Legendary satirist Tom Lehrer celebrated in new CD/DVD set

This is the Week that Was for Tom Lehrer.

The legendary singer-songwriter, who was politically incorrect before there was such a thing, is the subject of a new CD/DVD set representing the best of one of popular music’s most extraordinary cult careers.

The two-disc The Tom Lehrer Collection (Shout! Factory), which was released last Tuesday, contains 26 choice cuts mostly dating back to the 1950s and '60s and including such classics as "Poisoning Pigeons In The Park" and "The Vatican Rag," and a DVD of rare live concert footage as well as four animated clips to songs written and performed for the 1970s PBS children's series The Electric Company.

Hailed by National Radio Hall of Fame novelty/comedy record programmer Dr. Demento as "the best musical satirist of the twentieth century,” Lehrer, who turned 82 on April 9, earned lasting fame with his first record, Songs By Tom Lehrer. Recorded in an hour-long session in 1953 in Boston--where he taught college math—the album cost $15 to record and $3.50 to buy in its original 10-inch LP format.

It has since been passed down through generations, thanks to such liberal-minded, hysterically atrocious politically-incorrect fare as "The Old Dope Peddler," which honored the beloved neighborhood fellow who went about "spreading joy wherever he goes"; "The Hunting Song," which commemorated the singer's trophy room additions of two game wardens, seven hunters, and a cow; "I Wanna Go Back To Dixie," a sentimental ode to the racist Old South; and "The Wild West Is Where I Want To Be," which yearned for the mushroom clouds of nuclear testing.

"Like a lot of people, I was introduced to Tom by my father," says Jordan Fields, Shout! Factory's director of acquisitions and a compilation producer of The Tom Lehrer Collection. "He had Tom's records in the house when I was growing up."

Fields is a former employee of Rhino Entertainment, which in 2000 released The Remains Of Tom Lehrer, a three-CD box set containing virtually everything Lehrer recorded--most of which was initially issued in three albums' worth of material between 1953 and 1965.

"We love Tom Lehrer, but given that Rhino released the definitive collection, we needed a compelling way to market him," says Fields. "We saw that there were two big holes in the marketplace: a 'best of,' and video."

Fields notes that while there is "scant video of Tom out there," he did discover footage from a 1967 Lehrer concert in Oslo on youtube.

"When you listen to the records you can hear Tom's devilish joy in singing," he says. "But the videos are fun, too, because you see his very engaging twinkle."

But Fields' jaw dropped, he says, when he saw that each youtube clip had thousands of views.

"Tom Lehrer is alive and well in the hearts and minds of his fans, and with those kinds of numbers there had to be new fans," he says. "So we put those clips together and recreated the full concert, and then found fun footage and very cool performances from the 1970s--and a 1998 tribute to Cameron Mackintosh [the British theatrical producer of the Lehrer musical revue Tom Foolery] including [Lehrer's] introduction by Stephen Sondheim, whom he admires enormously."

As for the "best of" part of The Tom Lehrer Collection, the set covers the cultural satires that originally appeared on Songs By Tom Lehrer and its 1959 follow-up More Of Tom Lehrer (notably containing "Poisoning Pigeons In The Park," "The Masochism Tango" and his "The Elements" listing to the tune of Sir Arthur Sullivan's "Major General's Song" from The Pirates of Penzance), and the topical songs from That Was The Year That Was, the 1965 live album of songs written for the news-satirizing TV series That Was The Week That Was (classics including "National Brotherhood Week," "Pollution" and "The Vatican Rag").

"I was always so nervous whenever I spoke with him," continues Fields, referencing Lehrer's derisive vocal tone that gave his songs an even keener edge. "His voice sounds exactly the same, and I was always afraid of sounding stupid. He doesn't tolerate sounding stupid."

Fields says that The Tom Lehrer Collection's track list was chosen by Lehrer himself, and accompanied by the notes he wrote for The Remains Of Tom Lehrer and new ones for the video clips.

"He has politely declined any press requests for this release," adds Fields. "He's happy to say he did his last interview 10 years ago."

Fields was at a loss when his Lehrer-related activities ended.

"I felt sad," he says. "I even wrote to him and told him I'd miss his emails, which were always so funny."

He concludes: "My father isn't alive but he would have gotten quite a kick out of the fact that I worked with Tom Lehrer."

(The Examiner first heard Tom Lehrer's music from his late father's original copy of Songs By Tom Lehrer, and treasures the interviews he did with Lehrer for Billboard.)

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