13 ms·
Tom Lehrer has released all of his songs into the public domain
- Konohamaru 4y agoOnly please, remember to always call it "research"!
- MollyRealized 4y agoThe Internet Archive has archived both the sheet music, lyrics, and songs as FLACs, so when the site disappears, it won't disappear.
- changoplatanero 4y agoAccording to Wikipedia he is 94 years old
- pabs3 4y agohttps://tomlehrersongs.com/ https://tomlehrersongs.com/
- nayuki 4y agoPretty good website, but all the downloadable audio files are in MP3 format. Is there any way to get higher quality files, like natively generated FLAC, or lossless rips from released audio CDs?
- DavidPiper 4y agoNot sure if Tom is reading this, but the rar download of "The Remains of Tom Lehrer (Disc 1)" is missing. All the other download links seem fine.
- hum3hum3 4y agoIt is not missing but missspelt https://tomlehrersongs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/trotl1.rar https://tomlehrersongs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/trotl1... On the site I think it is a double L
- p-e-w 4y agoThat's amazing. Is there any precedent for this from an artist of comparable stature?
- neontomo 4y agoNine Inch Nails released their music on What.CD (a music torrenting website), under an alias. Maybe a bit similar. They did it for the arts, very punk-like :)
- voxadam 4y agoTrent Reznor was a member of OiNK[0] but to my knowledge he's never said that he posted any of Nine Inch Nails' music there and he certainly never released any of their music to the public domain. [0] https://www.vulture.com/2007/10/trent_reznor_and_saul_williams.html https://www.vulture.com/2007/10/trent_reznor_and_saul_willia...
- crtasm 4y agohttps://torrentfreak.com/nin-confirms-bittorrent-uploads-080305/ https://torrentfreak.com/nin-confirms-bittorrent-uploads-080... they also had their own tracker: https://torrentfreak.com/nin-launches-bittorrent-tracker-for-new-release-090320/ https://torrentfreak.com/nin-launches-bittorrent-tracker-for...
- neontomo 4y agoI used to be staff at What.CD, so that's where the info comes from. They had several accounts (which I don't think are a big secret actually, they've been very vocal about being pro-torrent), one of which was a random name that the public didn't know about. If I remember correctly, at least one of their albums was released on What.CD before being officially released to the public, or perhaps at the same time. My memory is a bit fuzzy on this.
- 082349872349872 4y agoThe Grateful Dead encouraged taping their shows
- daniel_reetz 4y agoTom Lehrer has some fantastic quotes - if you like dark humor. “Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it.” “If after hearing my songs just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend or perhaps to strike a loved one it will all have been worth the while.” "I feel that if a person has problems communicating the very least he can do is to shut up." And now, perhaps the greatest of them all: "In short, I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs. So help yourselves, and don’t send me any money." Godspeed, Tom, and thank you for your humor and your music!
- Trouble_007 4y agoAn incredible intellect, combined with an amazing wit, and a truly talented performer. - Thanks Tom.
- pdonis 4y ago> “Life is like a piano. What you get out of it depends on how you play it.” There's a better one in An Evening Wasted, attributed to, IIRC, his friend Henry: "Life is like a sewer: what you get out of it depends on what you put into it."
- PixyMisa 4y agoHen3ry. The three is silent.
- MaxBarraclough 4y agoThat was before they took him away to the Massachusetts Home for the Bewildered.
- timoth3y 4y agoA man after my own heart!
- 2000UltraDeluxe 4y agoHe also claimed it to be a Danish saying during a concert in Copenhagen.
- krackers 4y agoGiven that it's released into public domain but site won't remain up indefinitely, someone should probably add it to internet archive collection?
