Before attending college, Lehrer graduated from the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut. As an undergraduate student at Harvard University, he began to write comic songs to entertain his friends, including Fight Fiercely, Harvard (1945). Those songs later became (in a joking reference to a leading scientific journal, The Physical Review) The Physical Revue. Influenced mainly by musical theater, his style consisted of parodying then-current forms of popular song. For example, his appreciation of list songs led him to set the names of the chemical elements to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan's "Major-General's Song".
Inspired by the success of his performances of his songs, he paid for some studio time to record an album, Songs By Tom Lehrer, which he sold by mail order. Self-published and unpromoted, the album, which included the macabre (I Hold Your Hand in Mine), the mildly risqué (Be Prepared), and the mathematical (Lobachevsky), became a success via word of mouth. With a cult hit, he embarked on a series of concert tours and released a second album, which came in two versions: the songs were the same but More Songs by Tom Lehrer was studio-recorded, while An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer was recorded live in concert.
Lehrer's major break into the United Kingdom came as a result of the citation accompanying an honorary degree given to Princess Margaret, where she cited musical tastes as "catholic, ranging from Mozart to Tom Lehrer". This produced significant interest in his works, and helped secure distributors for his material. Ironically, it was in the UK where his music ended up more popular due to the proliferation of university newspapers referring to the material, and the willingness of the BBC to play his songs on the radio (something that was a rarity in the USA).
By the early 1960s, Lehrer had retired from touring (which he intensely disliked) and was employed as the resident songwriter for the US edition of That Was The Week That Was (TW3), a satirical TV show. An increased proportion of his output became overtly political, or at least topical, on subjects such as pollution (Pollution), Vatican II (The Vatican Rag), race relations (National Brotherhood Week), education (New Math), American militarism (Send the Marines), World War III nostalgia (So Long, Mom, premiered by Steve Allen), and nuclear proliferation (Who's Next? and MLF Lullaby). He also wrote a song which satirized the alleged amorality of Wernher von Braun. A selection of these songs was released in the album That Was The Year That Was.
The record deal with Reprise Records for the That Was The Year That Was album also gave Reprise distribution rights for Lehrer's earlier recordings, as Lehrer wanted to shut down his own Lehrer Records. The Reprise issue of Songs by Tom Lehrer was a stereo re-recording. This version was not issued on CD, but the songs were issued on the live Tom Lehrer Revisited on CD instead.
There is an urban legend that Lehrer gave up political satire when the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Henry Kissinger in 1973. He did say that the awarding of the prize to Kissinger made political satire obsolete, but has denied that he stopped doing satire as a form of protest, and asserts that he had stopped doing satire several years earlier. Another urban legend held that he had been sued for libel by the subject of one of his songs, Wernher Von Braun, and been forced to relinquish all of his royalty income to Von Braun. However, Lehrer firmly denied this in an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald. (He had also mentioned Frank Fontaine and Jerry Lewis in "National Brotherhood Week", in an uncomplimentary context, on the same album, but nothing resulted from that.)
When asked about his reasons for abandoning his musical career, he cited a simple lack of interest, a distaste for touring, and boredom with performing the same songs repeatedly. He has observed that when he was moved to write and perform songs, he did; when he wasn't, he didn't, and after a while the latter situation prevailed. It has been frequently observed that, though many of Lehrer's songs satirized the Cold War political establishment of the day, that he stopped writing and performing just as the 1960s counterculture movement gained momentum. Lehrer has stated that he doubts his songs had an impact on those not already critical of the establishment: "I don't think this kind of thing has an impact on the unconverted, frankly. It's not even preaching to the converted; it's titillating the converted... 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."
Lehrer's musical career was notably brief, stating in an interview in the late 90s that he had performed a mere 109 shows, and written 37 songs across his 20-year career. Nevertheless, the cult following that had grown around his music significantly bolstered the effect that he had on a global scale.
In the 1970s, Lehrer concentrated on teaching mathematics and musical theater, although he also wrote 10 songs for the children's television show The Electric Company. (Harvard schoolmate Joe Raposo was the show's musical director for its first three seasons.) In the early 1980s, Tom Foolery, a revival of his songs on the London stage, was a surprise hit. Although not its instigator, Lehrer eventually gave it his full support and updated several of his lyrics for the production.
On 7 June and 8 June 1998, Tom Lehrer performed in public for the first time in 25 years at the Lyceum Theatre, London as part of the gala show Hey Mr Producer! celebrating the career of impresario Cameron Mackintosh (who had been the producer of Tom Foolery). The 8 June show has been his only performance before the Queen. Lehrer sang Poisoning Pigeons in the Park and an updated version of "Who's Next". The DVD of the event includes the former song.
