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Tom Lehrer at 90!

I was reminded this weekend that today (9th April 2018) is the 90th birthday of American musician, singer-songwriter, satirist, and mathematician Tom Lehrer. Although he has retired from theatres of both musical and lecture variety, his songs (and especially the one I’ve selected) remains topical to this day. I’m about to retreat into a bunker to finish marking a batch of coursework so please enjoy the following short tribute and wish Tom Lehrer a very happy 90th birthday!

This entry was posted on April 9, 2018 at 2:59 pm and is filed under mathematics, Music with tags , . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “Tom Lehrer at 90!”

  1. Ted Bunn's avatar
    Ted Bunn Says:
    April 9, 2018 at 3:29 pm

    Lehrer is in a class by himself. It’s amazing that topical songs from over 60 years ago are still relevant, and still funny, today.

    I think that he’s musically as well as verbally clever. Many satirists write new lyrics to existing songs, but his compositions are original. While they’re generally pastiches of other styles, they’re inventive and extremely well-executed pastiches. Check out his rendition of “My Darling Clementine”, as it would be if it had been written by various composers, for instance. Both the Cole Porter beginning and the Gilbert and Sullivan ending are perfect.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b3coO_6MwY

    Reply
  2. Anton Garrett's avatar
    Anton Garrett Says:
    April 13, 2018 at 3:23 pm

    Ennio Morricone will (hopefully) reach 90 on November 10th…

    Reply
  3. Anton Garrett's avatar
    Anton Garrett Says:
    April 22, 2018 at 1:10 pm

    His most apposite work for this blog:

    Reply

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