by Mr Tex
Tom Lehrer died this week. For the nerdier among you, it is very likely that perhaps you are in passing, an acquaintance of some of his creations. Gen X’ers among you will likely remember his work being a staple on Doctor Demento for a time.
Through whatever means, many of you likely know the “The Elements Song”, a modern adaptation of a jaunty Gilbert and Sullivan tune. Others, perhaps “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park”, or “Wehrner Von Braun”. I first became aware of Tom Lehrer when I was approximately eight. My grandfather had a collection of many amazing things, that the family would frequently call “useless” or “old junk”. To their point, some of it was indeed, to a degree, junk. He was a haphazard collector of tools and machinery, all of it in good hock, and used well with the expertise he possessed. He had three Triumphs at one point, and, proudly he’d tell me while gesturing to their dissected innards spilling out on tarps strewn across the lawn that “At least one works at any given time”.
He was that kind of guy. He just liked tinkering with stuff. Late at night he’d spend hours and hours banging away on a typewriter while listening to mixtapes he’d made from LPs he’d once or currently owned. He just wrote away. And, in this backroom writing atmosphere of music, occasionally something weird would come on.
Tom Lehrer was one of those backdrops one evening.
In my autistic eight-year-old way I asked a million questions, why was he singing about this stuff. What was a Wehrner von Braun? Who? Why? On and on as I studied the man with what material I had (local library did help this information seeking in my youth) I somehow felt instantly more an adult. Here was somebody who sang about big, very important smart-people stuff and was silly about it. An eloquent shitposter. The very first I was ever exposed to. In that same measure, to more fully understand the context for everything he was seeking, there was I at age ten requesting a copy of Weapons and Tactics of the Soviet Union for interlibrary loan, or some years later trying to find good books on the history of the AEC, NSA, CIA, and international events from 1945-1989.
By fifteenI was Lehrer’d out, I’d listened to every album he cut, found numerous interviews, read those, watched those, and then – somehow, had injected my autistic childhood with an information seeking drive focused almost entirely on a narrow band of human history. So as was the style at the time: I fell into Command and Conquer, Star Trek, and D&D.
But, Tom Lehrer died this week and it all came right back. That long orbital pull of “Remember when”. It was an event for me. Not in a teary-eyed sense like I had when Johnny Cash died. That, that was something else. But, this hit me in a place deeper.
Let me explain why: The man is an enduring hero of mine for many reasons, which I will make brief here: He graduated from Harvard with a bachelor of arts, Masters of Arts degree from the same, and throughout his career taught mathematics at MIT, University of California Santa Cruz, you name it. Joined a doctoral program but, also at that same time, started to play music and began looking into his true calling, a music career. So, he left Harvard in 1953 and began work, but he didn’t give up music. He was drafted in 1955, and served until 1957, and as he was a fucking genius they put him at the NSA.
The shitposter who would later write Wehner von Braun, worked at the NSA.
And there, at the core of all the secret things known to man, he did not ever stop shitposting. He wrote a paper (that has since been declassified) where one of his cited (and very fabricated) sources is a N. Lobachevsky. The NSA has since released this document here – GAMBLERS-RUIN.PDF and it is again, a bespoke, and once top secret shitpost.
He had a masters degree at the time, but they made him serve as enlisted. He considered his rank, of specialist third class as, quote “being a corporal without a portfolio.” All of his experience in the Army made him write songs about it. “The Wild West is Where I Want to Be” and “It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier” are both tracks harkening back to his experiences, and what they taught him. I found out also, much later, that he had deliberately used misinformation in his bio – stating work on nuclear weapons to cover up for the NSA, who’s existence at that time was not for public consumption.
Also, at the NSA he contributed to work culture in a unique way – as a Harvard man he liked booze with lunch. The NSA does not allow booze at lunch or, well, anywhere. So, he created potent Jello shots for his lunch to get around it. Some circles say he invented the modern concept of the Jello shot but, I’m no bartender historian. It just amuses me he did it because he had to have a martini with lunch.
He went to back to Harvard but gave up on his PH.D dissertation after working on it for fifteen years. He later moved on to teach at UC Santa Cruz, teaching both musical theater and math, and in his words, “hung out” frequently on the campus until the early 2000s.
For a math whiz who put out 37 songs and toured 109 shows, he’s left an impact that’s somewhat underground these days. It’s somewhat a cult following to like Lehrer and I think he was fine with that.
In 2012 he was approached by the rapper 2 Chainz who wanted to sample “The Old Dope Peddler”. His response was “As sole copyright owner of ‘The Old Dope Peddler’, I grant you motherfuckers permission to do this. Please give my regards to Mr. Chainz, or may I call him 2?”
And In 2020, perhaps sensing the end was near, Tom gave us a gift:
He summed it up with “In short, I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs. So help yourselves, and don’t send me any money.” Here’s the website – Tom Lehrer Songs – Songs and Lyrics by Tom Lehrer
Tom was like that.
And so, I’ll remember him
-Tex-
