Tom Lehrer Is Teaching Math and Doesn’t Want to Talk to You

May 22, 2024 4:09 AM

A new musical regarding the life and works of Tom Lehrer (still alive - previously, an extremely comprehensive post by filthy light thief) debuts in London next week. It is sold out, but the playwright Francis Beckett writes about the effect Lehrer has had on his life and his unsuccessful attempts to contact him while doing research - ultimately indirectly providing the musical's title.
posted by atlantica (36 comments total)

But we do know that he believed satire changed nothing. He quoted approvingly Peter Cook’s sarcastic remark about the Berlin cabarets of the 1930s that did so much to prevent the rise of Hitler and the second world war.

I was trying to remember this line during the Kliph Nesteroff discussion the other week. It’s from an AV Club interview from 2000:

I don’t think this kind of thing [satire] has an impact on the unconverted, frankly. It’s not even preaching to the converted; it’s titillating the converted. I think the people who say we need satire often mean, ‘We need satire of them, not of us.’ I’m fond of quoting Peter Cook, who talked about the satirical Berlin cabarets of the ’30s, which did so much to stop the rise of Hitler and prevent the Second World War.

posted by zamboni at 5:16 AM on May 22 [12 favorites]

From the last link:

Lehrer never replied to my letters, eventually passing me a message through a roundabout route to say that he did not intend to, but was comfortable with what I was doing. Ed suggested I should call the play Tom Lehrer Is Teaching Math and Doesn’t Want to Talk to You. So I did.

But did I find the answer I sought: why Lehrer gave it all up? I am not sure. What I can tell you is that Tom Lehrer is a prodigiously talented man who has no interest at all in money for its own sake, or in money to wield power. He wants enough to be comfortable and to do the few things he wants to do, and he has that.

It sounds like he answered his own question? Or is it difficult to understand that not everybody is on a neverending quest for money and power.
posted by vacapinta at 6:10 AM on May 22 [10 favorites]

I remember a quote from the liner notes to the box set where Lehrer talked about forgetting the lyrics to "Fight Fiercely Harvard" while he was playing them at a show in NYC, which he took as a sign to give up music. This seems like it would make an interesting scene in the musical, but what do I know.
posted by pxe2000 at 6:18 AM on May 22 [4 favorites]

Also:

The life he wanted, he said, was that of a graduate student, and his songs were merely a way of helping to finance that.

I felt exactly the same. I had a different advantage than the ones Lehrer claims. I didn't go to grad school until I was 55, so I had some resources to draws on to achieve that dream.
posted by CheeseDigestsAll at 6:39 AM on May 22 [2 favorites]

The man's name rang a bell, and I looked him up on Wikipedia. I guess I've probably heard some of his songs.

The career summary on the Wikipedia page is a time capsule of "before academia got corporatized." Working as a college math teacher with no PhD? At MIT?

I did not look at TFA, yet anyway. But I feel impelled to respond to @zamboni's quote about satire. I think the weary cynicism there is from a former satirist who once thought the value of satire was obvious, and was disappointed when its influence turned out to be subtle and unquantifiable.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 7:16 AM on May 22 [5 favorites]

Tom Lehrer taught for thirty years at the university I attended. He taught a math for non-math people course and also one in musical theater. As you can imagine getting into one of his courses was difficult due to over-subscription.

A couple of my friends did a skit show on campus radio and the highlight of their college careers was when somebody asked Tom about it and he replied “It’s like Fireside Theater without the wit.”
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 7:26 AM on May 22 [19 favorites]

Even though I've always been a fan, I wasn't so much into "Wernher von Braun", being a big fan of NASA, until I got a bit older and had to admit that he was absolutely spot on, except maybe for the part about von Braun learning Chinese. (Maybe.)
posted by Halloween Jack at 7:27 AM on May 22 [9 favorites]

For those who happened to miss it (or for those who want a deeper delve into his music), in 2022 Tom Lehrer declared all the songs to which he held the rights to be public domain and made them freely available to download from his website: https://tomlehrersongs.com/
posted by The Great Big Mulp at 7:28 AM on May 22 [19 favorites]

And, OK, I read the links. I concur, Beckett is clueless about what motivated Lehrer. Wanting to have lots of time to lie around reading, without having to worry about how the next bag of whole wheat bread and peanut butter and coffee is to be financed, is a perfectly copacetic explanation of why Lehrer cashed out when he did.

