Tom Lehrer, math whiz who found international fame as a musical satirist, dies at 97

Boston Globe

4 days ago

And the Black folks hate the white folks,
To hate all but the right folks
Is an old established rule.
Liberals uneasy at having to show so much tolerance during what he lampooned as 'National Everyone-smile-at-one-another-hood Week' didn't get a free pass, either. He told them to take heart, though: 'It's only for a week, so have no fear/Be grateful that it doesn't last all year!'
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Mr. Lehrer, a youthful math prodigy who rose to unlikely international acclaim in the 1950s and '60s with witty songs he began composing and performing as a Harvard student, was 97 when he died Saturday in his Cambridge home.
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He was as sharp as ever intellectually this year, his friends said, adding that even in recent months, batting snippets of song lyrics back and forth was a staple of dinner conversations at Mr. Lehrer's home.
'His main quality as a friend was being loving and endlessly affectionate, though at the same time he was fanatically unsentimental,' said the writer and editor
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As a clever lyricist, Mr. Lehrer had such an unerring ear that for years reporters and critics invoked his name when writing about musical satire. Particularly in the political realm, 'a Tom Lehrer song' was the yardstick against which success was measured.
Social or political, no topic was off-limits as he gleefully satirized the Army ('
In early 1953, while a graduate student at Harvard University, he recorded an album of what he called 'some allegedly humorous songs' he had written.
The initial 400 copies of 'Songs by Tom Lehrer' were mostly intended for relatives and friends, but Mr. Lehrer 'underestimated the national incidence of delayed adolescence,' he joked a few years later, in the annual report of his Harvard class.
Over the years, reissues of the album and a few others he released sold hundreds of thousands of copies.
Mr. Lehrer took time away from graduate studies to tour nationally and internationally, until largely stepping back from performing in 1960.
Occasional concerts followed — along with TV appearances, mostly in other countries. In a Harvard class report, Mr. Lehrer quipped that he landed 'only a few brief non-primetime appearances in the United States, where standards are presumably higher.'
In 1965, he released '
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A few years later, he contributed educational songs to 'The Electric Company,' a children's TV show. In 1980, 'Tomfoolery' — a musical revue of his songs — opened in London and later was produced in the United States and other countries. A book, 'Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer,' was published in 1981.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Lehrer taught math at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Wellesley College.
'As unsentimental as he was, he loved the unaffected sincerity and enthusiasm of students,' Kummer said. 'As cynical as he appeared, he completely admired people who weren't cynical but were fresh and raring to show the world their ambition and talent.'
For Mr. Lehrer, teaching filled a need that the applause of strangers sitting out beyond the stage lights never satisfied.
'There's bliss and there's delight,' he told The Boston Globe in 1983. 'I'm more interested in delight. Bliss is one state. Humor and mathematics are full of delight. That's where my interest is.'
In his later career, Mr. Lehrer lived in Cambridge and spent the winter months teaching courses at the University of California Santa Cruz, in American musical comedy and the nature of mathematics. Income from his music allowed him to teach part time.
'Aside from writing an occasional song and traveling a bit,' he wrote in 1977, 'I spend most of the rest of the year puttering, interrupted now and then by frittering.'
Thomas Andrew Lehrer was born in New York City on April 9, 1928.
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Studying piano as a child, he set aside classical pieces to focus on musical theater.
'I would do the absolute minimum amount of practicing I would need for my lesson, and then spend hours picking out popular songs,' he told the Globe in 1984.
He was 15 upon arriving at Harvard as a freshman in 1943 as part of the class of '47.
While writing amusing songs such as 'Fight Fiercely, Harvard,' which poked fun at his college, Mr. Lehrer finished a bachelor's degree in mathematics early, in 1946, and completed a master's the next year, at age 19.
He then began years of mathematics doctoral studies at Harvard and wrote that he eventually left 'a thesis shy of a Ph.D.'
Stints with the Atomic Energy Commission in New Mexico and at a Cambridge research firm were followed by two years in the Army, working in Washington, D.C., in the mid-1950s.
By the late 1950s, his music was attracting considerable attention.
With songs that parodied folk music ('
But Mr. Lehrer had tired of touring by the early 1960s, despite the chance to travel to other continents. While 'the actual performing part wasn't unpleasant,' he said, being on the road had run its course.
'As I used to tell people, 'Once you've been to Detroit, there's no need to go to Cincinnati,' ' he told the Globe in 1984.
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With longtime friends, Mr. Lehrer 'was incredibly delightful to be with, as anyone who loves his work will be unsurprised to hear,' Kummer said.
Fans also wouldn't be shocked to know that 'he revered lyricists,' Kummer added.
As a songwriter, Mr. Lehrer was particularly deft with openings, such in as '
First you get down on your knees
Fiddle with your rosaries
Bow your head with great respect
And genuflect, genuflect, genuflect!
Do whatever steps you want if
You have cleared them with the pontiff
Nearly five years ago, Mr. Lehrer wrote on his website that he had relinquished the rights to his songs, and that all his lyrics 'whether published or unpublished, copyrighted or uncopyrighted, may be downloaded and used in any manner whatsoever, without requiring any further permission from me or any payment to me or to anyone else.'
Such generosity struck many as in keeping with his character. He had always been self-deprecating about so much in his life, including the decades-long success he enjoyed for recording only a few dozen tunes.
'It's very flattering that people remember the songs and have kept them alive all these years,' he told the Globe in 1984, 'but it's a little unreal.'
Bryan Marquard can be reached at