Legends: Tom Lehrer - Satarist Supreme

Tom Lehrer passed away last week at age 97. For anyone unfamiliar with him and his music, he was a brilliant musical satirist who wrote incredibly clever, interesting and topical songs in the 1950s and 1960s. He was not a full-time musician. His true love was mathematics and he was employed for years as a professor at Harvard and MIT. Periodically, however, he emerged to perform and record several albums of his songs.

He was trained as a classical pianist. All of his songs were performed just with him playing the piano and singing. His lyrics were sharp, intelligent, incisive and always on point. Here are some of his “Greatest Hits”.

“Poisoning Pigeons In The Park” is about one of the pleasures of springtime.

“Be Prepared” is his Boy Scout “marching song”.

“I Hold Your Hand In Mine” is his necrophiliac ballad.

“The Vatican Rag” is his response to the Vatican’s attempt to “make the Church more commercial”, as he liked to say.

And perhaps his most famous song is “The Elements”, where he names all of the elements to a Gilbert & Sullivan melody.

Tom Lehrer will be missed.