Possibly also he foresaw some of the pathologies of fame that would befall so many of his successors in popular entertainment. Recall that he dropped out just before the historic Beatles tour.
posted by Aardvark Cheeselog at 7:39 AM on May 22 [3 favorites]

🎵 🎵
These are the only ones of which the news has come to Haaaaaaaarvard,
And there may be many others, but they haven't been discaaaaavered.
🎵 🎵 🎵 🎵
posted by lalochezia at 8:16 AM on May 22 [13 favorites]

A couple of my friends did a skit show on campus radio and the highlight of their college careers was when somebody asked Tom about it and he replied “It’s like Fireside Theater without the wit.”

I can imagine it being something like "So what we're hearing, is that Tom Lehrer listened to our show!"
posted by notoriety public at 8:29 AM on May 22 [10 favorites]

In 1970, my brother was hitching / inter-railing round Europe for the Summer after leaving high school. While skint in Rome he bumped into one of his more affluent acquaintances from school, and was invited to a party that night at such-an-address. Tom Lehrer was there tinkling the piano and regaling the company: which was fun because we grew up with Lehrer's LPs playing on the regular and knew all the words. Lehrer's quote 'When Kissinger won the Nobel peace prize, satire died' is perhaps part of the explanation for his career choice.

As it happens [inherit the mantle alert] the brother went on to be quite a big cheese in BBC satirical programming through the 1980s and partly accepted the hypothesis that satire like Spitting Image, by allowing the pressure valve to blow off one evening a week, dissipated the urge for revolution and kept the Tories in power beyond their sell-by.
posted by BobTheScientist at 8:49 AM on May 22 [6 favorites]

He also loathed touring, which is a problem for a working musician.
posted by dannyboybell at 9:15 AM on May 22 [6 favorites]

I can imagine it being something like "So what we're hearing, is that Tom Lehrer listened to our show!"

Yep. And they had been dissed by the man himself.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:17 AM on May 22 [4 favorites]

And, OK, I read the links. I concur, Beckett is clueless about what motivated Lehrer.

I’m not sure that he’s quite as clueless as you imply, even if he doesn’t find anything more than Lehrer channeling Bartleby. It’s usually a bit unsatisfying for the answer to a puzzle to be that obvious. Also Becket wanted to write a musical about Lehrer, so finding an interesting explanation would have been helpful dramatically.

Many people retire early, or go away and do something else as a second career after they find a new passion, but most successful people don’t. Especially performers, particularly popular ones, seldom do — thy may cut back, or be selective about performing, or only record without performing live, but if they’re at their peak they almost never just quit. Taylor Swift, who surely has more money than she could easily spend in her lifetime, would cause more than a stir if she just walked away to spend the rest of her life doing bonsai or writing novels.

The fact that Lehrer knows he owes his fans nothing more than he has already given them makes him remarkable, and there always seems to something of a mystery about people who are remarkable and act in unconventional ways.
posted by Quinbus Flestrin at 9:31 AM on May 22 [10 favorites]

Lehrer's quote 'When Kissinger won the Nobel peace prize, satire died' is perhaps part of the explanation for his career choice.

I can only trust that he too will continue to feel good about outliving that flyblown prick, an achievement that nobody can take away from any of us even if we do all go together when we go.
posted by flabdablet at 9:42 AM on May 22 [11 favorites]

Lehrer's continued popularity really is amazing and a testament to his wisdom, talent and humanity. I discovered him as a teenager around 2000, and I know people who are getting into him now through TikTok.

What other comedy acts from the 1950s are still gathering fans today? Maybe I Love Lucy and Mad magazine, but I see them more as respected than actively shared and discussed. I have a soft spot for Allen Sherman, the Limeliters, and Kingston Trio, but I don't see them climbing the charts on social media.
posted by smelendez at 9:47 AM on May 22 [3 favorites]

Because I read the article AND the AV Club interview linked in the first comment, I'll tell you that Tom Lehrer talks about the Kissinger quote and he says:

"That was just an off-hand remark somebody picked up, and now it's been quoted and quoted, and therefore misquoted"

and

"I quit long before that happened, so historically it doesn't make any sense"

People want a reason beyond "doesn't like the pressure of performing in public as a celebrity" and "doesn't need or want the money," I guess.
posted by subdee at 9:57 AM on May 22 [3 favorites]

Also, why would a childhood prodigy not want to spend the rest of his life being famous? Guess we'll never know.
posted by subdee at 10:02 AM on May 22 [6 favorites]

. . . except maybe for the part about von Braun learning Chinese. (Maybe.)

More context from another Lehrer song: Who's Next?
posted by The Bellman at 11:10 AM on May 22

I wish I were in London because I'd go see that in a heartbeat even if I had to play scalper prices.
posted by gentlyepigrams at 11:33 AM on May 22 [2 favorites]

Seems like there must be some sample bias in our media diet--the fact that we're exposed to a lot of people that are willing to live public lives doesn't mean that such willingness is typical.

