Tom Lehrer
Tom Lehrer
Thomas Andrew "Tom" Lehreris an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, and mathematician. He has lectured on mathematics and musical theater. He is best known for the pithy, humorous songs he recorded in the 1950s and '60s...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionSongwriter
Date of Birth9 April 1928
CityNew York City, NY
CountryUnited States of America
audience home literate trying
I always prided myself on at least trying to be literate and use the right words, and if the audience didn't get it, then they could go home and look it up.
hands trying steps
Step up and shake the hand Of someone you can't stand, You can tolerate him if you try!
maturity trying bypass
I went from adolescence to senility, trying to bypass maturity.
positive-thinking life-is-like trying
Life is like a sewer what you get out of it depends on what you put into it." It's always seemed to me that this is precisely the sort of dynamic, positive thinking that we so desperately need today in these trying times of crisis and universal brouhaha.
against billion clown joke money program proudest record sending spending waste year
One of the things I'm proudest of is, on my record 'That Was the Year that Was' in 1965, I made a joke about spending $20 billion sending some clown to the moon. I was against the manned space program then, and I'm even more against it now, that whole waste of money.
bush george sort tempted
I'm not tempted to write a song about George W. Bush. I couldn't figure out what sort of song I would write. That's the problem: I don't want to satirise George Bush and his puppeteers, I want to vaporise them.
fit mathematics music notes satisfying
There's something mathematically satisfying about music: notes fit together and harmony and all that. And mathematics has to do with abstractions and making connections.
american-musician communication
If a person feels he can't communicate, the least he can do is shut up about it.
life
Life is like a sewer: what you get out of it depends on what you put into it.
american-musician careful deeds good
Be prepared, and be careful not to do your good deeds when there's no one watching you.
anyone deny oath prepared quite retract
If anyone disagrees with anything I say, I am quite prepared not only to retract it, but also to deny under oath that I ever said it
cabinet found people picked records
The people who were in college in the '50s were my first real audience, and their kids, the people who found my records in the cabinet during their 'Mad 'magazine years picked me up also.
carried creed ideal logical prohibit
The Army has carried the American ideal to its logical conclusion. Not only do they prohibit discrimination on the grounds of race, creed and color, but also on ability.
fewest knew studied
I thought about majoring in Math, Chemistry and English, but Math had the fewest requirements, so I went with it. I knew I wanted to teach, and Math was my field, so I studied Math.