Great: Great Nations of Europe

purchase [ Newman's Bad Love album]


When I was a kid, my folks picked up a couple of Tom Lehrer albums for family entertainment. Being distant/removed from mainstream US life, we listened to our limited collectıon of LPs to the point that we had the full album memorized.  Lehrer's music was pithy and dealt with social and political issues of his day (says wikipedia about him). He played the piano to accompany his satire of current affairs, performing songs like Poisoning Pigeons in the Park and Who's Next (to get the A-bomb).

I suppose not everyone cares for the wry humor that is Randy Newman's trademark. For me, his songs give pause, a chance to stop and think about what his lyrics convey, and more often than not they tease people/animals who consider themselves "great". He's got no respect for the ones at the top.  We're talking <great>, right? There's nothing   that says great is "good" or great is "bad", as in great big mistake.

I wouldn't credit Newman with a great voice - or great piano chops. That's not his style. It's lyrics that matters. They bite, cut and hurt, but make you stop and think about what's right and what is wrong.
How prescient is Newman's Great Nations of Europe, released back in 1999. And while it may be named "...Europe", dont think for a minute that the actual target is that local. As I said, it's aimed at you and me. At the end of the story, it's a bug from out of Africa, not the China virus that's going to come for us all, just like the Conquistadors carried their bugs West in the 16th century. But for now, everyone is as happy as can be.

Math & Science: Tom Lehrer Again!

purchase [Tom Lehrer: the Elements]

Yes, it's not "pop". But it once was.

I hadn't planned this ahead, but - digging around - I recalled that Tom Lehrer (in his total output of 37 songs) not only covered the field of Math, but also got around to Science. No surprise - math ... science ... it's all greek to many of us.

As he says at the end - if you can listen all the way through: "Life was much simpler in those days."

Math & Science: Tom Lehrer- New Math

purchase [new math]



As a child of the 50s/60s, I grew up with Tom Lehrer albums (along with Mozart, Bach, The Temptations and Jimi Hendrix).

And like JDavid, I made my way through American college life with the minimal requirements - lots of other interests along the way , only to find myself teaching math 20 years later!

About a year ago, I ran across and article about Tom Lehrer, wherein it noted that the man essentially dis-appeared of his own accord - having made it big and facing a critical request to return to the big time. (He vehemently declines. Worse yet: he wishes that his oeuvres become publicly non-monetary)
Lehrer simply stopped performing. His entire body of work topped out at 37 songs. [source]

Silly Songs: Masochism Tango

Tom Lehrer: Masochism Tango

[purchase]

Mathematician Tom Lehrer made a name for himself in the heady comedy days of the fifties and sixties with a series of geeky, pithy songs and parodies which skewered the political and scientific worlds; it is perhaps not too bold a statement to suggest that he was the Weird Al of his day, albeit within the trappings of a suit-and-tie cultural mold and perhaps a slightly more academic bent to his songs, but I would even go so far as to suggest that he manages to transcend the temptation of so many satirist who have come to the scene since, to wit: where Weird Al and others cannot help but repeat the chorus, leaving mild humor in place of rapid-fire hilarity, Lehrer generally manages to keep the laughs coming, shortening his songs as necessary to create the perfect legacy of quick-paced gems.

Lehrer's songs, which run the gamut from religious skewering (The Vatican Rag) to silly songs about Silent E written for early children's show The Electric Company, aren't just lyrically funny; it's his mocking delivery that makes the difference between just plain humorous and absolutely hilarious. His comic timing is sublime; his rhymes are perfect, holding off until the last possible second before dropping the lyrical bomb that prompts the laugh at the end of each couplet; his tone is wry and nasal, and just restrained enough to maximize the timing while making it clear just how much fun we are all having. And Lehrer knows how to use familiar song genres to make the most of his subject, creating just enough of a familiar visual through the use of fast-paced rags and musical numbers; in this case, for example, the tango becomes the perfect carrier for pleasurable cruelty.

Though he managed to extend his interest in his own career somewhat through a residency as composer and singer with the American incarnation of That Was The Week That Was, citing boredom with touring and the demand that he play the same songs over and over again, Lehrer gave up his career as a songwriter and performer on the cusp of the sixties cultural revolution; he subsequently declared political satire obsolete when Kissinger won the Nobel Prize in 1973, and remained an active mathematician in the world of Ivy League academia until his retirement in 2001, albeit one known for occasionally performing topically relevant songs about mathematics as part of his frequent lectures.

And it's easy to see why his legacy continues to this day, despite less than two decades as a performer. Check out the body language and confidence in this performance of the very same song as posted above: