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.
The Wild West Is Where I Want To Be
Tom Lehrer Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
E staff out there at that time was composed almost exclusively of spies... of one persuasion or another. and, while I was out there, I came to realize how much the wild west had changed since th
D old days of wyatt earp and home on the range, and here then is a modern cowboy ballad commemorating that delightful metamorphosis called the wild west is where I wanna be.
Along the trail you'll find me lopin'
Where the spaces are wide open,
In the land of the old a.e.c. (yea-hah!)
Where the scenery's attractive,
Oh, the wild west is where I wanna be.
Mid the sagebrush and the cactus,
I'll watch the fellas practice
Droppin' bombs through the clean desert breeze.
I'll have on my sombrero,
And of course I'll wear a pair o'
Levis over my lead b.v.d.'s.
Ah will leave the city's rush,
Leave the fancy and the plush,
Leave the snow and leave the slush
And the crowds.
Ah will seek the desert's hush,
Where the scenery is lush,
How I long to see the mush-
Room clouds.
'mid the yuccas and the thistles
I'll watch the guided missiles,
While the old f.b.i. watches me. (yea-hah!)
Yes, I'll soon make my appearance
(soon as I can get my clearance),
'cause the wild west is where I wanna be.
Tom Lehrer's song The Wild West Is Where I Want To Be is an ironic ballad about the modern-day wild west. It begins with personal history, as Lehrer reminisces about working as a spy at the los alamos scientific laboratory in New Mexico. He notes how the staff were composed of spies of one persuasion or another. Lehrer then talks about the changes he has seen in the wild west since the time of Wyatt Earp and Home on the Range. The lyrics are a celebration of the new wild west – a land where the air is radioactive, dropping bombs is a fun pastime, and the FBI watches your every move. It's easy to see that the song is a satirical take on the romanticized version of the Wild West.
The lyrics are humorous and use irony to critique modern-day society. Lehrer pokes fun at the idea of a cowboy in modern times, wearing jeans over his "lead B.V.D.s". He also comically describes missiles as something a cowboy would watch, and the FBI as something he welcomes. By writing these things, Lehrer underlines the idea that the Wild West is no longer a place of freedom, but rather a place where everything is controlled and monitored. The song has a nostalgic quality to it, as Lehrer longs for the romanticized image of the Wild West that he had in his youth, which has now been replaced by a more dystopian reality.
Overall, The Wild West Is Where I Want To Be is a tongue-in-cheek song that takes a critical look at the modern-day Wild West. Lehrer's clever use of irony and satirical humor makes the song an engaging commentary on the changing times.
Line by Line Meaning
Along the trail you'll find me lopin', Where the spaces are wide open, In the land of the old a.e.c. (yea-hah!)
I'll be riding my horse and traveling along vast landscapes in the area of the Atomic Energy Commission's historical testing site.
Where the scenery's attractive, And the air is radioactive, Oh, the wild west is where I wanna be.
I find the beautiful scenery of the landscape alluring, despite the presence of harmful radioactive substances.
Mid the sagebrush and the cactus, I'll watch the fellas practice Droppin' bombs through the clean desert breeze.
Amid the plants, I'll watch the men practicing dropping bombs through the clean, unpolluted desert air.
I'll have on my sombrero, And of course, I'll wear a pair o' Levis over my lead b.v.d.'s.
I'll wear a typical cowboy hat and rugged jeans over my protective lead undergarments.
Ah will leave the city's rush, Leave the fancy and the plush, Leave the snow and leave the slush And the crowds.
I'll leave the chaos and materialism of the city, as well as the icy, unpleasant conditions, and the crowds therein.
Ah will seek the desert's hush, Where the scenery is lush, How I long to see the mush- Room clouds.
I seek the peacefulness of the barren desert and its beautiful scenery, and I hope to witness the rare occurrence known as mushroom clouds.
'mid the yuccas and the thistles I'll watch the guided missiles, While the old f.b.i. watches me. (yea-hah!)
I'll observe guided missiles among the yuccas and thistles, while the FBI monitors my activities.
Yes, I'll soon make my appearance (soon as I can get my clearance), 'cause the wild west is where I wanna be.
I'll soon arrive once my security clearance is granted because living in the modern Wild West is my goal.
Lyrics © OBO APRA/AMCOS
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Barry Goldberg
how was this song not in Fallout: New Vegas? seriously, this would've made it so epic. and totally meta too.
DarnMeddlingKids
If they remake it they could add it because he added all his songs to the public domain
AceOfHearts
@DarnMeddlingKids oh fuck yeah
Cas van Dijck
I've been counting, he has six songs which should (or at least could) be in there - so far as I've heard, anyway.
rabidbunnies2
The politics of the pre-war fallout world wouldn't have allowed for Tom Lehrer there's probably no recordings of him to play on the radio.
Caleb Chaney
People are saying this belongs in Fallout. It doesn’t; it's too self-aware.
Leaf Finite
I kinda wish his "We will all go together when we go," song was in fallout. It doesnt really fit the series tonally, but its hella funny
Caleb Chaney
Leaf Finite It might just fit, actually.
Max Dixon
The original fallout was super self aware, new vegas too to an extent
Cassandra WasRight
To be fair, the Fallout games that weren't made by Bethesda are pretty self-aware. It's just Bethesda that really goes "wow!! cool bomb!!!"