Lars Mars
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7/27/2025 10:10:28 PM
Tom Lehrer
One could be sad about it, but no one lives forever. Tom Lehrer had a great run and a brilliantly unexpected life.
A math prodigy who entered Harvard at 15, worked at Los Alamos and the NSA (which provided the inspiration for many of his funniest songs) and retired from performing to teach at MIT and other institutions.
If you've never heard of him, do yourself a favor and search YouTube for him by name... I put a link to his channel below.
I recommend
We'll All Go Together When We Go
Poisoning Pigeons in the Park
I Hold Your Hand in Mine
The Old Dope Peddler and for the science nerds among us (and you know who you are)
The Elements Song
Here's his channel:
Tom Lehrer
Wikipedia
Glenn
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Lars Mars
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8/11/2025 9:37:57 PM
Also, apart from inventing the Jell-O Shot in response to the NSA's prohibition of alcoholic beverages, he transferred his entire catalog into the Public Domain.
From his Wikipedia page:
In 2012, rapper 2 Chainz sampled Lehrer's song "The Old Dope Peddler" on his debut album, Based on a T.R.U. Story. In 2013, Lehrer said he was "very proud" to have his song sampled "literally sixty years after I recorded it". Lehrer went on to describe his official response to the request to use his song: "As sole copyright owner of 'The Old Dope Peddler', I grant you motherfuckers permission to do this. Please give my regards to Mr. Chainz, or may I call him 2?"[47][81]
In October 2020, Lehrer transferred the music and lyrics for all songs he had ever written into the public domain:[82][83]
In short, I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs. So help yourselves, and don’t send me any money.
—?Tom Lehrer
In November 2022, Lehrer formally relinquished the copyright and performing/recording rights on his songs, making all music and lyrics composed by him free for anyone to use, and established a website from which all of his recordings and printable copies of all of his songs could be downloaded.[84] His statement releasing all his works into the public domain concludes with this note: "This website will be shut down at some date in the not too distant future, so if you want to download anything, don't wait too long."[84] As of July 2025, the website is still online.[32]
A fitting tribute:
Tom Lehrer: The Satirical Genius Who Laughed at the World and Walked Away
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