Eric GruninDec 17, 2022
Marianne Kirby (The Rotund)

Oh, wow, Tom Lehrer has released all of his songs into the public domain. Apparently also his website will shut down "at some date in the not too distant future" so now's a good time to download directly.

"In short, I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs.
So help yourselves, and don’t send me any money."

https://tomlehrersongs.com/

Songs and Lyrics by Tom Lehrer

Songs and Lyrics by Tom Lehrer DISCLAIMER STATEMENTI, Tom Lehrer, individually and as trustee of the

Tom Lehrer Songs
Dec 16, 2022 at 5:54pmWeb
Show threadDaniel SolisDec 16, 2022
@therotund The Jonas Salk of our time.
o7
Show threadMarianne Kirby (The Rotund)Dec 16, 2022
@DanielSolis I have to tell you, I'm still laughing at this because I had to pause for a moment like...LIGHTBULB. It's been a long week. 😆
Show threadDaniel SolisDec 16, 2022
@therotund I wasn't certain anyone would catch my meaning, so thanks for this. :D
Show threadJohn MiddletonDec 17, 2022

@DanielSolis @therotund

I couldn’t think how googling Salk and Lehrer at the same time would help, then BOOM it hit me. Well done. 👍

Show threadOldAndCrankyDec 22, 2022
@jdmiddleton55 @DanielSolis @therotund and now I feel stupid because it's not hitting me. And I've committed most of Lehrer's stuff to (my rapidly failing) memory.
Show threadDaniel SolisDec 22, 2022

@OldAndCranky @jdmiddleton55 @therotund

No worries! So here's the joke explained:

Asked why he didn't patent the polio vaccine, Jonas Salk is quoted saying "Could you patent the Sun?"

So the joke equates that to Tom Lehrer releasing his work to the public domain.

(Of course the real reason why Salk didn't file a patent is more complicated and less fun, but that'd ruin the joke.)

Show threadOldAndCrankyDec 22, 2022
@DanielSolis @jdmiddleton55 @therotund Ah. Ok. Very good then. I chuckled. Thanks!
Show threadMarianne Kirby (The Rotund)Dec 22, 2022
@DanielSolis @OldAndCranky @jdmiddleton55 I think it's also notable that Salk was a virologist - and Lehrer was, in effect, creating viral memes for the 1950s. *laugh* LAYERS OF MEANING!
Show threadOldAndCrankyDec 22, 2022
@therotund @DanielSolis @jdmiddleton55 hah! Tom Lehrer and Jean Shepherd were the voices of my childhood. Which explains much.
Show threadKristinDec 17, 2022
@DanielSolis @therotund amen!
Show thread@adamfarrDec 16, 2022
@therotund that's my evening gone as I work through them all
Show threadMarianne Kirby (The Rotund)Dec 16, 2022
@adamfarr A good way to spend an evening, I think!
Show thread@adamfarrDec 17, 2022
@therotund and now for the videos!
Show threadThomasDec 19, 2022
@therotund @adamfarr "An evening wasted with Tom Lehrer" : I think that was the name of Tom's album. My brother owned it.
Show threadEdgeDec 16, 2022

@therotund @Mclark I grew up listening to all of his songs, and learned vocabulary that way (what does “copious” mean, Mom?)

What an incredible talent. Thanks so much for posting this.

Show threadMarianne Kirby (The Rotund)Dec 16, 2022
@czarbucks @Mclark You are so welcome!
Show threadEdgeDec 16, 2022

@therotund @Mclark Just checked out the website, and found that I own all the previously-recorded songs of Mr Lehrer, but my gods does he have a lot of songs that were never recorded.

What a talent. He's 94, how nice that he gets to wrap up his own library the way he wants. How generous of him.

Show threadQuiltyDawnDec 17, 2022
@czarbucks @therotund @Mclark be sure to check out the musical notations in his sheet music too. So funny!
Show threadRob LeeDec 16, 2022
@therotund Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, and a thousand more thank yous for sharing that! I am downloading everything off the site - Tom Lehrer's wit and music were a huge influence on me in my younger days (late pre-teen into teenage years) during the latter half of the 1960s.
Show threadMarianne Kirby (The Rotund)Dec 16, 2022
@eel_trebor I am so glad I shared it! I thought at worst everyone would already know and at best some folks would find out. :D
Show thread@elartproDec 18, 2022
@therotund @eel_trebor Thank you very much for sharing!
Show threadOldAndCrankyDec 22, 2022
@eel_trebor @therotund same
Show threadRileyDec 16, 2022
@therotund RAR link to "The Remains of Tom Lehrer (disc 1)" on the web site is broken, but this works: https://tomlehrersongs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/trotl1.rar
Show threadMarianne Kirby (The Rotund)Dec 16, 2022
@jbomukti Thank you!!
Show threadRupert ReynoldsDec 19, 2022
@jbomukti @therotund I was about to post that, but you were one step ahead of me :-)
Show threadDan PiponiDec 16, 2022
@therotund Oh wow, Tom Lehrer, someone I thought of as being from the ancient past when I was an undergraduate back in the 80s, is still around!
Show threadMarianne Kirby (The Rotund)Dec 16, 2022
@dpiponi 94 years old!
Show threadOliver MantellDec 16, 2022
@therotund So great when you see a much-loved artist do something generous like that (though ironically my favourite of the few new ones on there was ‘Selling Out’…).
Show threadOblomovDec 16, 2022
@therotund this is a job for @internetarchive
Show threadAndrew PlotkinDec 16, 2022

@oblomov @therotund @internetarchive The Internet Archive got right on that job already. :)

https://archive.org/details/tomlehrersongs

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Texts, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

