The Genius of Tom Lehrer

I don't know why Lehrer has been so much on my mind today. Maybe because I've been in a funk and needed cheering up. Probably because I'm learning, or trying to, my first Lehrer song on the piano ("Be Prepared"). I am proud to say that I was a fan from the start, at 13 an eager owner of Lehrer's original 10-inch LP, which I played endlessly. I saw him in concert before he became famous, when he was still a young Harvard professor with a hobby. When he made it big as an entertainer, I took my first away-from-home trip in the family car to drive from LA to Palo Alto to see Lehrer perform at Stanford. He was late and it was one of the first times he used what became a standard introduction to his shows. In those days, I was a groupy of two people: Tom Lehrer and Linus Pauling. I followed them everywhere.

Much later I had a long phone chat with Lehrer, which I've talked about here before. It was like meeting a hero. He was impressed that I'd been at that 1958 or 1959 Stanford show. He was impressed I bought his first album in 1953. I had true fan credentials.

Lehrer's imitators like Mark Russell can't carry his shoes. It's the difference between genius and cleverness. In his rhymes, no one matches Lehrer technically, nor in his musical/melodic satire, nor in his biting social and political commentary. He has not been matched. You have to go back to Jonathan Swift to find such a fierce wit.

Do I sound like a fan?

Lyrics to songs