Tom Lehrer - The Remains of Tom Lehrer
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Free Music Notes for The Remains of Tom Lehrer
Free Music Review: Be Prepared - TO LAUGH!
Hit: 5 Stars
How can you describe Tom Lehrer's work to someone who has never encountered it before?
Satirical? Yes, but only partially.
Biting? Always, but sometimes with a touch of silliness.
Wicked? Definately, but with a twinkle in the eye.
Perhaps the one word to descrobe Tom Lehrer's work is, quite simply, funny.
Having discovered Lehrer through a chance hearing of his most famous song, Poisoning Pigeons in the Park, I became hooked. This box-set presents all of Lehrer's recordings along with a fantastically produced hard-backed book chronicalling just about all of the information there is on the man (he's a very private individual) as well as all of the lyrics.
Taking each of the three discs individually I shall start with the second one. Disc Two features Lehrer's two original recordings from 1959 and 1960 - 24 tracks in all. Each song is a gem but standouts include the aforementioned 'Pigeons' as well as The Hunting Song, My Home Town, Oedipus Rex and The Masochism Tango. The titles themselve point at the very political-INcorrectness of the content! These recordings are live and include the bridging introductions and gags (some of which are even funnier than the songs) and are boosted greatly by the presence of a very receptive audience.
Disc Two is virtually the same set of songs as Disc Two but without the audience and dialogue. These versions were recorded in a studio and suffer badly without the rapport that Lehrer has with the live audience. The only reason to listen to Disc One over Disc Two is for the two extra tracks slipped in at the end. Both I Got It From Agnes (how you interpret this song shows how dirty your mind is!) and That's Mathematics (a riff on That's Entertainment) are little treasures well worth re-visiting.
Disc Three is a mixed affair that is never short of genius. The first 14 tracks are Lehrer's work featured on the US version of That Was The Week That Was. These are all performed with an audience and bridging dialogue and are just as good, if not better than those on Disc Two. Classics here include Smut (my personnal favourite from the whole collection), Pollution and The Vatican Rag (which has the assembled audience in stitches!). The titles here rightly suggest that more satire is apparent in this set of songs than the earlier work. This slightly dates the content, but not so much as to render it redundant. Also on Disc Three are four of Lehrer's earlier works (from Disc Two) with full orchestration instead of the usual self-played piano. These are wonderful to hear, but still lack the audience reaction. Also here are songs that Lehrer wrote for The Electric Company TV show (funny, educational and yet, still a little subversive!) and a few little oddities including I'm Spending Hanukkah in Santa Monica (a Jewish 'Christmas' song) and Selling Out (another personnal favourite).
By the end of the third disc I was a little depressed that this comic genius had not made any more recordings. We must be satisfied with what he has left us, and look at the quality not quantity. Start again as soon as you're finished listening, these songs have great 'repeat appeal'. The only other recording of Tom Lehrer's work available (if it still is available) is the cast album of Tom Foolery, a revue of Lehrer's songs from 1980, performed by a cast of four and produced by (a young) Cameron Mackintosh. Although Lehrer himself does not appear on this recording, the cast work well with the material and the inclusion of a live audience helps too. I own a copy of this recording and treasure it.
Lehrer's final (to date) public appearance was as part of the Cameron Mackintosh celebration Hey, Mr Producer! Here he performed Poisoning the Pigeons in the Park and here is where I took an interest in the rest of his work. This performance is available on DVD, video and CD.
Free Music Review: An irrelevant omnibus of dubious social import...
Hit: 5 Stars
...or at least that's how Tom Lehrer, with his customary self-deprecating wit, might describe it. To his fans, however ("all three of them," he might add), this boxed set is, to quote Christopher Walken in "True Romance," "as good as it's gonna get, and it won't ever get that good again." If you are the sort of Pavlovian Lehrer enthusiast for whom the name "Tom Lehrer" calls forth such phrases as "pride of my record collection," "would even buy a bag of cow offal if it were a Tom Lehrer bag," or "what exactly DID the Sunday school teacher and the kindly Parson Brown do together?", you obviously must buy this set. In fact, you probably have already bought this set, played it an unhealthy number of times, and are unlikely to be reading this review anyway, since you hardly need to be sold on the myriad wonders of this collection. (Preaching to the choir is not only fun, it's easy.)
If you are the casual sort of fan who already owns the four available Lehrer CDs (the live albums and the Rhino collection of his two studio albums), you must then ask yourself if you desperately need the handful of previously unreleased songs, such as a few "Electric Company" ditties and a couple of newer tunes. If not, you may well opt to stick with your current Lehrer collection and eschew the repackaging, though you risk being snubbed by the Rabid Tom Lehrer Completists of America (twelve members at last count, of whom Lehrer himself is steadfastly not one).
If, however, you are new to the musical stylings of Tom Lehrer -- staggering thought, that -- there is no better place to start, and finish, than here. It contains well-nigh all things Lehrer, though I must wonder if Rhino will wait until Lehrer excuses himself from this plane of existence and then release "The Really Truly Complete Definitive Tom Lehrer, Really, And We Mean It This Time" boxed set. The thick supplementary book itself is worth the price, containing rare photos, complete lyrics, the original liner notes of all the albums, excerpts from an Internet interview, even "Mad Magazine" visualizations of "The Hunting Song" and "The Wild West Is Where I Wanna Be."
