I don't like people to get the idea that I have to do this for a living

[sovay]

Tom Lehrer had entered my household's dialect before I was born. That's not my department. I am never forget the day. Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air. Only be sure always to call it please research. More, more, I'm still not satisfied. Lucky Pierre! Who's next? Songs not on rotation in my parents' record collection could be encountered lyrically and traumatically in Too Many Songs by Tom Lehrer with Not Enough Drawings by Ronald Searle (1981). One could in fact call him one of my idols since childbirth. With just a handful of music, he touched the hearts of millions, and in the spirit of his own liner notes, I hope he died mad about it.

Comments

[mrissa]

We listened to several at my mother's this evening. I remember doing jazz hands to "genuflect genuflect genuflect" with my father when I was in the 6-8yo range. I do not have a lot of celebrity crushes generally speaking but I have such a crush on the moment in "Werner von Braun" where the urbane smile slips for half a second and you can see how incandescently furious he is.

[sovay]

We listened to several at my mother's this evening. I remember doing jazz hands to "genuflect genuflect genuflect" with my father when I was in the 6-8yo range.

*hugs*

That's my father's favorite part, too.

I do not have a lot of celebrity crushes generally speaking but I have such a crush on the moment in "Werner von Braun" where the urbane smile slips for half a second and you can see how incandescently furious he is.

Because Operation Crossbow (1965) was a transatlantic co-production from MGM-British Studios, thanks to Operation Paperclip and NASA its otherwise historical plot centered around the R&D of the V-2 at the Mittelwerk and the titular Anglo-American efforts to investigate and target V-weapon production and launch sites is notable for its one hundred percent omission of Wernher von Braun, so whenever another block of flats in London crumbled under the impressive special effects of a V-1 hit, we did our best to counterweight for reality with another round of "WHO OWE THEIR LARGE PENSIONS . . ."

[selkie]

He was so funny and so shatteringly prescient.

[sovay]

He was so funny and so shatteringly prescient.

"I feel that if any songs are going to come out of World War III, we'd better start writing them now."

*hugs*

[asakiyume]

Oh no! I've been out of earshot of news for the past two days... I hadn't heard.

He was a good one. A very good one.

[sovay]

Oh no! I've been out of earshot of news for the past two days... I hadn't heard.

I don't believe the news broke before this morning! I saw it when I got up.

He was a good one. A very good one.

He was.

*hugs*

[a_reasonable_man]

My experience, too. I posted my own tribute on Facebook.

[sovay]

My experience, too. I posted my own tribute on Facebook.

Would you be able to send me the text or a screenshot? I would like to read it.

*hugs*

[greenwoodside]

Not Tom Lehrer! The last I heard about him was a few years ago, when he put his works in the public domain.

The world needs more Tom Lehrers, but as is the way of these things, we only ever get one.

[sovay]

Not Tom Lehrer! The last I heard about him was a few years ago, when he put his works in the public domain.

I knew he was alive as of his last birthday, but it turns out quite unfairly that all sorts of things can happen between birthdays. I was glad to read of this interaction.

The world needs more Tom Lehrers, but as is the way of these things, we only ever get one.

He had effect enough for more.

[greenwoodside]

When I saw the story was on Tumblr, my gut reaction was distrust. But I looked further, and while it's possible it's still a PR trick (though I hope it isn't, because some things should be true), they're actually selling wax cylinders with the music on!

[sovay]

But I looked further, and while it's possible it's still a PR trick (though I hope it isn't, because some things should be true), they're actually selling wax cylinders with the music on!

Yes! I actually checked before sharing in case it was a Tumblr Jenny Haniver. (I shared the Tumblr link because I liked the notes.) It seemed a weird PR length to go to for a wax cylinder!

[greenwoodside]

It's a lovely story and now I want a wax cylinder that plays The Elements.

That may mean saving up for a phonograph!

But wax cylinders are worth it. Still remember my delight at finding a YouTube digitisation of Sir Arthur Sullivan speaking in 1888.

[sovay]

But wax cylinders are worth it. Still remember my delight at finding a YouTube digitisation of Sir Arthur Sullivan speaking in 1888.

I think you should save up for a phonograph. You just don't get that depth of time in any other medium yet.

[moon_custafer]

Green Day rereleased some stuff last year in “alternative formats” that include wax cylinder: https://www.analogplanet.com/content/green-day-drops-15-alternative-format-options-dookie-demastered-including-wax-cylinder-x-ray

[genarti]

Yeah. 97 is a heck of a good run, but it still feels impossible; he was such a very good egg, and so many of his songs are perfect quotable gems.

[sovay]

Yeah. 97 is a heck of a good run, but it still feels impossible; he was such a very good egg, and so many of his songs are perfect quotable gems.

Along with just about everyone else, I have been playing them ever since hearing the news. It is impossible and significantly depressing to picture a world which did not have his songs in them. He feels like the most beloved sick comedian in the history of the form.

[phi]

I was delighted to read about this prank he pulled at the NSA that wasn't discovered for _sixty years_. Always check the references!

https://bsky.app/profile/opalescentopal.bsky.social/post/3luxxx27nos23

[sovay]

I was delighted to read about this prank he pulled at the NSA that wasn't discovered for _sixty years_. Always check the references!

Bozhe moi!

[a_reasonable_man]

The tributes I've been seeing online show that even now, generations after he stopped writing and performing, a great many people, even young ones, know most of his songs by heart. You could mount a spontaneous Tom Lehrer revue tomorrow, and the performers would show up off book, and the audience would gleefully sing along.

[sovay]

You could mount a spontaneous Tom Lehrer revue tomorrow, and the performers would show up off book, and the audience would gleefully sing along.

It's true and someone should do it!

(I liked your writing in remembrance of him, especially your note that he looked exactly the way he sounded. spatch and I were talking about his presentation last night: sort of the Zeppo Marx effect. A conservative suit and tie, the dryest and most academic voice, all signs of a normal person to a square present and correct, and you're listening to "I Got It from Agnes.")

[larryhammer]

He was part of my family's idiolect as well. My mother went to Harvard (technically Radcliff, because woman) in the late '50s and raised me listening to and playing his songs. My favorite to play was "The Masochism Tango," because tango, but to listen to it was ... no, I can't, too many to list out.

I have not done a good job of introducing Eaglet to him. Far too many songs, they have no context for.

Has anyone heard whether his claim to have invented the jello shot has stood up to scrutiny?

[sovay]

He was part of my family's idiolect as well. My mother went to Harvard (technically Radcliff, because woman) in the late '50s and raised me listening to and playing his songs.

That's wonderful.

My favorite to play was "The Masochism Tango," because tango, but to listen to it was ... no, I can't, too many to list out.

I ended up listening to pretty much his entire catalogue for his memory.

I have not done a good job of introducing Eaglet to him. Far too many songs, they have no context for.

There's still time. It's not like "George Murphy" made that much sense to me as a child, whereas now the line about Broadway Melody of Nineteen Eighty-Four makes me want to cry.

Has anyone heard whether his claim to have invented the jello shot has stood up to scrutiny?

Last I read, it looked like he may well have invented it independently, but can't be proven to have invented the modern format originally, which makes sense to me for the reasons given in the article, i.e. people will put booze in anything.

[larryhammer]

I'm wondering whether to (re)start with "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" or "The Elements."

[thisbluespirit]

*yet more hugs*

[sovay]

*yet more hugs*

*hugs*

He's being remembered so lovingly and so well.

[thisbluespirit]

He is! I've seen so many tributes without even looking! <3