Jango Song Of The Day-Tom Lehrer

Artist:Tom Lehrer
Song:Poisoning Pigeons In The Park
Album:Songs & More Songs By Tom Lehrer





So on one hand Tom Lehrer wrote and performed satirical political songs and on the other hand he was a mathematics professor at Harvard. He's probably best known for his stint on the mid-60s TV show That Was The Week That Was and owes a lot to DJ Dr. Demento for keeping his music fresh. He was born Apr. 9, 1928 in New York City. Even as a child he performed parodies of popular songs. In 1944, he went to study mathematics at Harvard. He started performing on campus and became so popular that he had to self record and press an album. They sold out and he kept making more. Lehrer was in the US Army from 1955-57. In 1959, he recorded another album called More Of Tom Lehrer featuring Poisoning Pigeons In The Park. It's this jaunty little song about killing pigeons. Lehrer continued to perform his songs but he always returned to Harvard as a math professor. Lehrer reached the mainstream when he was a regular on the 1964 NBC TV show That Was The Week That Was. His songs had become more politically overt and he would frequently butt heads with network censors. It also resulted in a record contract with Reprise Records. Some of the songs have aged better than others but you can check them out on this 1998 Rhino comp. Lehrer quit performing and went back to Harvard because he didn't enjoy performing or touring. Lehrer's music has been kept alive by DJ Barry "Dr. Demento" Hansen and his popular Los Angeles radio show and novelty song CDs. He has occasionally resurfaced over the years but mostly taught at the University Of California, Santa Cruz until his retirement in 2001. He also wrote songs for the PBS kids TV show The Electric Company as a favour to his friend songwriter Joe Raposo. And he participated in a stage show about his music called Tom Foolery. Here's Tom Lehrer performing Poisoning Pigeons In The Park Norway 1967.