One final note on the admitted repetitive nature of much of the collection. Yes, roughly a third of the set can be seen as simply "live versions" of the studio recordings, or vice versa. Personally, I prefer the live versions, which contain Lehrer's pre-song witticisms and tend to be more animated than the lonely-sounding studio versions. But I'm happy to have the studio recordings as well, and any set that strives for completeness must risk a certain amount of redundancy. The important thing is that it's all here.
Now to the question of whether Lehrer devotees who already own the other four discs should now part with them, perhaps donating them to a local library or to unenlightened friends, thus spreading the Word of Tom and ensuring that he irrevocably warps the minds of that many more heretofore productive citizens. The alternative choice is to keep the discs for oneself and gloat over them. I still haven't decided yet. But by all means, if this review has appealed to you on any level (shameless or otherwise), your decision to purchase the boxed set is by now long overdue; put it off no longer, and go click on the funny little button.
Free Music Review: Lavish treatment of this generation's greatest satirist
Hit: 5 Stars
Tom Lehrer is one of the greatest anomalies in popular music: he burst on the scene for a dozen years with five albums (two of which where essentially live versions of studio recordings), then retired into academia, not performing in public for decades. To further discourage any chance of his becoming popular, his song medium was "novelty" parody and social satire, both of which tend to have short shelf lives.Despite all this, Lehrer's pointed wit has remained popular among a small but passionate group who appreciate brilliant, cutting comments about the hypocrisies of our race relations ("National Brotherhood Week"), collegiate life ("Bright College Days"), and parodies of every song type.
This box set combines all of Lehrer's previously released albums, plus a smattering of bonus tracks, including songs written for the children's show "Electric Company" (who would've thought that the man who wrote "Masochism Tango" and "Vatican Rag" would be a good educational influence on children?)
The real bonus of this handsome box set, however, are the (hard-cover bound!) lavishly illustrated liner notes, which include an interview, notes, complete lyrics, and rare photos. Rhino did its homework on this one, and it shows. It would've been nice to hear some of the real obscurities ("Physical Revue" or the "Subway Song"), but I guess those would entail another studio session.
There are only a handful of novelty songwriters who deserve this kind of treatment, and none with the relatively limited output that Lehrer has. Congratulations, Rhino for a beautiful package on one of the seminal performers of this age.
Free Music Review: This about covers it.
Hit: 5 Stars
I think that there is a misconception regarding the nature of humor in the recent past. When one considers the silly (though often gut-splitting funny) parody of Allen Sherman, one assumes that he largely defines what passed for funny when the mic. was turned off 40 years ago.Tom Lehrer started writing his songs a little earlier than Sherman, though comparison seems inevitible. Where Sherman wrote for the obvious laugh, Lehrer sruck a nerve, thus limiting his audience, but perhaps leaving a larger mark.
Some of the topics are now dated, songs like "What Ever Became of Hubert," mean little to me.
But Lehrer managed to not only be self mocking, but to capitalize on issues that no one else dared touch. So Long Mom,(A Song for World War III) strikes a painful nerve, one that begs reminding, "He sang this song during the heart of the cold war!"
The song is both hilarious, and dreadful, as Lehrer breaks into a wacky ragtime fill between verses, just after singing about cities going up in flame.
It is interesting that Lehrer has the legacy he does. His audience was limited (Who wanted to hear an MIT professor sing parody songs in front of a piano?) and his topics both intellectual and mocking. Carrot Top this guy wasn't.
First and foremost, this is great comedy. Secondly, this collection captures and the mood and angst of a very strange time in America's past. Thirdly, the liner notes and completeness of this collection spare you the trouble of collecting all the works independently. This is a great collection for a long drive. After a while, Lehrer ends up being an old friend - but the kind of friend that never really cuts you any slack.
Free Music Review: Americas great musical satirist
Hit: 5 Stars
The complete Tom Lehrer oeuvre is to be found in this outstanding box set. For the uninitiated, Tom Lehrer was a recording artist, whose incredible wit and singular ability to comment on politics of the time with a hummable melody is unparalleled. Contained within are his first two studio recordings, which allows the listener to focus on the clever melodies and wordplay, but the real gems are his three live recordings where audience reaction to Lehrer's outrageousness and his command of a crowd are on fine display. College fight songs ("Fight Fiercely, Harvard"), folk music ("The Irish Ballad," "Clementine"), and even the Boy Scouts ("Be Prepared) are all fair game. Lehrer is at his finest when creating a melody that is pleasant and enjoyable and then putting in lyrics that horrify the listener. (Ex: "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" which is simply one of the funniest songs ever.) Included are some recordings that Lehrer did with a full orchestra, that work very well (Although Lehrer himself was not totally comfortable recording them).There are some relatively new cuts that Lehrer did in the 90's and a special treat for those of you who grew up in the 70's, Lehrer's songs for The Electric Company, which are still a lot of fun, but this is basically everything that Lehrer did during his relatively brief musical career, before returning to academia. I discovered Lehrer's work in the 70's and am glad that this set exists for my listening pleasure. (Now that I've written all these nice things, Mr. Lehrer, can I go home now? Please?)