Tom Lehrer's "The Elements"

 

Tom Lehrer, the popular and influential song satirist lampooned everything from, politics, nuclear war, and racism and the Cold War, then largely abandoned his music career to return to teaching maths at Harvard and other universities, has died (26/7/25). He was 97.

A Harvard prodigy (he had earned a maths degree from the institution at age 18), Lehrer soon turned his very sharp mind to old traditions and current events. His songs included Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, The Old Dope Peddler (set to a tune reminiscent of The Old Lamplighter), Be Prepared, and The Vatican Rag and many more. (You can find most of them on Youtube).

“Tom Lehrer is the most brilliant song satirist ever recorded,” musicologist Barry  Hansen once said. Hansen co-produced the 2000 boxed set of Lehrer’s songs, The Remains of Tom Lehrer, and had featured Lehrer’s music for decades on his syndicated Dr. Demento radio show.

He also became well known for observing that when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Henry Kissinger in 1973, “political satire became obsolete”.