While poking around the net looking for interesting public domain songs I came across the website of an artist by the name Tom Lehrer, - who is someone I've never heard of (despite the fact that he had been internationally known back in the day). The first thing you see when you enter his site is a clear statement that he has put all his material into the public domain for people to do whatever they want with...
Songs and Lyrics
by Tom Lehrer
DISCLAIMER STATEMENT
I, Tom Lehrer, individually and as trustee of the Tom Lehrer Trust 2007, hereby grant the following permissions: All copyrights to lyrics or music written or composed by me have been permanently and irrevocably relinquished, and therefore such songs are now in the public domain. ..... In short, I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs. So help yourselves, and don’t send me any money. (Excerpt)
Well that's pretty interesting I thought, but the who the hell is/was Tom Lehrer? I had never heard of him but evidently he was quite famous, but before we take a look at him, one article about him mentions the interesting fact that in the US there is no legit way to voluntary way for an artist to put their own copyrighted works into the public domain.. But Tom Leher did it anyway ..
Tom Lehrer sets his music free, releasing it into the public domain
https://www.hypebot.com/tom-lehrer-sets-his-music-free-releasing-it-into-the-public-domain/
"Of course, as we’ve discussed for years, there is no official way under US copyright law to put works in the public domain. The best you can do is effectively make clear that you are giving up any rights to enforce your copyrights, which is what Lehrer has done here. It’s a shame that US law does not allow for an official public domain dedication, but maybe one day that will happen."
That tidbit is interesting in itself, but to discover who Tom Leher was I read this rather long and fascinating BuzzFeed article, which I truncated down to the key excerpts here:
Tom Lehrer sets his music free, releasing it into the public domain https://www.buzzfeed.com/bensmith/tom-lehrer?ref=hypebot.com
Tom Lehrer is celebrated for his wit and music, but also for an amazing contribution to public culture – making sure that his works are in the public domain.
Nearly 25 years ago, Jeff Morris, a high school senior in Jeffersonville, Ind., ... had been assigned a first-person interview on the subject of censorship, and Lehrer seemed obvious. ... Many of Lehrer’s fans thought the artist might be dead, ....
“Is this Tom Lehrer?” Morris asked over the phone, working to hide his nervousness.
“Yes,” replied a voice some 1,000 miles away.
“The Tom Lehrer who teaches math?”
“Yes.”
“The Tom Lehrer that did some records in the '50s and '60s?”
“Yes.”
Morris apologetically explained his school assignment, .... The retired performer listened patiently to his request.
"Rather than talk to me for very long, just make up anything you want and I won't deny it.”
.... he’s alive and well at 86. He’s a hard — but not quite impossible — man to reach, and an even harder one to engage in conversation. ... an artist’s strange and indifferent relationship to his own legacy. ...
Lehrer was also a true prodigy. ... Lehrer entered Harvard’s freshman class in the summer, he was 15 years old. ... By 1954 — when he was trying to avoid the draft by working for a defense contractor — he had sold 10,000 records. He had also quickly dissolved Lehrer Music, ... He gave up and shipped off to Arlington in 1955, .... (He is believed, during that time, to have invented vodka Jell-O shots.) By the end of the decade, he had sold 370,000 records. .... He began performing internationally in 1959, .... Yet despite his enormous success, global popularity, .., it was exactly at this time that Lehrer first told Robinson he wanted to stop performing ... In July 1959, Time featured Lehrer alongside Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl as the avatars of a new “sick” comedy, which it played as the symptom of a sick society ..... In 2000, the New York Times’ Todd Purdum reported that Lehrer was still playing around with the occasional political tune, including one, on the subject of late-term abortion, called “Bye-Bye, Baby.” ....
In 1971 ... The University of California at Santa Cruz ... Lehrer was hired to teach a musical theater class in the history department, though he would eventually teach math at the university as well ... “He created an enormously positive experience for students,” Tromba said. “I don't know of a single person who didn't love him." ...
“He was one of the most private people I’ve ever met,” said another former student, Jamey Harvey, adding that it was an unspoken rule in Lehrer’s class that you didn’t mention his career as a performer. “It would have felt very intrusive to ask, between the warnings we got from our friends and the body language you got when you asked him about it. My sense was he thought it was embarrassing.”
... Erik Meyn, a Norwegian who manages the Tom Lehrer Wisdom Channel on YouTube, ... originally posted content to the channel without Lehrer’s permission and called him from overseas in December 2008 to apologize, ...
TI: Well, you see, I'm fine with that channel.
EM: You're very kind. But my question is: Who in your family will take care of your copyright and your songs in the distant future?
TL: I don't have a family.
EM: OK, but what do you think will happen to the channel and your songs? And if you have someone who will act on your behalf, could you give them my name in case they'd want the channel taken down?
TL: Yes, but there's no need to remove that channel.
EM: I was just wondering what will happen in the future, because you're certainly going to continue to sell records.
TL: Well, I don't need to make money after I'm dead. These things will be taken care of.
EM: I feel like I gave away some of your songs to public domain without even asking you, and that wasn't very nice of me.
TL: But I'm fine with that, you know.
EM: Will you establish any kind of foundation or charity or something like that?
TL: No, I won't. They're mostly rip-offs.
Jeff Morris, .., has stayed in touch with Lehrer since their initial contact in 1990. ... In 2011, Morris was rummaging through the Sparks Street basement, and ... were two boxes marked “masters.” They were, to Morris, “the holy grail.” These were the original recordings of the 1959 album ...Morris offered to help Lehrer remix them from half-inch tapes into stereo recordings.
Well, why don't you just take them with you?" Lehrer said.
“I was like, 'Are you kidding?! These are the master copies!'" Morris recalled. “I was just trying to reassure him, I'll be very careful with them, I won't let them fall in the wrong hands, I'm not going to distribute copies to anyone without your permission.”
“I don't care!” Lehrer told him. “They're not worth anything to me.”
It’s tempting to see such profound apathy to one's own work — .. — as a poignant mystery. What’s missing from Lehrer’s story that could explain it? .... the real answer might be the simplest: It's easier to not care. Music and math had come easy, and Lehrer was able to become a star without caring much. ...
- "The Elements": A list of all chemical elements set to a Gilbert and Sullivan tune. It remains his most famous piece.
- "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park": Known for its signature dark, "sick" humor.
- "The Masochism Tango": A fiery parody of tango music focusing on a painful romance.
- "The Vatican Rag": A controversial ragtime-style song mocking the Catholic Church.
And others.
I played a lot of his songs (including the ones you listed) on Artisan Radio while I was on Bowen Island. One of the great satirists.
I played a lot of his songs (including the ones you listed) on Artisan Radio while I was on Bowen Island. One of the great satirists.
Was that prior to, or after 2007?
Not that Lehrer would have cared, nor do I!
Reimagined:
Oh by the way his song had been inspired by the City of Boston's actual efforts to control pigeon populations using strychnine-laced corn during the 1950s.
Didn't really matter, as I was licensed at the time.