- jh00ker 4y agoI always loved the first few lines[0] of "WE WILL ALL GO TOGETHER WHEN WE GO" because I thought the rhyming of some of the words was so creative and I've (still) never heard it done that way anywhere else: ... funeral ... sooner or L(ater) and ... tragic ... adjec(tives) Listen here [1]. [0] https://tomlehrersongs.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/we-will-all-go-together-when-we-go.pdf https://tomlehrersongs.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/we-wil... [1] https://tomlehrersongs.com/we-will-all-go-together-when-we-go/ https://tomlehrersongs.com/we-will-all-go-together-when-we-g...
- samb1729 4y agoI'm instantly reminded of Eminem when reading your comment. Perhaps his subject material isn't to your tastes, but if you like interesting rhyme schemes I'd argue that his works are top notch! His 1996 song "Infinite" could please your ear, if you'd care to listen :)
- 082349872349872 4y agoPerhaps Mr. B's subject material isn't to your tastes, but if you like rhyme schemes spit in RP, I'd argue that his works are top notch. eg Curtsey for me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY7IjnxmGsE&t=39s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY7IjnxmGsE&t=39s
- MrJohz 4y agoThis stuff is present in a lot of hip-hop. The classic ("your favourite rapper's favourite rapper") is probably MF DOOM. Each line is so full to the brim with rhymes that it almost feels like each syllable matches with either the line before or the line after, and there are lyrics where he's rhyming against Icelandic volcanoes ("Catch a throatful from the fire vocal // With ash and molten glass like Eyjafjallajökull") or scientific chemical names ("One for the money, two for the better green // 3,4-Methylenedioxymethamphetamine"). That said, while DOOM is the obvious example, I'd like to throw a personal recommendation out as well: Ivy Sole is criminally underrated as an artist, especially her lyricism. Lines like "No second coming of Lauryn I got bigger // Hills to climb, no disrespect but it's my time", or the election metaphor later on are clever, but also beautifully smooth and fit in so well with the music.
- cocacola1 4y agoThat's admirable. I wish more artists – whether musician, filmmaker, author, etc. – did this.
- autoexec 4y agoThere was a time when we didn't have to depend on the benevolence of creators and corporations to have works enter the public domain within our lifetimes (if at all). It's amazing when they do, but we should really try to fix that.
- cocacola1 4y agoI agree. I think the 14 + 14 set out in the Copyright Act of 1790 is more than adequate. 14 years of copyright, plus 14 more years if you renew. After that, automatic entry into the public domain.
- nayuki 4y agoI would like to see an exponentially rising price to renew one work's copyright registration. There should be a financial cost and risk/reward balance for withholding a creative work from the public domain for others to reuse. Sample: $0 for the first decade, $1 for the second decade, $10 for the third decade, $100 for the fourth decade, $1k for the fifth decade, $10k for the sixth decade, $100k for the seventh decade, $1M for the eighth decade, $10M for the ninth decade, etc.
- owenfi 4y agoEhhh, that just lets the already rich/famous keep their monopoly on popular culture. Perhaps it needs to be an inverse of how much revenue it's already brought in?
- nayuki 4y agoThe status quo is the extreme that every author gets ~100 years of copyright protection automatically for free. A proposed extreme is to get up to 28 years for free. The problem I see is that under both alternatives mentioned above, there is no way to express the intensity of preference / how badly an author wants protection. Also, authors receive the benefit of copyright protection without paying anything to society. This is why I proposed an escalating cost - the longer the protection, the more you pay. And it's essentially impossible to win against an exponential in the long run. Can Disney really afford to pay $100M per title to renew for the tenth decade? Or $1B per title for the eleventh decade? Or $10B per title for the twelfth decade? And if you don't like these numbers, you can choose whatever initial value and multiplier you want, e.g. $3, $90, $2700, $81000, $243000, etc. In a way, I'm proposing something ideologically similar to quadratic voting, where the more intensely you want your preferred outcome, the more you have to pay to society to vote this way. > Perhaps it needs to be an inverse of how much revenue it's already brought in? This could lead to phony movie accounting though. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIoDfWgbVgU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JIoDfWgbVgU
- IvyMike 4y agoThis is a little strange... the notice on his website says "November 1, 2022", but here's an article (and discussion) from two years ago stating the same thing: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24833683 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24833683
- lproven 4y agoAIUI, 2Y ago he gave away the lyrics. The snag is that some of his songs are set to others' melodies, for instance, Gilbert & Sullivan provided the melody for "the Elements". Now, he is adding the melodies and other rights which he owns.
