to make except obvious ones" &mdash; ''[[Christian Science Monitor]]'' *"Plays the piano acceptably" &mdash; ''[[Oakland Tribune]]'' ==Solo discography== *''[[Songs by Tom Lehrer]]'' (1953) (Rereleased in 1990 as ''[[Tom Lehrer Revisited|Revisited]]'' with the additional songs "Silent E" and "L-Y") *''[[An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer]]'' (1959) *''[[More of Tom Lehrer]]'' (1959) *''[[Tom Lehrer Revisited]]'' (1960) *''[[Tom Lehrer Discovers Australia (And Vice Versa)]]'' (1960) *''[[That Was the Year That Was]]'' (1965) *''[[Tom Lehrer in Concert]]'' (1994) *''[[Songs & More Songs by Tom Lehrer]]'' (1997) *''[[The Remains of Tom Lehrer]]'' (2000) Many Lehrer songs are also performed (but not by Lehrer) in ''[[That Was The Week That Was]]'' (1981) The sheet music to many of Lehrer's songs is published in ''Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer'' (Pantheon, 1981, ISBN 0-394-74930-8). ==Mathematical publications== The [[American Mathematical Society]] database shows him as co-author of two papers: *RE Fagen & TA Lehrer, "Random walks with restraining barrier as applied to the biased binary counter," Journal of the Society for Industrial Applied Mathematics, vol. 6, p.1-14 (March 1958) {{MathSciNet | id = 0094856 }} *T Austin, R Fagen, T Lehrer, W Penney, "The distribution of the number of locally maximal elements in a random sample," Annals of Mathematical Statistics vol. 28, p.786-790 (1957) {{MathSciNet | id = 0091251 }} ==References== {{reflist}} ==External links== {{wikiquote}} *[http://www.youtube.com/user/6funswede Videos of Tom Lehrer performing around the 1960s] *[http://php.indiana.edu/~jbmorris/FAQ/lehrer.disco.html Discography of Tom Lehrer] *[http://members.aol.com/quentncree/lehrer/index.htm Tom Lehrer Song Lyrics (with annotations)] *[http://www.haverford.edu/physics-astro/songs/lehrer/physrev.htm Tom Lehrer's earliest recordings at Harvard 1951/52] *[http://www.archive.org/details/lehrer A video recording of five songs performed by Lehrer] (for [[Irving Kaplansky]] in 1997) *[http://home.teleport.com/~osh/leher.htm Tom Lehrer: The man, his myth and his music] *[http://www.tomlehrer.org A Tom Lehrer and Tom Foolery web page] *[http://www.casualhacker.net/tom.lehrer/jmazner/lehrhtml.html Tom Lehrer: The Political Musician Who Wasn't] *[http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/2000-04-19/feature.html An interview with SF Weekly] *[http://www.theirishballad.blogspot.com The Irish Ballad -- production blog about a stop-motion film] *[http://www.paul-lehrman.com/insider/1997/12insiderfulltext.html Conversation with Tom Lehrer] *[http://www.hti.umich.edu/u/umhistmath/Lobachevsky.mp3 Lobachevsky song] by Tom Lehrer, in [[MP3]] format. *{{allmusicguide|id=11:xye997b7krgt|label=Tom Lehrer}} *{{imdb name|name=Tom Lehrer|id=0499875}} * [http://curvebank.calstatela.edu/newmath/newmath.htm Tom Lehrer Deposit #10] Authorized website that plays Lehrer's entire song "New Math" and encourages you to download the track or buy the CD. {{DEFAULTSORT:Lehrer, Tom}} [[Category:Jewish Americans in the military]] [[Category:1928 births]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:20th century mathematicians]] [[Category:American male singers]] [[Category:American mathematicians]] [[Category:American novelty song performers]] [[Category:American satirists]] [[Category:American singer-songwriters]] [[Category:American pianists]] [[Category:American comedy musicians]] [[Category:Harvard University alumni]] [[Category:Massachusetts Institute of Technology faculty]] [[Category:Parody musicians]] [[Category:University of California, Santa Cruz faculty]] [[Category:Horace Mann School alumni]] [[Category:United States Army soldiers]] [[da:Tom Lehrer]] [[de:Tom Lehrer]] [[es:Tom Lehrer]] [[fr:Tom Lehrer]] [[he:טום לרר]] [[nl:Tom Lehrer]] [[ja:トム・レーラー]] [[no:Tom Lehrer]] [[pt:Tom Lehrer]] [[sv:Tom Lehrer]]