I know all of Lehrer's songs (including some obscure ones). I also (tried to) record some of them, and wrote new lyrics to some of them (e.g. to update "So Long, Mum (A Song for World War III)", since I don't think many people now would know who Brinkley and Huntley were).
Coincidentally, yesterday I looked up what an "analytic and algebraic topology of Euclidean parameterization of infinitely differentiable Barimanean manifold" is. (And I know the Russian in that song, too).
RIP Tom, one of the cleverest and funniest men of the 20th century. At least we have his songs and words to remember him by.
Awww sorry to hear that, a long but very fruitful life <3
I first learnt of his existence when I watched "Hey Mr Producer!" a very large musical production celebrating Cameron Mackintosh. Dad bought the VHS for me so I could enjoy the Cats performance on it - and among all that musical violence, there was this one man who somehow topped all those showstoppers:
Much later I found an original 1950s vinyl of his and found much hilarity - not just because someone had attempted to type out (on a typewriter) the words to all the songs on it, but completely failed to recognise the word "plagiarise" thus completely missing the point of Lobachevsky.
There's a new script around: PHANTASMAGORIA - A Puzzle Of Flesh! Check the Script Party topic in the Bard's Forum! Skip to new scripts
I had never heard of him (I may know his music or other stuff, just potentially not by name). I only heard of his passing because Weird Al also commented on his passing.
As a crazy teenager in the 1980s who eschewed pop music and instead favored movie scores and comedy albums from used record stores, I was a huge fan of Tom Lehrer. When his records were released on CD in the late '80s/early '90s, one of my college chemistry professors asked if I would make a cassette copy of "The Elements" for him -- wherein Tom sings the elements of the periodic table to Gilbert and Sullivan's "Major-General's Song." It's likely his most well-known/famous creation:
He also contributed a number of songs to the old PBS children's learning show, "The Electric Company," in the early 70s, then again in the late '90s.
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I also made a cassette copy of Stan Freberg's "The United States Of America - Vol. 1, The Early Years" (1961) for one of my history professors when it was released on CD. Not only did Stan contribute voices to Warner Brothers cartoons in the 1940s/1950s and beyond, as well as for the "Time For Beany" ('Beany and Cecil') puppet show, he was another brilliant satirist/parodist in his own right during the 1950s and 1960s. He often worked with fellow voiceover artists Daws Butler and June Foray.
He is HIGHLY recommended. In fact, Weird Al thought so much of Stan Freberg that for Al's 1997-1998 children's television show, he had Stan on as J.B. Toppersmith, the cantankerous head of the network who made Al's life miserable.
And if you think political correctness is a more recent phenomena, here is Stan's take on it from his 1957 radio show with Daws Butler, "Elderly Man River (Ol' Man River)" (a personal favorite of mine):
I was sorry to hear that he passed. What a fascinating individual. Funny and a talented musician, but also a child prodigy gifted in mathematics.
Tawmis wrote: ↑Mon Jul 28, 2025 8:35 pm
I had never heard of him (I may know his music or other stuff, just potentially not by name). I only heard of his passing because Weird Al also commented on his passing.
I liked the Elements song. He also did a song lamenting the "New Math". The funny thing is that this is the way I (and probably everyone here) was taught how to subtract. It sounds like how people are complaining how math is taught now. I have no idea how he was doing it.
notbobsmith wrote: ↑Tue Jul 29, 2025 12:13 am
I liked the Elements song. He also did a song lamenting the "New Math". The funny thing is that this is the way I (and probably everyone here) was taught how to subtract. It sounds like how people are complaining how math is taught now. I have no idea how he was doing it.
My understanding is that the biggest complaint with "New Math" at the time wasn't so much the explanation of "borrowing" from the next higher 10's place (which is how I learned as well), but more of the wholesale changing the problem/answer into bases other than 10 (as Tom mentions -- change to Base 8!)...
In the Tom Lehrer example of "3 from 2 is 9", the "borrowing" is adding the negative difference of a 1 (i.e., -10) along the bottom numbers and pushing them left. It seems a little more complicated to me when compared to the more logical "borrowing tens along the top."
To make matters even worse, for the debacle that is "Common Core" over the last 10-15 years, the "Counting Up" method of subtraction caused headaches for parents, whereby to subtract...
There are a few other Common Core methods (right-to-left / borrowing 10s [traditional], left-to-right [mental math], and "Singapore" [involves no carrying]), but this method [giving/making change] caused the most confusion and consternation.
notbobsmith wrote: ↑Tue Jul 29, 2025 12:13 am
I liked the Elements song. He also did a song lamenting the "New Math". The funny thing is that this is the way I (and probably everyone here) was taught how to subtract. It sounds like how people are complaining how math is taught now. I have no idea how he was doing it.
My understanding is that the biggest complaint with "New Math" at the time wasn't so much the explanation of "borrowing" from the next higher 10's place (which is how I learned as well), but more of the wholesale changing the problem/answer into bases other than 10 (as Tom mentions -- change to Base 8!)...
In the Tom Lehrer example of "3 from 2 is 9", the "borrowing" is adding the negative difference of a 1 (i.e., -10) along the bottom numbers and pushing them left. It seems a little more complicated to me when compared to the more logical "borrowing tens along the top."
Yeah, I'm not sure if other bases need to be taught at this grade level. It makes even less sense in the 1960s. I think I was introduced to the concept in junior high, but at least it was in the context of how computers worked with binary and hexidecimal. (There are 10 kinds of people: those that understand binary and those that don't. )
goatmeal wrote: ↑Tue Jul 29, 2025 8:53 pm
To make matters even worse, for the debacle that is "Common Core" over the last 10-15 years, the "Counting Up" method of subtraction caused headaches for parents, whereby to subtract...