Maybe changing your mind partway through is more unusual, I don't know--but again for such a case to come to the attention to a lot of people, you'd have to be someone that produced work whose popularity significantly outlived your willingness to continue promoting your work. More typical I think is that we mostly stop paying attention when someone stops trying.

Maybe?

Anyway, Lehrer's choice to move on seems pretty normal and relatable to me.
posted by bfields at 12:04 PM on May 22 [2 favorites]

Tom Lehrer represents my platonic ideal of fame and celebrity.

His work stands on its own. There's no disputing his talent or creativity. His humor is (unfortunately, in some cases) timeless and just as funny/biting as it was when he first performed. How many other artists can claim that?

He's confident. He wrote songs and performed when the spirit moved him, and when he no longer felt like doing that, he moved on to something else. He gives every indication that he's satisfied with what he's done and comfortable with not ever returning to it, and after a half century he's also comfortable with letting his output enter the public domain.

He's renowned worldwide but most people--including the majority of his fans--would probably walk right past without recognizing him on the sidewalk. He doesn't owe anyone autographs or selfies or anything and for the most part people seem to recognize that and respect his privacy.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 12:15 PM on May 22 [11 favorites]

I've always wondered if he gets a thrill watching acquaintances and colleagues awkwardly approach him after suddenly realizing that he's that Tom Lehrer.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 12:23 PM on May 22 [1 favorite]

i greatly miss seeing how happy it made my mom to cackle and sing along to poisoning pigeons in the park.
posted by whatevernot at 12:50 PM on May 22 [2 favorites]

Please, treat this as a good faith question. I tried Googling but, alas, Google is what Google is these days and I was unable to find a succinct elaboration. How did the Berlin cabarets help prevent WW2? I know that degenerate art was not a fave of the Nazis but I'm failing at connecting these historical threads.

Edit: Or am I reading irony incorrectly?
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 1:00 PM on May 22

The remark is supposed to be sarcastic. The point is that the Berlin cabarets of the 1930s, as unflinchingly satirical and unafraid to speak truth to power as they were, were unable to prevent WW2 because humor doesn't really work that way.

A more modern way of putting it would be to say that The Daily Show was instrumental at preventing George W. Bush from invading Iraq.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 1:08 PM on May 22 [11 favorites]

Firesign Theater, not Fireside
posted by Peach at 4:30 PM on May 22 [2 favorites]

Firesign Theater, not Fireside

Doh. You are absolutely correct.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 4:40 PM on May 22 [1 favorite]

I skimmed TFA this morning and have had a long day, so forgive me if I missed something obvious, but I thought the reason Lehrer quit showbiz is that Harvard suggested that he was going to encounter some strong, career ending headwinds in academia if he didn't quit showbiz?
posted by Larry David Syndrome at 7:11 PM on May 22

My father told me met Tom Lehrer at Cambridge, UK and asked him for an autograph. Lehrer, he claims, said, "Oh God. not here too???"
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 8:24 PM on May 22 [3 favorites]

Harvard suggested that he was going to encounter some strong, career ending headwinds in academia if he didn't quit showbiz?

That seems unlikely. The last thing that he had to do with Harvard was abandoning his dissertation in 1965 and he didn’t stop performing until the early seventies.
posted by Tell Me No Lies at 9:34 PM on May 22 [1 favorite]

If I was only allowed one comedy act to take to my desert island, it would be Lehrer. Doesn't even need to be his whole catalogue. Maybe a selected dozen of his songs would be enough.
posted by Pouteria at 6:56 PM on May 23

My parents had a copy of this album of Lehrer covers in their collection, apparently given to them by somebody who didn't know any better. Hearing the original recordings at my uncle's house always made those Sundays a treat for me.
posted by flabdablet at 9:31 PM on May 23

I still can’t help hearing various riffs on “Silent E” in Lehrer’s voice almost every single day while I’m doing my daily Wordle variations. “Who can turn a CLING into a CLINK? Who can turn a FLASH into a FLASK? It’s not too hard to say — it’s final K!”
posted by mubba at 8:55 AM on May 24 [1 favorite]

mbubba, I wrote my own variation on "Silent E", inspired by Dan Quayle's famous attempt to spell "potato" with an E. It consisted of putting a silent E on words and making words that don't exist ("... a little blob/becomes a blobe/instantly...").
posted by It's Never Lurgi at 11:26 AM on May 24