Music Pick: Tom Lehrer

Tom Lehrer (b. 1928) spent a quiet half century teaching mathematics at Harvard and UC Santa Barbara. But his night job was most cool, being simply the most revered political and social satirist of the 20th century. This classically trained pianist who quickly converted to musical theater, entered Harvard at 17 in 1945. He would entertain his friends with his ribald and scatological parodies and satires such as "Fight fiercely Harvard", which urged on the effete Harvard intellectuals to triumph in football. His stichk became so popular he invested $15 to cut a album entitled "Songs by Tom Lehrer". Only able to sell his 400 copies on campus as radio stations wouldn't touch his controversial stuff, Lehrer skyrocketed to world wide fame on word of mouth testimonial alone. He eventually toured America and overseas performing his cracked vision of life before adoring audiences. He abandoned his career about 1978 and retired from academia 20 years later. Rumor his it that at 85, he still hangs out at the UC Santa Barbara campus; maybe even regaling locals with his 50 song repertoire. The feature "Elements" demonstrates his awesome singing and pianism. I've only heard one person even try to match Lehrer on "Elements" (the actor who plays Harry Potter) and he botched it. Try this song, Bennett.