Information AboutTom Lehrer |
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BIOGRAPHY Musical career Before attending college, Lehrer graduated from the , his style consisted of Parody ing then-current forms of Popular Song . For example, his appreciation of List Song s led him to set the names of The Chemical Elements to the tune of Gilbert And Sullivan 's " Major-General's Song ". Inspired by the success of his performances of his songs, he paid for some studio time to record an album, '''' was recorded live in concert. Lehrer's major break into the UK came as a result of the citation accompanying an honorary degree given to Princess Margaret, where she cited musical tastes as "catholic, ranging from Mozart to Tom Lehrer". This produced significant interest in his works, and helped secure distributors for his material. Ironically, it was in the UK where his music ended up more popular due to the proliferation of University Newspapers referencing the material, and the willingness of the BBC to play his songs on the radio (something that was a rarity in the USA). By the early 1960s Lehrer had retired from touring (which he intensely disliked) and was employed as the resident songwriter for the U.S. edition of '' That Was The Week That Was '' (TW3), a satirical TV show. An increased proportion of his output became overtly Political , or at least topical, on subjects such as Pollution ("Pollution"), Vatican II ("The Vatican Rag"), Race Relations ("National Brotherhood Week"), Education ("New Math"), American militarism ("Send the Marines"), World War III nostalgia ("So Long, Mom", premiered by Steve Allen), and Nuclear Proliferation ("Who's Next?" and "MLF Lullaby"). He also wrote a song which satirized the alleged amorality of Wernher Von Braun . A selection of these songs was released in the album '' That Was The Year That Was ''. The record deal with Reprise Records for the ''That Was The Year That Was'' album also gave Reprise distribution rights for Lehrer's earlier recordings as Lehrer wanted to shut down his own Lehrer Records. The Reprise issue of ''Songs by Tom Lehrer'' was a stereo re-recording. This version was not issued on CD, but the songs were issued on the live '' Tom Lehrer Revisited '' on CD instead. Departure from the scene There is an 2000 . Another urban legend held that he had been sued for Libel by the subject of one of his songs, Wernher Von Braun , and been forced to relinquish all of his royalty income to Von Braun. However, Lehrer firmly denied this in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald . (He had also mentioned Frank Fontaine and Jerry Lewis , in an uncomplimentary context, on the same album, but nothing ensued from that (In "National Brotherhood Week")). When asked about his reasons for abandoning his musical career, he cited a simple lack of interest, a distaste for touring, and boredom with performing the same songs repeatedly. He has observed that when he was moved to write and perform songs, he did; when he wasn't, he didn't, and after a while the latter situation prevailed. It has been frequently observed that, though many of Lehrer's songs satirized the , who talked about the satirical Berlin Cabaret s of the '30s, which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the Second World War ." Lehrer's musical career was notably brief, stating in an interview in the late 90s that he had performed a mere 109 shows, and written 37 songs across his 20-year career. Nevertheless, the cult following that had grown around his music significantly bolstered the effect that he had on a global scale. In the 1970s he concentrated on teaching Mathematics and Musical Theater , although he also wrote 10 songs for the children's television show '' The Electric Company ''. (Harvard schoolmate Joe Raposo was the show's musical director for its first three seasons.) In the early 1980s, '' Tom Foolery '', a revival of his songs on the London stage, was a surprise hit. Although not its instigator, Lehrer eventually gave it his full support and updated several of his lyrics for the production. Live in London 1998 On 7 June and 8 June 1998 Tom Lehrer performed in public for the first time in 25 years at the Lyceum Theatre, London as part of the gala show "Hey Mr Producer!" celebrating the career of impresario Cameron Mackintosh (who had been the producer of '' Tom Foolery ''). The 8 June show has been his only performance before The Queen . Lehrer sang "Poisoning Pigeons In The Park" and an updated version of the nuclear proliferation song "Who's Next". The DVD of the event includes the former song. The Remains of Tom Lehrer (2000) In 2000, a CD Box Set , ''The Remains of Tom Lehrer'', was released by Rhino Entertainment . It included live and studio versions of his first two albums, ''That Was The Year That Was'', the songs he wrote for ''The Electric Company'', and some previously unreleased material, accompanied by a small hardbound book containing an introduction by Dr. Demento and lyrics to all the songs. Lehrer the scholar Lehrer earned his BA in mathematics (", " The Wild West Is Where I Want To Be " and " It Makes A Fellow Proud To Be A Soldier ", respectively. There was perhaps some truth to his comment in the intro to the latter song, in which he said he had left the Army and was now in the "Radioactive Reserve". In 1960, Lehrer returned to full-time studies at Harvard. However, he never completed his doctoral studies, and never received a PhD in mathematics. In 1972, he joined the faculty of the University Of California, Santa Cruz , teaching an introductory course entitled "The Nature of Mathematics" to liberal-arts majors — "Math for Tenors", according to Lehrer. He also taught a class in musical theater. He still occasionally performs songs in his lectures, primarily those relating to the topic {Link without Title} . LEHRER'S LEGACY Lehrer was praised by Dr. Demento as "the best musical satirist of the 20th Century ." When asked by an Australian newspaper about his silence since the 1960s and his legacy now, he commented that his particular brand of political satire is more difficult in the modern world. "The real issues I don't think most people touch. The 2003 A play called Letters From Lehrer has been written by Canadian Richard Greenblatt , and performed by him at CanStage , from January 16 to February 25 , 2006 . It follows Lehrer's musical career, the meaning of several songs, the politics of the time, and Greenblatt's own experiences with Lehrer's music, while playing some of Lehrer's songs. There are currently no plans for more performances, although low-quality audio recordings have begun to circulate around the net. Though Lehrer's songs today are rarely played on the air, they have been posted on Internet video sharing sites such as YouTube. Among the songs put to animation or even Star Wars clips are New Math, Pollution, and the Elements. Poisoning Pigeons in the Park in particular has more user generated videos than many top 40 popular songs. There is a question whether or not "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" was plagiarized by Georg Kreisler . "Weird Al" Yankovic , whose work generally addresses more popular and less technical or political subjects, lists Lehrer as a musical influence Weird Al's FAQs and life-long hero. Ask Al Archive , September 1998 Mark Russell , a contemporary performer stylistically close to Lehrer, has acknowledged Lehrer's influence on his work. {Link without Title} TRIVIA
REVIEWS SELECTED BY LEHRER FOR HIS LINER NOTES
DISCOGRAPHY
Many Lehrer songs are also performed (but not by Lehrer) in '' That Was "That Was The Week That Was" '' ( 1981 ). The sheet music to many of Lehrer's songs is published in ''Too Many Songs By Tom Lehrer'' (Pantheon, 1981 , ISBN 0-394-74930-8). SEE ALSO
MATHEMATICAL PUBLICATIONS The American Mathematical Society database shows him as co-author of two papers:
REFERENCES EXTERNAL LINKS
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