- skissane 4y agoHis Wikipedia article says: > In 2020, at the age of 92, Lehrer donated all of his lyrics and music written by him to the public domain.[60][61] He followed this on November 1, 2022 with all recording and performing rights of any kind, making all of his music that he has originally composed or performed free for anyone to use.[62] That makes sense. Legally, a recording of a particular performance of a musical work, is a separate copyright from the underlying musical work. Releasing the later into the public domain did not release the former into the public domain, which is why he had to do it separately. Why did 2 years pass between one and the other? Maybe he just didn't fully understand all the legal details involved at first. Or maybe there was some contractual issue (with record labels/etc) he had to sort out, and that blocked putting the recordings into the public domain but not the music/lyrics
- joe5150 4y agoThe note on the website doesn't mention recordings, and I don't think Tom Lehrer necessarily owns the copyright to any given recording that he could commit to the public domain. Also "committing to the public domain" is an idea with various interpretations and legal implications, particularly in an international context. That's why things like CC0 exist, which essentially grant a "license" to works that is as near as possible to being free of copyright even in jurisdictions where there's no legal way to surrender your copyright. I think this update is more of a clarification on those terms rather than a substantial change to the copyright situation of Lehrer's lyrics and music.
- xbar 4y agoThank you Tom Lehrer. For the music, the math, and the comedy and now, the music.
- nocoiner 4y agoFun fact: Tom Lehrer invented the Jell-O shot.
- nayuki 4y ago"The Elements" is the Tom Lehrer song that made the biggest impression on me. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_(song) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elements_(song) , https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcS3NOQnsQM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcS3NOQnsQM There's antimony, arsenic, aluminum, selenium, And hydrogen and oxygen and nitrogen and rhenium, ...
- 082349872349872 4y agoWe'll try to stay serene and calm When Alabama gets the bomb! had obviously been written about the Dixie of 1965, but today still gives chills.
- incone123 4y agoAlabama has been hosting nuclear missiles for many decades. South Africa wants two That's right! One for the black And one for the white
- aebtebeten 4y agoTrue, "Alabama" is even the name of a boomer submarine. But both it, and all the nuke-capable bases (MXF, RSA, etc.) are federal, not state, which has been an important distinction in the past (especially in 1963). In Birmingham they love the governor cf https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_in_the_Schoolhouse_Door https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stand_in_the_Schoolhouse_Door
- bombcar 4y agoI love watching the Hunt for Red October now that “boomer” means “out of touch old person” along with “fully loaded nuclear icbm submarine”
- lb1lf 4y agoEgypt wants to get one, too, just to use on you-know-who. So Israel's getting tense, wants one for self defense "The Lord's our Shepherd", says the psalm - but just in case, we'd better get a bomb!
- leoh 4y agoOh the Protestants hate the Catholics And the Catholics hate the Protestants And the Hindus hate the Muslims And everybody hates the Jews — National Brotherhood Week, https://youtu.be/CgASBVMyVFI https://youtu.be/CgASBVMyVFI
- HaroldIs88 4y ago
- ChrisArchitect 4y agoIs this news from 2 years ago? Or at least early November? Sharing random post from Mastodon instead of url is unclear https://tomlehrersongs.com/ https://tomlehrersongs.com/
- dsr_ 4y agoI am given to understand that Lehrer updated the unlicensing details this November.
- ww520 4y agoThis is amazing. Bless his soul. Watch some companies are going to do copyright claims on his songs on Youtube.
