Tom Lehrer, legendary song satirist, dead at 97
Tom Lehrer, a pioneering musician whose music satirised many political issues, particularly throughout the Cold War, has died at the age of 97.
Although Lehrer was a prolific satirist who inspired many musicians along the way, he later abandoned his career in the industry to return to be a mathematics professor at Harvard University, where he remained until he was in his late 70s.
The artist’s death was announced by his friend David Herder, who said that Lehrer died on July 26th at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. No cause of death has been made public at this time.
Performing his songs in the style of classic composers such as Gilbert and Sullivan and Stephen Sondheim, Lehrer took aim at a range of societal issues including racism, politics, and religion, namely in his song ‘The Vatican Rag’, where he mocked the rituals of the Catholic church.
In turn, he was cited as a source of inspiration for many other satirical musicians later down the line, such as Weird Al Yankovic and Randy Newman.
As part of leaving his music career behind, Lehrer made the unusual decision in 2020 to turn away his own copyright, which meant the public are able to use his lyrics in any material or artistic format they wish, without having to pay for this.
Having assumed his academic career later in life, Lehrer rarely gave public interviews, but in a rare instance in 2000 with the Associated Press, he explained his unique approach to musicianship by saying: “When I got a funny idea for a song, I wrote it. And if I didn’t, I didn’t.”
He added: “I wasn’t like a real writer who would sit down and put a piece of paper in the typewriter. And when I quit writing, I just quit. … It wasn’t like I had writer’s block.”
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