From the liner notes to An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer, "If, after hearing my songs," he says, wistfully, "just one human being is inspired to say something nasty to a friend, or perhaps to strike a loved one, it will all have been worth the while."
As a singer and a dancer I have loved all his stuff, but a favourite party piece at the christmas do was to sing The Masochism Tango, complete with gestures etc!!. All of them were wonderful and dont forget "We'll all go together when we go" Oh just got back from an eye operation so will now get round to getting something to eat and will be singing all the songs as I go!!
I loved him in my (long lost) student days. There's quite a good selection of his songs on YouTube, including the Periodic Table, a masterpiece of ingenuity.
This brilliant singer/songwriter and mathematician has died aged 97. His cleverly naughty songs were a big feature of my early youth. They're so funny and still are. Such cheerfully dark lyrics. Ah well. Here we go 'sliding down the razor blade of life'