- lp0_on_fire 4y agoquick and dirty powershell to download all the pdfs Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://tomlehrersongs.com/category/songs/ https://tomlehrersongs.com/category/songs/ ` | Select-Object -Expand Links ` | Where-Object { $_.href.EndsWith(".pdf") } ` | ForEach-Object { $path = $_.href $fname = $path.Split('/')[-1] $stuff = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://tomlehrersongs.com$path -o $(Join-Path -Path ./ $fname) }
- kevincox 4y agoI made a mirror of the whole site and have made it available as well. It is a simple wget mirror but it seems to be correct enough that you can browse and play all of the songs. https://dweb.link/ipfs/Qmf21k4uAz2PMnYQUDDHUKPX8787JoyXLbKUzpvPEdFDdg https://dweb.link/ipfs/Qmf21k4uAz2PMnYQUDDHUKPX8787JoyXLbKUz... I'll try to "seed" it for a while but likely will not keep it alive forever. It would be appreciated if others can help keep it alive in case the site goes down. The data is 1.2GiB after deduplication.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- wombatpm 4y agoPoisoning Pigeons in the Park and The Masochism Tango are two of my favorites. Introduce to me in an honors English class by an odder-than-normal English teacher
- bombcar 4y agoThose were the first I heard, found in a Dr Demento tape(s) along with weird Al. Not sure why I found the tapes - I think I was looking for Yoda.
- foepys 4y agoThere is no "public domain" in the EU. Did he cross-license it with CC0 or similar? Otherwise his works are still protected in the EU and he or his estate can still sue for copyright infringement.
- arlcode 4y agoI don't think he did but the text on the website is quite comprehensive and includes language that could (IANAL) be read as doing the same.
- ghaff 4y agoThe various "public domain licenses" don't help you to relinquish rights you can't legally relinquish. IANAL but, as I understand it, the issue in parts of continental Europe (e.g. Germany, I believe) is that there's a concept of "moral rights" related to things like attribution and preserving the integrity of a work that one can't disclaim to various degrees. The concept doesn't exist in common law countries. Legal concepts aside I'm pretty sure a court is going to pretty much go no take-backs although, as a company, I'm probably not going to use the lyrics for marketing/advertising/etc. There's no standard form for placing something in the public domain in the US either but there is a legal concept of "copyright abandonment" which is what probably governs if you place a work in the public domain.
- jl6 4y agoIt would be nice if this inspired something equivalent to The Giving Pledge[0], but for creative content owners. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giving_Pledge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Giving_Pledge
- UberFly 4y agoFrom Wikipedia: Other artists who cite Lehrer as an influence include "Weird Al" Yankovic, whose work generally addresses more popular and less technical or political subjects... Yankovic saw Daniel Radcliffe (who called Lehrer his "hero")perform "The Elements" on The Graham Norton Show, which led to Radcliffe starring in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story.
- ghaff 4y agoMark Russell also had a fairly long-running show on PBS very much in the vein of Tom Lehrer--although not nearly as good overall.
- sriram_malhar 4y agoMy favourite is Wernher Von Braun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjDEsGZLbio https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjDEsGZLbio Thank you Tom Lehrer for all the memories and the laughs, and a biting satire that's still fresh.
- denton-scratch 4y ago> a biting satire I always appreciated the sarcasm. "And this is what he said, on, his way to arma gedd on: So long Mom, I'm off to drop the bomb, so don't wait up for me. But while you swelter Down there in your shelter You can see me, on your TV. So long Mommee, I'm of to get a commie So send me a salami And try to smile somehow. I'll look for you when the war is over An hour-and-a-half from now."
- Joeboy 4y agoThat's great, but I'm wondering whether the statement at https://tomlehrersongs.com/ https://tomlehrersongs.com/ constitutes a legally safe license, in the way something like a CC0 license would? Obviously Tom isn't going to sue anybody, but I'm wondering if a proper copyright lawyer's eyebrows might be raised if you included it in your chain of title docs.
