4 ms·
A year and a half ago, an actor-singer friend of mine and I decided to give a concert of our personal favorite Tom Lehrer songs. Turnout was tremendous. The bul
by thirteenfingers 9y ago
A year and a half ago, an actor-singer friend of mine and I decided to give a concert of our personal favorite Tom Lehrer songs. Turnout was tremendous. The bulk of the audience was of that age where they would have been in high school or college when they first heard him, but there were plenty of older and younger people too. It's fantastic how his songs continue to resonate with people after so long.
The problem with performing Tom Lehrer's music nowadays is that your potential audience basically falls into two groups: those that know about Tom Lehrer, and know all the intros and lyrics by heart already, so they don't laugh quite as much anymore; and those who don't know about Tom Lehrer and don't get his humor.
- ghaff 9y agoSome of the humor is pretty timeless. But there's a lot where the political references will either make no sense at all or they're just not as funny absent the context of the time.
- IIAOPSW 9y agoI found his nuclear war songs (We all go together, So long mom) have become politically relevant again.
- doktrin 9y agoI learned about Tom Lehrer through my parents, and lacked some of the context necessary to really enjoy some of his songs like MLF lullaby, whatever became of hubert, Alma, poisoning pidgeons in the park, etc - all of which deal with historical figures or events that have largely faded from public consciousness. Hence, the songs I enjoyed as a child were ones that felt relatable and applicable at the time - and those (unfortunately?) still feel broadly relevant today : "Who's next?" - nuclear proliferation "Send the marines" - US military intervention "national brotherhood week" - race relations "pollution"