Famous People Born in 1928
Music: Tom Lehrer was an SOB
Back in the day … (1970s) I was a member in a singing group at Yale, known as the Society of Orpheus and Bacchus. We were affectionatly nicknamed the SOBs. We had a masterful song writer (David Bass, Yale ’75) and a terrific choreographer and soloist tenor (Miles Leverett, Yale ’76) in our group, so the music was of particularly high quality for an undergraduate a cappella singing group.
At the same time we had a nice selection of both Yale Glee Club songs and baudy college songs. One of our favorites was a riff off the senior class men-only group, named the Whiffenpoofs. A particular favorite was Bright College Days (or Daze, as we spelled it – lyrics below) by the Harvard satirist, Tom Lehrer. (Plus, any time we could spoof on the Whiffs was a win in the college singing tally count.) We picked up a lot of Lehrer songs over the years; they had laughter and audience appeal written all over them (When You Are Old and Gray, for example – lyrics below). And his ribald sense of humor matched our own. We felt that Lehrer might have been one of us if he had attended Yale, though deep down he may have wished he were a Whiff. His songs were just the right tone of irreverence we wanted to uphold in the SOBs. So, at heart, he WAS ONE OF US.
Tom Lehrer, thank you for your gifts to us. We miss you already.
Thomas Lehrer (1928-2025)
Tom Lehrer (born April, 1928) was an American singer-songwriter, satirist, pianist, and mathematician. He lectured on mathematics and musical theater. In the course of his writing he was famous for lampooning marriage, politics, racism and the Cold War.
Before attending college, Lehrer graduated from the Loomis Chaffee School in Windsor, Connecticut. As an undergraduate student at Harvard University, he began to write comic songs to entertain his friends, including Fight Fiercely, Harvard (1945). Those songs later became ‘The Physical Revue’ in a joking reference to a leading scientific journal, The Physical Review. Influenced mainly by musical theater, his style consisted of parodying then-current forms of popular song. For example, his appreciation of list songs led him to set the names of the chemical elements to the tune of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Major-General’s Song”. [1]
A Harvard prodigy (Lehrer had earned a math degree from the institution at age 18), Tom soon turned his very sharp mind to old traditions and current events. His songs included “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park,” “The Old Dope Peddler” (set to a tune reminiscent of “The Old Lamplighter”), “Be Prepared” (in which he mocked the Boy Scouts) and “The Vatican Rag,” in which Lehrer, an atheist, poked at the rites and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church. (Sample lyrics: “Get down on your knees, fiddle with your rosaries. Bow your head with great respect, and genuflect, genuflect, genuflect.”)
Accompanying himself on piano, he performed the songs in a colorful style reminiscent of such musical heroes as Gilbert and Sullivan and Stephen Sondheim, the latter a lifelong friend. Lehrer was often likened to such contemporaries as Allen Sherman and Stan Freberg for his comic riffs on culture and politics and he was cited by Randy Newman and “Weird Al” Yankovic among others as an influence. [2]
Inspired by the success of his performances of his songs, he paid for some studio time to record an album, Songs By Tom Lehrer, which he sold by mail order. Self-published and unpromoted, the album, which included the macabre (I Hold Your Hand In Mine), the mildly risqué (Be Prepared), and the mathematical (Lobachevsky), became a success via word of mouth. With a cult hit, he embarked on a series of concert tours and released a second album, which came in two versions: the songs were the same but More Songs by Tom Lehrer was studio-recorded, while An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer was recorded live in concert.
Lehrer passed away in July 2025 at the age of 97.
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BRIGHT COLLEGE DAYS
words and music by Tom Lehrer
Bright College Days, oh, carefree days that fly,
To thee we sing with our glasses raised on high.
[Those wearing glasses raise them up above heads.]
Let’s drink a toast as each of us recalls
Ivy-covered professors in ivy-covered halls.
Turn on the spigot,
Pour the beer and swig it,
And gaudeamus igit – ur.
Here’s to parties we tossed,
To the games that we lost.
(We shall claim that we won them some day.)
To the girls young and sweet,
To the spacious back seat
Of our roommate’s beat-up Chevrolet.
To the beer and benzedrine,
To the way that the dean
Tried so hard to be “pals” with us all.
To excuses we fibbed,
To the papers we cribbed
From the genius who lived down the hall.
(**) To the tables down at Mory’s (wherever that may be) Let us drink a toast to all we love the best. We shall sleep through all the lectures and cheat on the exams, And we’ll pass — and be forgotten with the rest. Soon we’ll be out amid the cold world’s strife. Soon we’ll be sliding down the razor blade of life. But as we go our sordid separate ways, We shall ne’er forget thee, Thou golden college days. Hearts full of youth, Hearts full of truth, Six parts gin to one part vermouth. (**)
The next four lines are set to the tune of “The Whiffenpoof Song”
(words by Meade Minnegerode & George S. Pomeroy, music by
Tod B. Galloway). The song is in the public domain.
————————————————————————–
WHEN YOU ARE OLD AND GRAY
words and music by Tom Lehrer
Since I still appreciate you,
Let’s find love while we may.
Because I know I’ll hate you
When you are old and gray.
So say you love me here and now,
I’ll make the most of that.
Say you love and trust me,
For I know you’ll disgust me
When you’re old and getting fat.
An awful debility,
A lessened utility,
A loss of mobility
Is a strong possibility.
In all probability
I’ll lose my virility
And you your fertility
And desirability,
And this liability
Of total sterility
Will lead to hostility
And a sense of futility,
So let’s act with agility
While we still have facility,
For we’ll soon reach senility
And lose the ability. (***)
Your teeth will start to go, dear,
Your waist will start to spread.
In twenty years or so, dear,
I’ll wish that you were dead.
I’ll never love you then at all
The way I do today.
So please remember,
When I leave in December,
I told you so in May.
(***) additional ,bridge, written for
TOMFOOLERY and inserted here:
While enjoying our compatibility,
I am cognizant of its fragility,
And I question the advisability
Of relying on its durability.
You’re aware of my inflexibility
And my quintessential volatility
And the total inconceivability
Ofmy showing genuine humility.
Though your undeniable nubility
May excuse a certain puerility,
Your alleged indispensability
Underestimates my versatility,
And your boyish irresponsibility
And what now is charming juvenility
Will in time lose their adorability
And appear much more like imbecility.
Henry E. Hooper 