- mgsouth 4y agoOn the albums page, the link for "The Remains of Tom Lehrer (disc 1)" RAR file has a typo. It should be https://tomlehrersongs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/trotl1.rar https://tomlehrersongs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/trotl1... (replace the last lowercase L with 1).
- hawkjo 4y agoThe contents of disc 3 are the same as disc 2, even though the file is named correctly. Is there another link for that one?
- dtgriscom 4y agoI've checked the three downloads pretty carefully, and the file names match what's on Wikipedia (save for some punctuation): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Remains_of_Tom_Lehrer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Remains_of_Tom_Lehrer
- mgsouth 4y agoIn other words, works for us :) The three disc 1-3 .rar downloads are different. The other albumbs are duplicated in the "Remains" set, though.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- hilbert42 4y agoJust wonderful. He's set the example many should follow. I grew up to these songs and it's great to know they're avaliable in perpetuity.
- fghorow 4y ago"Base eight is just like base ten, really... If you are missing two fingers."
- el_don_almighty 4y ago1975 "Is this really appropriate?," my mom to my dad. "It's better than TV," my dad to my mom. My 8-yo self rolling back and forth on the brown shag carpet wearing my pajamas in front of the wooden stereo console, warmed by the glow of the tubes inside, laughing with my dad to the pure comedy gold of Tom Lehrer's voice pouring from the speakers. We didn't have fishing or hunting together, but Dad and I will always have those evenings with Mr. Lehrer and a sip of Balvenie.
- cmsonger 4y agoI wonder how his health is and what life looks like to 94 year old Tom Lehrer. It's sad that people grow old and die. His must surely have been a fascinating life. I hope he's still having fun.
- asddubs 4y agothe link to the remains of tom lehrer (part 1) seems to be incorrect on the download page, the correct one is this: https://tomlehrersongs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/trotl1.rar https://tomlehrersongs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/trotl1...
- SeanLuke 4y agoI fear that this may actually be very bad news. He's also shutting down the website. Tom is 94.
- zajio1am 4y agoWhy not just link the official web: https://tomlehrersongs.com/ https://tomlehrersongs.com/ ?
- leephillips 4y agoWhy link to this social media thing instead of Lehrer’s site with his announcement? https://tomlehrersongs.com/ https://tomlehrersongs.com/
- dtgriscom 4y agoThere's a typo in one link. The RAR download for "The Remains of Tom Lehrer (disc 1)" links to [0]; it should link to [1]. [0]: https://tomlehrersongs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/trotll.rar https://tomlehrersongs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/trotll... [1]: https://tomlehrersongs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/trotl1.rar https://tomlehrersongs.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/trotl1...
- omnibrain 4y agoyes, but when you navigate to the Stream MP3 page, there is a download with the correct link. That's also why wget successfully fetched it for me.
- 33955985 4y agoGrowing up where I did, there seemed to be “math people” and “art people.” Discovering Tom Lehrer on Dr. Demento on late Sunday nights proved to me this distinction was artificial: Music and Math can and do coexist in many people, and the result is often beautiful for the two having mixed.
- 33955985 4y agoThose of you rushing to download before the site goes down —- I’m certain the Internet Archive will have these in perpetuity (or for as long as the IA is around)
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- AlbertCory 4y agoNo one's quoted this yet, so: ============ Be prepared! And be careful not to do Your good deeds when there's no one watching you If you're looking for adventure of a New and different kind And you come across a Girl Scout who is Similarly inclined Don't be nervous, don't be flustered, don't be scared Be prepared!
- vlark 4y agoThe Animaniacs owe so much to Tom.
- taftster 4y ago"Poisoning Pigeons in the Park" is one of our family's all time favorites. It gets my boys laughing every time.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- westcort 4y agoMy favorite is probably also the most famous--"Wernher von Braun". You can listen to that one and all of the others on Tom Lehrer's website here, in a continuous stream: https://locserendipity.com/Lehrer/Lehrer.html https://locserendipity.com/Lehrer/Lehrer.html