So queried Frank Zappa in his 1995 CD release of the same name. Of course, like Groucho Marx, Zappa already knew that the answer was an unequivocal Yes.
Last month we lost Tom Lehrer, a Harvard math professor better known for the 37-odd satirical songs he wrote and performed in the 50s and 60s. They included such classics as The Vatican Rag, (I’m Spending) Hanukkah in Santa Monica, and Poisoning Pigeons in the Park.
I first discovered Lehrer on a syndicated show called The Comedy Hour. The plainly-named program ran in the 70s and 80s on FM radio. It featured popular comics like George Carlin and Richard Pryor alongside lesser-known acts like The Credibility Gap, Firesign Theatre, and yes, Tom Lehrer. This was a great way to spend an hour on a Sunday night in those pre-internet days. (I couldn’t find a royalty-free image of Lehrer, so you get Groucho instead. Sorry.)
A Great Run
While Lehrer featured periodically on The Comedy Hour, he also got airplay on The Dr. Demento show, which was more likely to host musical acts like Zappa or Weird Al. Radio’s Comedy Hour didn’t include much music, though somehow Lehrer and the occasional Monty Python song broke through.
I liked Lehrer for the same reasons I became a big Python and Zappa fan as a teen: his irreverence and dark sense of humor. Of course, last week the internet brought Lehrer’s name back into the zeitgeist, with many online posts calling his passing “sad” and “tragic.” I think Lehrer would have found this hilarious. He lived to the ripe old age of 97, which, by any stretch of the imagination, is a pretty great run.
Ahead of His Time
While some of Lehrer’s songs were political in nature, he also prefigured artists like Zappa with his ability to see the comical side of sex. These days, we seem to take the subject seriously, but even a Puritan would have to admit that the faces people pull during intercourse can range from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Lehrer’s sex-themed tunes included The Masochism Tango, a song about STDs called I Got It from Agnes, and a surprisingly pro-pornography song called simply Smut. I never heard these on the radio. However, as he grew older, Lehrer eventually made all his songs available for free online. I am not aware of any other artist who has put his entire catalogue in the public domain during his lifetime.
Rude But Funny
If this all sounds too serious, I can’t emphasize enough how much fun Lehrer’s often old-timey-sounding songs can be. He was both a skilled pianist and a witty, literate writer of comic lyrics.
With the exception of The Elements—a rapid-fire recitation of the periodic table to the tune of Gilbert & Sullivan’s Major General’s Song—his lyrics typically made use of extremely clever and original rhymes. An example comes in the above mentioned Poisoning Pigeons:
We’ll murder them all amid laughter and merriment,
Except for the few we take home to experiment.
My pulse will be quickenin’
With each drop of strychnine
We feed to a pigeon
(It just takes a smidgin)
To poison a pigeon in the park.
Rest in peace, Tom, you nutty guy.
