Tom Lehrer

It is only because of my wonderful, well-informed husband that I ever even heard of Tom Lehrer – which is a shame, as Lehrer should be a “household name.” Even though Lehrer is an American, and one of those bona-fide genius types (he graduated from Harvard at 18 with a degree in math – and then finished his Master’s degree a year later)  and even though he is a prolific and hysterical lyricist and pianist who gained quite a degree of fame and success in the 1960’s and 70’s – I had never heard his name until fairly recently.  Very likely many of you don’t know him either.  So, I wanted to share an example of his funny- yet devastatingly “speaking truth to power” lyrics.  There are many  more songs of his,  and you’ll find many other lyrics and even videos of his performances online. His albums are still available as well.  I hope some of you will  look into his work, especially my fellow Americans. You may well be glad you did.  Some people, like Lehrer, saw clearly, years ago, the direction the US was (and probably is still) going.  Not only that, he surely kept his sense of humor in the face of it, which is sometimes more than I can muster. Without further ado – a song (with the introduction) that Lehrer performed about 1965.  As a side note, that was the year before my parents got married!  Note too that Lehrer was not bashing the Marines – he did spend time in the service, and I’m not bashing them either; my sister and brother in law are Marines! This song is a comment on our culture, not a  slam on the Marines!   Lehrer said:

“What with President Johnson practicing escalation on the Vietnamese and then the Dominican crisis on top of that it has been a nervous year –  and people have begun to feel like a Christian scientist with appendicitis. Fortunately in times of crisis just like this America always has this number one instrument of diplomacy to fall back on. Here’s a song about it.”
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