There are a few other Common Core methods (right-to-left / borrowing 10s [traditional], left-to-right [mental math], and "Singapore" [involves no carrying]), but this method [giving/making change] caused the most confusion and consternation.
I think I understand what they are trying to do, but I'm not sure if it should be taught this way. This is sort of how I do it in my head, but I kind of learned it on my own (173 + 27 = 200. 200+142=342, so the answer is 27+142=169). Another is multiplication. If you are buying 3 items at $29.95, you can do it the "correct" way, or:
$29.95 = $30.00 - $0.05
times 3 is $90.00-$0.15 which is $89.85
notbobsmith wrote: ↑Tue Jul 29, 2025 12:13 am
I was sorry to hear that he passed. What a fascinating individual. Funny and a talented musician, but also a child prodigy gifted in mathematics.
He also invented the Jell-O shot, and should be famous for that. The story goes that Lehrer was attending a Christmas party at a naval base in Washington, D.C. and wanted to get around a rule that prohibited alcoholic drinks. So he experimented with a friend of his and mixed vodka with Jell-O, resulting in something that will get you drunk without technically being classified as a drink. Although these experiments weren't exactly conducted with scientific rigor ("Obviously, you can't experiment too extensively, because you soon lose your powers of discrimination," deadpanned Lehrer), he and his friend settled on vodka and orange Jell-O and offered these liquored-up treats to the party. And so a proud new tradition was born -- well, maybe.
Likewise, he worked for the National Security Agency back when the NSA's mere existence was top secret. (How secret? His cover story was that he was working for the nuclear program). It later gave him the impetus for writing the black comedy single, "The Wild West is Where I Wanna Be", about how much the Wild West had changed from the days of Wyatt Earp to the nuclear tests of the 50s.
Finally, Tom's other claim to fame is the football fight song of Harvard University ... which he wrote as a satirical song called "Fight Fiercely, Harvard", and which Harvard University's marching band use to this day (minus the words).
goatmeal wrote: ↑Mon Jul 28, 2025 10:32 pm
I also made a cassette copy of Stan Freberg's "The United States Of America - Vol. 1, The Early Years" (1961) for one of my history professors when it was released on CD. Not only did Stan contribute voices to Warner Brothers cartoons in the 1940s/1950s and beyond, as well as for the "Time For Beany" ('Beany and Cecil') puppet show, he was another brilliant satirist/parodist in his own right during the 1950s and 1960s. He often worked with fellow voiceover artists Daws Butler and June Foray.
He is HIGHLY recommended. In fact, Weird Al thought so much of Stan Freberg that for Al's 1997-1998 children's television show, he had Stan on as J.B. Toppersmith, the cantankerous head of the network who made Al's life miserable.
And if you think political correctness is a more recent phenomena, here is Stan's take on it from his 1957 radio show with Daws Butler, "Elderly Man River (Ol' Man River)" (a personal favorite of mine):
Stan Freberg is hilarious. This song of his, one of my favourites (recorded back in 1958, no less!) dealt with the commercialization of Christmas, and caused a huge stink at the time.
At first, Capitol Records refused to release the record. Lloyd Dunn, the president of Capitol, told Freberg the record was offensive to everybody in advertising, and predicted that Freberg would never work in advertising again. Freberg responded with his intent to end his entire recording contract with Capitol. He spoke to a contact at Verve Records, and the company offered to release the record without even hearing it. Faced with this, Capitol finally decided to release it but provided no publicity at all.
Almost nobody agreed to play it, for fear of losing their sweet, sweet money from companies who advertised on their radio shows ... like Marlboro and Coca-Cola. The more things change?
Rath Darkblade wrote: ↑Wed Jul 30, 2025 6:17 am
Stan Freberg is hilarious. This song of his, one of my favourites (recorded back in 1958, no less!) dealt with the commercialization of Christmas, and caused a huge stink at the time.
At first, Capitol Records refused to release the record. Lloyd Dunn, the president of Capitol, told Freberg the record was offensive to everybody in advertising, and predicted that Freberg would never work in advertising again. Freberg responded with his intent to end his entire recording contract with Capitol. He spoke to a contact at Verve Records, and the company offered to release the record without even hearing it. Faced with this, Capitol finally decided to release it but provided no publicity at all.
Almost nobody agreed to play it, for fear of losing their sweet, sweet money from companies who advertised on their radio shows ... like Marlboro and Coca-Cola. The more things change?
Yes! This is an all-time classic from Mr. Freberg and another favorite of mine. After listening to the production value and biting satire of that record, it's not hard to believe he went on to have a successful career in advertising, huh?
As I mentioned above, his 1961 album, "The United States Of America - Vol. 1, The Early Years," is highly recommended. (And 1996's "Volume 2 - The Middle Years" ain't bad, either! )
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Tawmis, you're old like me and probably remember this:
Stan Freberg and his blonde, bespectacled, denim jacket-wearing son, Donovan Freberg, did the Encyclopedia Britannica commercials in the late '80s and early '90s!
The story goes that Lehrer was attending a Christmas party at a naval base in Washington, D.C. and wanted to get around a rule that prohibited alcoholic drinks. So he experimented with a friend of his and mixed vodka with Jell-O, resulting in something that will get you drunk without technically being classified as a drink. Although these experiments weren't exactly conducted with scientific rigor ("Obviously, you can't experiment too extensively, because you soon lose your powers of discrimination," deadpanned Lehrer), he and his friend settled on vodka and orange Jell-O and offered these liquored-up treats to the party. And so a proud new tradition was born -- well, maybe.
The more things change? 