Songs & More Songs By Tom Lehrer

I can't think of a single mainstream Lehrer song which isn't in this collection. His supporting/linking discourse is missing, however, and I for one think it adds to the comic presentation. The songs themselves are witty enough, of course, and Lehrer's lyrics mix a tremendous sense of irony with an unsubtle sense of the grotesque and a dose of personal prejudice in addressing issues of great concern in his time (and a good deal of relevance in today's world). An intriguing part of the repertoire is a number of songs set to orchestral music. I hadn't realised that some of his compositions had received orchestral attention, and frankly I cannot see that it would have travelled well with his one-man stand-up (really, sit-at-the-piano-holding-forth) show, but it works quite well. The collection contains another surprise, too: an amusing unissued number called "I got it from Agnes". It's a lot of fun, and it's amusing to think why it might have been unissued before this collection. After all, venereal disease isn't that much more awful than other themes which he addresses. The hint at bestiality, or incest, maybe? Anyway, we seem to be a little less squeamish these days, and it's all good fun.

The ol' Math Professor has quite a nice selection of bitingly sarcastic things to say about life. What hurts is: I agree with him. The general tenor of his songs lead you to believe that not only is the light at the end of the tunnel an oncoming train, but it's also the "A" Express barreling right toward you at full throttle! I dearly love his commentary on things, and he's got a couple of winners on this album, too. "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park", for one. The "Masochism Tango" is another, as is his "Irish Folk Song." Tom Lehrer's irreverent humor not only abounds in this recording, it flat out gallops. If you're one of those who has a rather jaundiced view of life, the universe, and everything (42), then you will absolutely love this album.

I first learned about Tom Lehrer when I was in college in the 70s. It's my understanding that he was a Harvard graduate student/teaching assistant, rumor back then was that Lehrer wasn't his real name (it is German for Teacher), but that may be an urban legend. Although his songs were satires on current events, I am surprised at how topical they still sound - some of the specifics are clearly from an earlier era, but the humor is still entertaining 40 years later. My favorite of his albums was That Was the Year That Was (separately reviewed), but this one has some great songs as well.This is a good choice for us Boomers who will still remember some of the issues he is singing about. Don't buy it for the music (the melodies are pretty simple and his voice is just OK), it's the lyrics that make this enjoyable.

It arrived promptly, and makes riding in the car a joyful experience. Lehrer just turned ninety years-old, God bless him and all the other clever, irreverent people in the world. His satirical wit never grows stale.

Using CD disk for gifts.

I love the story telling and laughs! This guy is/was an amzing musician and wordsmith. Highly recommended!!!!!!! Can't say it enough!

Mostly music I have from his other albums, but a few songs with orchestral accompaniment. I do miss Tom's introductions, though.

First heard Tom Lehrer when I was 7 or 8, late 1950's; my older sister had it on a 78-rpm disc. Even though I really didn't understand the humor then, I remembered some of the crazy melodies... at 65, I just had to have this. Well worth it!

My parents bought the long-players containing these songs in the fifties, when I was a boy. They were hysterically funny then, and they're no less hilarious today.Tom Lehrer (who - at the time of this review - will be 88 next week!) was an agnostic Jewish mathematics professor, who became remarkably popular and fairly well-known in the fifties and sixties, partly due to his appearances on TV's That Was the Week That Was (US version) and The Frost Report. But songs this wildly inventive and stomach-achingly funny would have found an audience anyway.His influences are obvious: Gilbert & Sullivan (well, Gilbert, at any rate), Cole Porter and the brilliant musical theatre composers of the early twentieth century, and no doubt such off-the-wall ditties as those sung by Groucho Marx and the like. In his turn he was an influence on the great contemporary singer-songwriter Loudon Wainwright III (who has had the good grace to admit as much). And I expect Randy Newman, Warren Zevon, and one or two others had heard and absorbed these songs.None of them is longer than three minutes in length, most between one and two minutes. Lehrer lampoons - often with surprisingly pungent irreverence - as many sacred cows of US culture and society as he can, such as the Alma Mater song (Fight Fiercely, Harvard), the upright scouting motto (Be Prepared - with its subtly bawdy last lines), the peon to the Deep South (I Wanna Go Back to Dixie), the nostalgic number (My Home Town - this delirious example populated by a set of highly dubious characters), the love song (the nicely grisly I Hold Your Hand in Mine), the Xmas song (A Christmas Carol, which skewers in under two minutes all I dislike about the 'festive season'), a mad Latin number called The Masochism Tango, which is exactly as you'd expect, the cheery fatalism of We Will All Go Together When We Go, a scintillating Gilbert & Sullivanesque rundown of The Elements, and the hearteningly sadistic Poisoning Pigeons in the Park...and many more, including the only song he wrote which approaches anything tender or lyrical, The Old Dope Peddler, though that's more due to the tune than the inevitably dubious lyrics.Then there's the sheer glorious filth - always implicit - of I Got It From Agnes.From the start (as early as 1952) Lehrer made mocking fun of his musical achievements, implicitly encouraging his listeners to do the same, and I'm glad to say the booklet that comes with this compilation of most of his songs - we don't get the ones he wrote for TWTWTW, so no Vatican Rag, arguably his greatest and most irreverent song - reprints the original mock-dismissive liner notes and comments that were such an integral part of the old LP issues.In later years, Lehrer bemoaned (none too seriously, one imagines) the fact that he never became as lauded as Dylan or other 'protest' songwriters, but he was being atypically disingenuous: Dylan, Ochs, Paxton, Simon and the rest were doing something different, with other musical and lyrical aims, and besides, the one thing Lehrer never managed, or presumably wished, to do was to move the listener. He makes you laugh fit to bust, but you'd be unlikely to listen to him for any other reason than to laugh your head off.I've lived with these timelessly scabrous songs all my life, since a far too young age, and I can't imagine a world without them. If you're discovering them for the first time, and you have a broad sense of humour, then I really do envy (and pity) you.Unlike anybody else - I'm glad to say!

If you do not know Tom Lehrer you should do, he is the witty satirist who declared that "satire became obsolete when Hank Kissinger was given the Nobel Peace Prize.", From common favourites such as the Chemical Elements (to the tune of Arthur Sullivan's Major General Song), to unexpected humour such as "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" right across to biting political satire, such as "We Will All Go Together When We Go", Tom never disappoints. I remember this from my childhood days when my parents used to listen to it, it is great having a CD which does not have all the scratches from the old 33 rpm record although funnily enough, I am needing to get used to that. Lots of fun and definitely ready for revival.

Bought for hubby as his father had an 8in ep. Hubby is 65. First time I heard it, even if recorded in 50's, songs still relevant today. I absoloutly loved it. Hubby over the moon. Bought another one for my son who I think will enjoy the relevance. Cannot get "Killing pigeons in the park" out of my head. Excellent and well worth the money

I've heard many of the songs before and look forward to hearing some more. Good collection. Just ordered another copy, as a gift!

There is some duplication p this CD and so there are not 28 different tracks. But Tom Lehrer is a genius and much of his work is a relevant now as it was 80 years ago. You must buy this CD