Tom Lehrer, Musical Satirist with a Dark Streak, Dies at 97

Summary

He also developed a fondness for Gilbert and Sullivan; one of his early songs, “The Elements,” was a list of the chemical elements set to the tune of “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Major-General” from “The Pirates of Penzance.” (Years later “The Elements” would be performed by the young scientist played by Jim Parsons on the hit sitcom “The Big Bang Theory.”)After graduating early from the Loomis Chaffee School in Connecticut, Mr. Lehrer went to Harvard, where he majored in mathematics and received his bachelor’s degree in 1946, at 18. He earned a master’s from Harvard the next year and then pursued doctoral studies there and at Columbia University. (He continued his studies on and off for many years, but he never completed his Ph.D. thesis.)While at Harvard, Mr. Lehrer began to write songs for his own amusement and that of his fellow students. He told his friends that the songs simply came to him and that he wrote them down in just about the time it took him to brush his teeth, but they quickly found an audience on campus. One of his earliest efforts, written in 1945, was a parody of football songs called “Fight Fiercely, Harvard,” in which he exhorted:Fight, fight, fight!Demonstrate to them our skill.Albeit they possess the might,Nonetheless we have the will.How we shall celebrate our victory?We shall invite the whole team up for tea!In 1952, as he looked forward to becoming a researcher for the Atomic Energy Commission in Los Alamos, N.M., he wrote “The Wild West Is Where I Want to Be,” whose lyrics suggested that he was not to have a fruitful career in atomic research: “’Mid the yuccas and the thistles/I’ll watch the guided missiles/While the old F.B.I. watches me.”By that time Mr. Lehrer had begun performing his songs in Cambridge, Mass. He did not want to abandon research and teaching, but he saw the possibility of combining the contemplative life with an entertainment career.In 1953, encouraged by friends, he produced an album. To his surprise, “Songs by To...