Tom Lehrer

Genuflect, Genuflect, Genuflect dept.

“The tune don’t have to be clever

“And it don’t matter if you put a couple extra syllables into a line”

—from “The Folk Song Army” by Tom Lehrer

I know I’m not alone here

But Tom Lehrer was my guy.

My parents loved him

I know a lot of peoples’ parents loved him

But my parents really loved him

And so did I.

My Dad was a piano professor

At a small college in Iowa.

And my parents would have little parties

And his students would come over

And sip punch

And eat cookies

And at some point

Everyone would sit in a large circle

In the living room

And listen to Tom Lehrer’s

“That Was the Year That Was” record

In rapt attention

Like we were watching a movie.

I probably listened to that record

Three hundred times

And every time I heard it

I would pick up a new reference

Or understand something

I hadn’t caught before.

“But Dad,” I whispered once,

While we listened to

“National Brotherhood Week,”

“Why did everyone laugh

“When he said,

“‘And everyone hates the Jews’?”

“Because,” he replied, still laughing,

“Everyone hates everyone!”

Tom Lehrer was a brilliant satirist—

Of politics, social mores, pretensions—

And song forms themselves.

And an incredible wordsmith.

“An awful debility

“A lessened utility

“A loss of mobility

“Is a strong possibility

“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

“For we’ll soon reach senility

“And lose the ability….”

—from “When You Are Old And Gray”

For all his wit and musical and lyrical wizardry, his talents didn’t seem to mean all that much to Lehrer, and after making just three records of genius songs, he walked away and spent the rest of his days teaching math.

His understanding of deep intellectual subjects, and ability to render them hilariously, can be heard in his songs “New Math,” and the classic “The Elements Song” (as great a “list” song as ever was) and “Lobachevsky.”

The one time I got to spend several hours with the great Steve Goodman, we bonded over our love for Tom Lehrer.

My friend Paul Zollo got to interview Lehrer in his seminal work, “Songwriters on Songwriting.”

I never met Tom Lehrer, but the influence of those relatively few songs runs deep in me to this day. Reading classic satirists like Swift and Pope in college built on, but never surpassed, what I’d learned from Lehrer.

Seeing my Dad laugh at those songs sparked so much for me. I couldn’t impress my Dad with musicality, but I could write “topical, political, satirical” songs, and make him roar.

Tom Lehrer died last week. He was 97. And unlike many performers who may have felt like they were boxed in by their fame or career choices, Lehrer moved on and did what he wanted.

Like Bjorn Borg, you could say. Or Barry Sanders. Or Sandy Koufax.

But happier, perhaps.

Here is a full performance he did once in Copenhagen. Despite the audience not perhaps grasping every reference, they clearly and enthusiastically appreciated what he was doing.

And he never talked down to them despite something of a language barrier.

He barely looked at the keyboard, but turned to the people and connected fully.

Watching now, he presents almost a ghostly presence. Like Jacques Brel, or Houdini maybe, or Piaf. Jolson.

It’s less than an hour. Enjoy it.