Tom Lehrer

The Pigeon Poisoner

I can't believe Tom Lehrer died. I mean, he was only 97. How could the world be so cruel?

My dad showed me Tom Lehrer when I was fairly young. He just showed me poisoning pigeons in the park, new math, the elements song, and we'll all go together when we go. I wouldn't find the rest of his stuff until quite a while later.

Peak Album: That Was The Year That Was

I haven't been able to figure out if Tom Lehrer is niche or not. My brother had heard of him, but my older partner had not. My 80-something-year-old teacher was SHOCKED that I was familiar with his work. An online friend of mind had also heard of him from Dr. Demento's radio, which also had it's final broadcast recently. I can only hope something else takes it's space as a radio show for freaks with freak music taste. People tend to kind of understand what the music is like when I compare him to Bo Burnham.

What's really freaky is how much some of his music still hits home. I mean, not poisoning pigeons in the park. But "we'll all go together when we go," a song about the looming threat of nuclear fallout? "smut," about the censorship of lewd media, and how we should get to like porn just for the sake of it? "national brotherhood week," about how we all hate each other? The list goes on. Kind of terrifying.

Learning that he used to make educational music has also been a trip. I fully listen to his spelling songs when they come up in a shuffle, I think they're fun, even if I never watched The Electric Company.

Later in life, Tom Lehrer went to teach musical theatre and math at UC Santa Cruz, which someone on Tumblr has referred to as "where the stoners that couldn't get into Berkeley go." He also removed the copyright on all of his music-it's all free to use, which I'd love to see other artists do.

Rest in peace, Tom Lehrer. We'll keep up the masochism tango in your absence.

Peak tracks:

  • Smut
  • New Math
  • Masochism Tango
  • So Long, Mom
  • Pollution