The influential comic stylist and mathematician rose to fame lampooning mainstream American mores in the 1950s and 1960s, then retreated into academic life.
Tom Lehrer, an acerbic songwriter and Harvard-trained mathematician who rose to fame in the 1950s and ’60s by pillorying the sensibilities of the day, has died at age 97.
Lehrer died at his home in Cambridge, Mass., on Saturday. His death was confirmed by friends on Facebook. No cause of death was given.
The bespectacled Lehrer began performing on college campuses and clubs across the country in the 1950s, playing the piano and singing darkly comedic numbers that he penned on topics such as racial conflict, the Catholic Church and militarism, earning him the sobriquet of “musical nerd god.” In “National Brotherhood Week,” which lampooned the brief interlude of imposed tolerance celebrated annually from the 1930s through the early 2000s he wrote:
Lehrer’s songs also took aim at then-taboo subjects such as sexuality, pornography and addiction.
In 1953, his self-released album “Songs of Tom Lehrer” became an underground hit. Produced for $40 and promoted by word of mouth, the cover image was of Lehrer in hell playing piano as the devil. It eventually sold an estimated 500,000 copies and sparked demand for concert performances around the world.
During the mid-1960s, Lehrer contributed several songs to the satirical NBC news show “That Was the Week That Was,” hosted by David Frost. The show inspired Lehrer’s third album, “That Was the Year That Was.” Released in 1965, it reached the 18th spot on American music charts.
On the occasion of his 90th birthday in 2018, Los Angeles Times columnist Michael Hiltzik wrote that Lehrer’s lyrics were written “with the facility of William S. Gilbert and tunes that evoked the felicity of Sir Arthur Sullivan. Lehrer’s work bounced the absurdities and paranoias of that period back at us, in rhymed couplets and a bouncy piano beat.
