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.
My Home Town
Tom Lehrer Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Ace in the world because it's home, you know. sort of gets you. this example is called my home town.
I really have a yen
To go back once again,
Back to the place where no one wears a frown,
To see once more those super-special just plain folks
In my home town.
No fellow could ignore
The little girl next door,
She sure looked sweet in her first evening gown.
Now there's a charge for what she used to give for free
In my home town.
I remember dan, the druggist on the corner, 'e
Was never mean or ornery,
He was swell.
He killed his mother-in-law and ground her up real well,
And sprinkled just a bit
Over each banana split.
The guy that taught us math,
Who never took a bath,
Acquired a certain measure of renown,
And after school he sold the most amazing pictures
In my home town.
That fellow was no fool
Who taught our Sunday school,
And neither was our kindly parson brown.
We're recording tonight so I have to leave this line out.
In my home town.
I remember sam, he was the village idiot.
And though it seems a pity, it
Was so.
He loved to burn down houses just to watch the glow,
And nothing could be done,
Because he was the mayor's son.
The guy that took a knife
And monogrammed his wife,
Then dropped her in the pond and watched her drown.
Oh, yes indeed, the people there are just plain folks
In my home town.
In Tom Lehrer’s song My Home Town, the singer reminisces about his hometown and reminisces about the people he knew, despite their flaws. He opens the song by saying “I really have a yen to go back once again…” indicating a desire to return to his hometown. He then goes on to describe how happy the people were in his hometown, despite the vices that went on. He sings about the little girl next door, who used to be sweet and is now charging for what she used to give away for free, and about the druggist, Dan, who killed his mother-in-law and sprinkled her over his banana split. He also talks about the math teacher who never bathed, but sold amazing pictures after school, and about the village idiot, Sam, who loved burning down houses just to watch the glow, and who was the mayor’s son. He concludes the song by saying “the people there are just plain folks in my home town.”
The song My Home Town contradicts the common perception of a typical hometown as a place of safety and security. Lehrer deliberately takes the listener through a shocking list of incidents in his hometown, including murder, corruption, and arson. What makes the song even more striking is that he presents these incidents in a lighthearted and humorous way, using upbeat music and cheerful lyrics, with the exception of the line he omitted during a live recording, which adds a hint of darkness to the song. The song, therefore, can be seen as a commentary on the double standards and hypocrisy of people, who claim to cherish traditional values while indulging in wrongdoing in their own backyards.
Line by Line Meaning
I really have a yen
I really want to
To go back once again,
To return to a place I've been before
Back to the place where no one wears a frown,
Back to a place where everyone is happy
To see once more those super-special just plain folks
To see those very special ordinary people again
No fellow could ignore
No one could ignore
The little girl next door,
The young girl who lived next door
She sure looked sweet in her first evening gown.
She looked beautiful in her first formal attire.
Now there's a charge for what she used to give for free
She now charges for something she used to give away for free
I remember dan, the druggist on the corner, 'e
I remember Dan, the druggist on the corner who
Was never mean or ornery,
Was never unpleasant or bad-tempered
He was swell.
He was great.
He killed his mother-in-law and ground her up real well,
He murdered his mother-in-law and chopped her corpse finely
And sprinkled just a bit
And added a small amount
Over each banana split.
Over each dessert he served.
The guy that taught us math,
The man who taught us mathematics
Who never took a bath,
Who never bathed
Acquired a certain measure of renown,
Became somewhat famous
And after school he sold the most amazing pictures
And after school, he sold astonishing artwork
In my home town.
In my beloved place of origin.
That fellow was no fool
That man was no dummy
Who taught our Sunday school,
Who instructed at our Sunday school
And neither was our kindly parson brown.
And neither was our amiable Pastor Brown.
We're recording tonight so I have to leave this line out.
This line is omitted because we are recording tonight.
I remember sam, he was the village idiot.
I remember Sam, who was the foolish person in our town.
And though it seems a pity, it
And though it is unfortunate
Was so.
It was true.
He loved to burn down houses just to watch the glow,
He enjoyed setting fire to buildings to observe the flames.
And nothing could be done,
And nothing could be accomplished
Because he was the mayor's son.
Because he was the child of the mayor.
The guy that took a knife
The man who used a knife
And monogrammed his wife,
And engraved his wife's initials
Then dropped her in the pond and watched her drown.
Then dropped her into the pond and watched her perish.
Oh, yes indeed, the people there are just plain folks
Yes, indeed, the inhabitants of that place are simply ordinary people
In my home town.
In my beloved place of origin.
Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Adrian Fell
Lehrer has said of his musical career, "If, after hearing my songs, just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps to strike a loved one, it will all have been worth the while"
Jorvaskrr
@Ann Bush no, but now that you mention it.....
zer 0
@Derian Setoguchi now you're getting it =)
Ann Bush
and nothing could be done
Because he was the mayor’s son
Anybody thinking”Hunter”?
Vivian Andersson
closeupman exactly the response he was looking for!
David Burn
The "original" version was "they're recording tonight, so I'd better leave this line out". Whether or not Tom Lehrer actually had a single line suggesting that the feller who taught Sunday school was in any kind of inappropriate relationship with kindly Parson Brown will never be known. But if anyone did, he did.
klandersen42
The line seems to be intentionally "censored". On one of the recordings he hums a little then says "Shall I? I think I better not".
Casey
According to the sheet music posted to his website, there are no lyrics for that section. It says to hum for a bit.
Aaron Brown
He didn't have a line for that so he figured it would be funnier to leave it up to the imagination.
Tony Young
I'm guessing it was a homosexual relationship, which wouldn't be a big deal nowadays.