Tom Lehrer, the influential musical satirist and educator, died on Saturday at his dwelling in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His pal David Herder confirmed the information. Lehrer was 97.
Thomas Andrew Lehrer was born on April 9, 1928, to a secular Jewish household who lived on Manhattan’s Higher West Facet. Lehrer started finding out classical piano at 7 years outdated, however he realized early on he was extra enthusiastic about modern widespread music. He shifted his focus to writing pop songs and present tunes, turning into a baby prodigy, and by 15 he was finding out at Harvard. Whereas at Harvard, he started writing comedian songs for his personal enjoyment and to entertain his mates. However he studied arithmetic as a substitute of music, graduating magna cum laude. He self-released his debut album Songs By Tom Lehrer in 1953.
Lehrer started educating arithmetic at a variety of universities, together with Harvard, till he was drafted into the U.S. Military in 1955. He spent two years as a member of the Nationwide Safety Company, however he didn’t publicly reveal this data till 2020, as a result of the company’s existence was labeled on the time. His expertise on the military base impressed songs of his together with “The Wild West is The place I Need to Be” and “It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier.” (He additionally as soon as claimed to have invented the Jello shot as a strategy to get across the base’s alcohol ban.)
Lehrer returned to Cambridge and resumed a profession as a full-time educator. He taught at Harvard and MIT earlier than becoming a member of the college on the College Of California, Santa Cruz, combining his two passions by educating an introductory math course for liberal arts majors. He’d sometimes carry out his songs within the class, a course he’d nicknamed “Math For Tenors.”
Although Lehrer solely launched two studio albums and barely toured, he accrued a cult following. His music was used regularly within the Physician Demento Present, and the British theater producer Cameron Waterproof coat produced a jukebox musical referred to as Tomfoolery primarily based on his songs; Lehrer didn’t have a lot involvement within the manufacturing, however praised it. Randy Newman, Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen, and “Bizarre Al” Yankovic are just some of the songwriters who’d go on to quote Lehrer as a serious incluence on their work.
In 2020, Lehrer relinquished all his songs to the general public area. Revisit a few of them under.