TOM LEHRER: WANTED BACK TO PUBLIC LIFE TO WAKE UP PEOPLE

Tom Andrew Lehrer was born on April 9, 1928. He has retired as American musician, professional songwriter, singer, piano player, satirist  and above all: Teacher in mathematics. His humorous songs were recorded in the 1950s and 1960s.

“… I was only 18 years of age. But I did it. I went to his house, I rang the bell and I asked for a meeting  with Tom Lehrer. He accepted my request about a meeting. He is a nice person I recall…”

The story was told during a meal on the cruiser “ Celebrity Constellation”  by a   stranger about a week ago. The main reason for the talk about Tom Lehrer was my quotation from one of his famous songs: “ …we will all go together when we go…”. The ship was in trouble due to bad weather. We did not know about the next harbor for the ship. Anyway the talk with a person whose name I forgot to get made me think about my personal memories connected to Tom Lehrer. For your information only: The cruiser called Celebrity Constellation was inaugurated in 2002. The ship can take about 2,184 guests.

In 1967 the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) transmitted a television programme where Tom Lehrer performed playing piano and sang his own written songs. I was fascinated by the content of his songs. When I came home from travelling I did some research on Tom Lehrer by contacting WIKIPEDIA. With reference to Wikipedia the performance in Norway was recorded on video tape September 10 and aired that autumn. I still remember the performance.

Wikipedia was my main source for further information about Tom Lehrer: Life, career, songs, performances and statements about the reasons for his early retirement from public performances. Anyway I was surprised to see that no information about a Norwegian presentation of a selection of his songs recorded on long playing - full frequency range recording in 1967. The songs selected for the recording were: “ The Marines”, “ My Home Town”, “ So Long, Mom”, “ Pollution”, “ Brotherhood Week”, “ Be Prepared”, “Who’s Next”, “Smut”, “ MLF Lullaby”, “ I Hold Your Hand In Mine”, “ The Wienerschnitzel Waltz”, and  “ We Will All Go Together When We Go”.

The songs were all translated into Norwegian by August Mauritzen. Songs were performed by Sølvi Wang and Ola B. Johannessen.

For your information only: Tom Lehrer is 90 years of age. He wrote songs contenting issues that we need to evaluate today too. He might be regarded as an old man but his mind and songs are young and topical even today – and that is sad because we should have made some changes in the fields mentioned in his songs- welcome back Tom! We need you more than ever!