Show threadilzoDec 17, 2022
@zarfeblong @oblomov @therotund @internetarchive That just contains lyrics, not audio.
Show threadStewart RussellDec 17, 2022
@ilzo @zarfeblong @oblomov @therotund @internetarchive fixed that:
https://archive.org/search.php?query=tom+lehrer&and[]=mediatype%3A%22audio%22&and[]=creator%3A%22tom+lehrer%22&and[]=subject%3A%22Parody%22&and[]=collection%3A%22opensource_audio%22
Internet Archive Search: tom lehrer

Show threadThe Oboista 🎶 ✡️ צדק צדק תרדףDec 17, 2022
@zarfeblong @therotund @oblomov @ilzo @scruss @internetarchive Hanukkah in Santa Monica! 🥰
Show threadBill RickerDec 17, 2022
@ilzo @zarfeblong @oblomov @therotund @internetarchive one expects mirroring the audio takes longer, as well as repairing the broken link (fixed in message thread)
Show threadAbuse of NotationDec 16, 2022
@therotund Seems like a death wish :(
Show threadMarianne Kirby (The Rotund)Dec 16, 2022
@borko I mean, he's 94 years old. I wouldn't be surprised if he were cleaning up matters of his estate.
Show threadAbuse of NotationDec 16, 2022
@therotund Yes, that's what I meant, my grandfather recently left this world at 97.
Show threadtobieDec 17, 2022
@therotund @borko I think this is the most likely reason and it actually makes me very sad.
Show threadJoe CandeloraDec 17, 2022

@tobie @therotund @borko

I don't know, living to your mid-90s, knowing just what you want the faculties to accomplish it, then going out on your terms. It feels pretty inspiring to me.

Show threadAbuse of NotationDec 17, 2022
@Joke @tobie @therotund nobody denies that, I, personally, am a huge fan
Show threadAbuse of NotationDec 17, 2022
@Joke @tobie @therotund what are your favorite songs? I like “That’s mathematics.”
Show threadApple TaterDec 17, 2022
@therotund @borko I prefer to think he just got inspired by the fact that people are still reaching out to license his songs. When the Better Call Saul writers wanted to use “The Elements” in like 2020, they didn’t even know he was alive but they got a nice email back from him saying how much he loves Breaking Bad
Show threadamhardingauthorDec 16, 2022
@therotund thank you for the notification! That's brilliant 😀
Show threadPara 🌵Dec 16, 2022
@therotund That's SO cool. Brb, off to download them 😂
Show threadProjektMyraDec 16, 2022
@therotund Thank you for sharing. For this reason we should also share this link: https://web.archive.org/web/20221215051618/https://tomlehrersongs.com/
Home

Songs and Lyrics by Tom Lehrer DISCLAIMER STATEMENT I, Tom Lehrer, and the Tom Lehrer Trust 2007,

Tom Lehrer Songs
Show threadIlya אש AshDec 16, 2022
@therotund if I remember correctly, he published only lyrics and texts at first, not the music itself. And now the whole albums, great! Also, TIL that "Songs" and "Songs and more songs" aren't exactly albums, if we go by the list on the website:))
Show threadSocar MylesDec 16, 2022
@therotund His elements song is quite outdated now, but it was a great help to me in high school chemistry. Remembering all the elements feels like an impossible task, but then there's this song that's impossible to forget.
Show threadTom ForsythDec 16, 2022

@therotund What a guy! My two favourite TERRIBLE rhymes occur in the first lines of one of his songs:

When you attend a funeral,
It is sad to think that sooner or l...
...ater those you love will do the same for you.
And you may have thought it tragic,
Not to mention other adjec...
...tives to think of all the weeping they will do.

I also love that "I got it from Agnes" was written in 1957 - incredibly raunchy and progressive for the time! Also probably the origin of the phrase "lucky Pierre".

Show threadMark AndersonDec 16, 2022
@TomF @therotund But we will all go together when we go!
Show threadKen Butler has movedDec 16, 2022
@TomF @therotund the one that always gets me is rhyming "Harvard" and "discovered".
Show threadSørenDec 17, 2022
@nxskok @TomF @therotund The lyrics sheet provides helpful clarification.
Show threadmjfgatesDec 17, 2022
@TomF @therotund That is terrible *and* beautiful. And all shall love Tom Lehrer and despair.
Show threadSarah Gelbard, PhD (she/her)Dec 16, 2022
@therotund His statement is *chef kiss.* I feel a cover coming soon.
Show threadMarianne Kirby (The Rotund)Dec 16, 2022
@sbg_arch I am so ready for all the covers. I really hope people go for it.
Show threadKevin McDec 16, 2022
@therotund Thank you for sharing
Show threadTom LevensonDec 16, 2022

@therotund I've had the good fortune to meet Tom Lehrer at a couple of Cambridge Christmas parties (he wouldn't remember me). I'm not a tongue-tied kind of person, but I had no idea what to say to him; he was so much a part of the sound and mind scape of my childhood.

Like his sung-of neighborhood benefactor, he has done well by doing good! ;-)

Show threadMarianne Kirby (The Rotund)Dec 16, 2022
@tomlevenson I wouldn't have had a clue what to say to him either, honestly. I first heard his music in a goth club in 1995 and had to track down who he was the old fashioned way (by asking the dj) - but even when I knew his name, his music was just so completely it's own thing that it almost didn't feel real.
Show threadTerry Boon (moved)Dec 16, 2022

@therotund
Thanks for the good Tom Lehrer news - and happily the sheet music looks approachable (although any attempt I make at patter song "The Elements" would be more lumpen than at the vertiginous speed which Kit and the Widow expect :-) ) And I've space for an extract from his "Christmas Carol"...

"Hark, the Herald Tribune sings,
Advertising wondrous things.
God rest you merry, merchants,
May you make the Yuletide pay.
Angels we have heard on high
Tell us to go out and buy!"