In 2000, a CD box set, The Remains of Tom Lehrer, was released by Rhino Entertainment. It included live and studio versions of his first two albums, That Was The Year That Was, the songs he wrote for The Electric Company, and some previously unreleased material, accompanied by a small hardbound book containing an introduction by Dr. Demento and lyrics to all the songs.
Lehrer celebrated his 80th birthday on April 9th 2008.
Fight Fiercely Harvard
Tom Lehrer Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Fight fiercely, Harvard, fight, fight, fight!
Demonstrate to them our skill.
Albeit they possess the might,
Nonetheless we have the will.
How we will celebrate our victory,
Hurl that spheroid down the field,
And fight, fight, fight!
Fight fiercely, Harvard, fight, fight, fight!
Impress them with our prowess, do!
Oh, fellas, do not let the crimson down,
Be of stout heart and true.
Come on, chaps, fight for Harvard's glorious name!
Won't it be peachy if we win the game? (Oh, goody!)
Let's try not to injure them,
But fight, fight, fight!
Let's not be rough, though!
Fight, fight, fight!
And do fight fiercely!
Fight, fight, fight!
Tom Lehrer's song "Fight Fiercely Harvard" makes a satirical comment on college football fight songs in America. As an alum of Harvard, Lehrer has a direct connection with his alma mater, but he also winks at the uncouth and violent tendencies of most fight songs. Instead, he suggests a more genteel approach to winning: demonstrating skill, inviting the opposing team for tea, impressing them with prowess, and not injuring anyone. The song thus exposes the hyper-masculine, domineering, and aggressive ethos often associated with American football.
Lehrer's use of sardonic humor and irony is also apparent in his choice of words and phrasing. The repetition of "fight, fight, fight" in each stanza creates an absurd emphasis on fighting that contrasts with the non-violent and civil activities that follow, such as celebrating with tea or playing with skill. The choice of the word "spheroid" instead of "ball" or "pigskin" also deflates the traditional language of football and highlights its artificiality. Similarly, the call to "impress them with our prowess" and not "let the crimson down" is a comically pompous way of expressing confidence and loyalty.
In short, "Fight Fiercely Harvard" is a clever and witty critique of a popular American tradition that celebrates aggression and competition over sportsmanship and mutual respect.
Line by Line Meaning
Fight fiercely, Harvard, fight, fight, fight!
Let's battle with all we got, Harvard. Fight as hard as we can, fight, fight, fight!
Demonstrate to them our skill.
Show them how skilled we are, let's play a great game.
Albeit they possess the might,
Although they may be stronger than us,
Nonetheless we have the will.
We have a stronger will and courage than them, and we won't give up.
How we will celebrate our victory,
When we win, we will celebrate in a grand way.
We shall invite the whole team up for tea. (How jolly!)
We shall invite the losing team to a friendly gathering, how delightful that will be.
Hurl that spheroid down the field,
Throw that ball as far as you can, and lets score those points.
Impress them with our prowess, do!
Show them how powerful and skilled we are.
Oh, fellas, do not let the crimson down,
Don't let Harvard down, fight with all you got.
Be of stout heart and true.
Be brave and true to yourself, don't lose hope or give up.
Come on, chaps, fight for Harvard's glorious name!
Let's win this game for Harvard's name and glory.
Won't it be peachy if we win the game? (Oh, goody!)
It will be amazing and delightful if we manage to win this.
Let's try not to injure them,
Let's not hurt the other team, keep it civilized.
But fight, fight, fight!
But still fight with all we got, fight, fight, fight.
Let's not be rough, though!
But let's fight with finesse and skill, not just brute force.
Fight, fight, fight!
Let's keep fighting until the end, fight, fight, fight!
And do fight fiercely!
And fight with all the intensity and determination we have to win this game, fight fiercely!
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
James Sn
One of my and my parents' favorite Tom Lehrer songs! ❤❤
George M
Truly, this is a song of which any alumnus of Harvard would approve!
Nick Hentschel
Hearing this song as a kid (8 or 9) was how I first heard of Harvard!
Jan Hammer
Thanks for checking out my site and for your comment.
David Webb
That scoring play from the '68 game is fantastic.
Ann Bush
All Tom Lehrer. My husband was earlier. but we loved this wicked spoof of college spirit! And the Boy Scouts Marching So g, and all his brilliant work. As of August, 2020 he is still fort, living in Manhattan.
David Webb
What an incredible song and video!
1MichaelS1997
yeah, you´re right, in my opinion this is one of the best Tom Lehrer songs with A Christmas Carol and the the Elementsong ;)
George M
At 0:59 - The Game in 1968 - and we all know what happened - Harvard Beats Yale, 29-29!
The_late_Buddy Ryan
That same year, the Yalie Daily walloped the Harvard Crimson 280–30 on a “special edition” of the GE College Bowl. Bulldog, bulldog, bow-wow-wow! Βρεκεκεκὲξ κοὰξ κοάξ!