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.
Pollution
Tom Lehrer Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
If you visit American city,
You will find it very pretty.
Just two things of which you must beware:
Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!
Pollution, pollution!
Turn on your tap
And get hot and cold running crud!
See the halibuts and the sturgeons
Being wiped out by detergeons.
Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly,
But they don't last long if they try.
Pollution, pollution!
You can use the latest toothpaste,
And then rinse your mouth
With industrial waste.
Just go out for a breath of air
And you'll be ready for Medicare.
The city streets are really quite a thrill -
If the hoods don't get you, the monoxide will.
Pollution, pollution!
Wear a gas mask and a veil.
Then you can breathe,
Long as you don't inhale!
Lots of things there that you can drink,
But stay away from the kitchen sink!
The breakfast garbage that you throw into the Bay
They drink at lunch in San Jose.*
So go to the city,
See the crazy people there.
Like lambs to the slaughter,
They're drinking the water
And breathing [cough] the air!
Tom Lehrer's song Pollution comments on the pollution and ecological destruction rampant in America, where a foreigner visiting would be advised to avoid drinking tap water and breathing in the air. The lyrics make light of the conditions, using humorous rhymes and clever puns to paint a picture of the grim reality while imparting a message about how humans contribute to these problems. The halibut and sturgeons are dying out due to pollutants being dumped into their habitats, resulting in the death of wildlife. The satire points out the futility of using the latest toothpaste when rinsing your mouth with industrial waste. Lehrer mentions the risks of walking in the city's streets and the need for protective equipment like a gas mask or veil if you wish to enter downtown areas.
The song's chorus "Pollution, pollution!" emphasizes the harm humans are causing to the environment. The verse "Lots of things there that you can drink, But stay away from the kitchen sink! The breakfast garbage that you throw into the Bay They drink at lunch in San Jose," highlights the irony of San Jose city releasing garbage into the bay and later uses that polluted water for drinking. The final verse warns of the fate of people in a polluted city, comparing them to sheep going to slaughter. The song ultimately highlights the dangers of pollution and ecological irresponsibility that lie ahead.
Line by Line Meaning
If you visit American city,
When you travel to a city in America
You will find it very pretty.
It might seem attractive at first glance
Just two things of which you must beware:
But there are two important things to keep in mind
Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!
You shouldn't drink the water or inhale the air due to pollution
Pollution, pollution!
There's a lot of pollution in America's cities
They got smog and sewage and mud.
There's heavy air pollution, untreated waste pollution, and dirty streets
Turn on your tap
When you turn on the tap
And get hot and cold running crud!
You'll get dirty water for washing and drinking
See the halibuts and the sturgeons
Fish like halibut and sturgeon
Being wiped out by detergeons.
Are being destroyed by chemical runoff
Fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly,
It's natural for fish to swim and birds to fly
But they don't last long if they try.
But they can't survive in polluted environments
You can use the latest toothpaste,
Even if you use the best toothpaste available
And then rinse your mouth
And wash your mouth out
With industrial waste.
You'll still be rinsing your mouth with contaminated water
Just go out for a breath of air
If you try to breathe the air outside
And you'll be ready for Medicare.
You'll be sick and old enough for Medicare
The city streets are really quite a thrill -
The city streets may be exciting
If the hoods don't get you, the monoxide will.
But if you don't get attacked by criminals, you might still be affected by carbon monoxide poisoning
Wear a gas mask and a veil.
You should wear a gas mask and a veil
Then you can breathe,
So you can breathe
Long as you don't inhale!
But only if you don't inhale the polluted air
Lots of things there that you can drink,
There are many things you can drink
But stay away from the kitchen sink!
But don't use the kitchen sink due to contaminated water
The breakfast garbage that you throw into the Bay
The waste you throw into the Bay area
They drink at lunch in San Jose.*
Is consumed by people in San Jose later on
So go to the city,
So if you go to the city
See the crazy people there.
You'll see eccentric people
Like lambs to the slaughter,
Who are being led to disaster
They're drinking the water
They are drinking the polluted water
And breathing [cough] the air!
And inhaling the polluted air
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Missing Link Music
Written by: RONALD RAY BRYANT, NATHAN PEREZ, RUSSELL LEE ATKINS, PAUL RAMIREZ, ALFONSO COOK
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
@eplace1
Tom's classic song pairs well with Randy Newman's "Burn On," about the Cuyahoga River catching fire. With the current proposals to gut the EPA, those good ol' days may be back before we know it. Here are the programs the Trump Administration wants to cut (as of 3/5/17):
Alaska Native Villages
Beach and Fish programs
Brownfield projects
Clean Power Plan implementation
Climate voluntary partnership programs -- 14 separate ones!
Diesel Emissions Reduction Act
Endocrine grants
Energy Star grants
Environmental education
Environmental justice
Geographical programs for Lake Champlain, the Long Island Sound, San Francisco Bay and South Florida
Global Change Research
Mexico Border grants
Multi-purpose grants
Office of Public Engagement
Radon
Star Research grants
Small minority business grants
State indoor radon
Targeted air shed grants
U.S. Mexico Border
Water Sense
@KillahTaco
Used this song in my pollution project to. The teacher was laughing, first time since, wow never!
@swordslashertf2
SAME
@fatty_owls
I vibe to lehrer songs with my history teacher it's great 😂
And to keep me occupied in boring lessons he hides monty python references in the PowerPoints... best teacher ever.
@gameanation4311
lol same
@funk_dust_7087
2022, nothing has changed, Tom.
@garylobo3
On his record That Was The Year That Was, done in San Francisco in 1965, his line "Throw out your breakfast garbage and I've got a hunch...that the folks downstream will drink it for lunch" was changed to "The breakfast garbage that you throw into the Bay...they'll drink it for lunch in San Jose." He also had a different version for his NY performances!
@mirzaahmed6589
This show was in Norway, where the US geography references wouldn't be appreciated.
@vinodmubayi
The reference for the NY area was “the breakfast garbage they throw in at Troy/they drink at lunch in Perth Amboy”
@jhgraf3
I think there were at least two different versions, one for the East and one for the West. I remember "The breakfast garbage that you throw into the bay they drink for lunch in San Jose." There was also a Troy -- Perth Amboy lyric.
@mckavitt
James Graf I preferred that one, but thought it was for the US, whereas the other ones were for Europe, etc.