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. All of my songs that have never been copyrighted, having been available for free for so long, are now also in the public domain. In other words, I have abandoned, surrendered and disclaimed all right, title and interest in and to my work and have injected any and all copyrights into the public domain.
The permission granted includes all lyrics which I have written to music by others, although the music to such parodies, if copyrighted by their composers, are of course not included without permission of their copyright owners. The translated songs on this website may be found on YouTube in their original languages.
Performing and recording rights to all of my songs are included in this permission. Translation rights are also included.
In particular, permission is hereby granted to anyone to set any of these lyrics to their own music, or to set any of this music to their own lyrics, and to publish or perform their parodies or distortions of these songs without payment or fear of legal action.
Some recording, movie, and television rights to songs written by me are merely licensed non-exclusively by me to recording, movie, or TV companies. All such rights are now released herewith and therefore do not require any permission from me or from Maelstrom Music, which is merely me in another hat, nor from the recording, movie, or TV companies involved.
In short, I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs.
So help yourselves, and don’t send me any money.
NOTICE:
THIS WEBSITE WILL BE SHUT DOWN AT SOME DATE IN THE NOT TOO DISTANT FUTURE, SO IF YOU WANT TO DOWNLOAD ANYTHING, DON’T WAIT TOO LONG.
It’s sad that these things will eventually be lost to centralization and digital aging. Make physical copies as well. How long does the USB standard last?
Think about the music that has been lost to time/death/natural disaster/RIAA
> As a souvenir for [his graduate student friends], Lehrer decided in 1953 to make a record of the songs he had written at Harvard. He recorded Songs by Tom Lehrer in one session at Trans Radio studios in Boston on a 10-inch LP.. bought the rights to the record from Trans Radio, and began selling it by mail order.. By 1954.. he had sold 10,000 records.. By the end of the decade, he had sold 370,000 records.
Sounds like maybe he self-published: "All such rights are now released herewith and therefore do not require any permission from me or from Maelstrom Music, which is merely me in another hat"
As sad as today is, the one ray of sunshine here is that Tom Lehrer’s obit was written so long ago (and saved for the day it would be needed), that no one updated it with the subsequent revelation that his work at the Atomic Energy Commission was actually a cover story for his far more sensitive work at the fledgling National Security Agency.
Seeing the New York Times publish wrong out-of-date information has been funny since Judith Miller.
GEO: As a mathematician did you ever make any brilliant discoveries?
TOM LEHRER: Oh,nonono. I have no desire to extend the frontier of human knowledge; retract them, if anything. I like to teach it and I like to think about it, but that's about it.
I loved Lehrer growing up- my parents had his record "That Was the Week That Was" which I think is his finest work. Anyway, when I went to college (UCSC), I took his 'Nature of Math' course, which was quite enjoyable. He was a great presenter, I learned all sorts of neat stuff like the the quartic factoring challenge and the pigeonhole principle/birthday paradox (at the time, I didn't know much about hash tables and didn't make the connection).
I almost ended up TA'ing his class the next year but I had to focus on my undergraduate thesis instead. I would have loved to get to know him better, as his sense of humor was incredible.
I also had Ralph Abraham- a chaos theory guy and psychonaut who taught hist class (Nature of Math) in a natural amphitheater- at points, I could almost picture him wearing a toga, lecturing us on greek math.
Tom Lehrer has been my go-to source of acerbic wit and brilliant satire since I first encountered him when attending the Norwegian University of Tecnology and Science; a group I joined there held Lehrer in high esteem and I, too, was blown away by how timeless a lot of his songs were; a lot of satire ages very quickly, but chances are my unborn grandchildren will laugh hysterically to 'Who's Next?' or 'Wernher von Braun' after doing the mid-21st century equivalent of googling to find out who WvB was, of course.
Godspeed, Tom. This has been a rough week - three of the heroes of my formative years have checked out of existence - Lehrer, Ozzy and author Ingvar Ambjørnsen. Sigh. Who's next?
Ha, that’s funny! I got my PhD from NTNU, but never actually noticed that in English it becomes NUTS… NTNU is a Norwegian acronym for Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet.
Back in the day when the Internet was still full of whimsy, the computer club at my alma mater had acquired nuts.edu.
I still have a T-shirt somewhere proudly sporting the domain name under the NTNU (Norwegian abbreviation for Norwegian University of Tecnology and Science) logo, slightly modified - the real logo is a circle bounded by a rounded square; the T-shirt has a hazelnut standing in for the circle.
> Reflecting on his bicoastal life in a 1981 interview for Newsday, he said he planned to keep his Massachusetts home “until my brain turns completely to Jell-O, at which time I will of course move to California full time.”
To think he is only a couple years younger than Mel Brooks.
> Lehrer once stated that he invented the Jello shot during this time, as a means of circumventing the base's ban on alcoholic beverages.[18]
18. Boulware, Jack (April 19, 2000). "That Was the Wit That Was". SF Weekly. Archived from the original on November 28, 2018. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
Today is probably a good day to make Jell-O without alcohol, for the kids, though I might have some explaining to do.
Some years ago they asked me to have Jell-O, and - thinking of Lehrer - I replied that it's adult only, as you make it with alcohol. Much to my surprise that explanation stuck - and they never had Jell-O so far.
"In German, oder Englisch, I know how to count down Und I'm learning Chinese!" - as relevant as ever. Maybe less so German and more matrix multiplication
In "An Evening Waster With Tom Lehrer" he chats a little between songs and tells a short story about someone who becomes a doctor: "He soon became a specialist, specializing in diseases of the rich. He was therefore able to retire at an early age".
"Diseases of the rich" has always seemed like a useful metaphor for one way to decide on what product you are going to build. Does it heal a "disease" of the "rich"?
His comments between songs are at least as funny as the songs themselves. For many years I thought that recordings only existed of those comments for An Evening Wasted and That Was The Year That Was. Then I discovered The Remains of Tom Lehrer, a 3 CD set that includes, not only the original Songs By Tom Lehrer (straight off the 10 inch LP), but also a live recording of the same songs from a concert, with comments between the songs! (This set also has studio recordings of the songs from An Evening Wasted, done before the live concert recording.)
Just to give a taste, before he even plays the first song in the concert version of Songs By Tom Lehrer, he gives a biographical introduction of himself, as though he were a toastmaster or an impresario. Here's how it starts (at least as much as I can capture it with just typing):
"Endowed by nature with perhaps the most glorious baritone voice ever to be heard on an American stage since the memorable concert debut in 1835 of Millard Fillmore; endowed also with twelve incredibly agile fingers..."
For a software person, you should heal a "disease" of the many if you want to maximise money, as they scale better than almost anything else. But for a doctor, who can only treat a limited number of patients, you should spend your time treating rich patients if you want to maximise money.
Depends on willingness to pay - Even if your cost per customer is 0 maximising profit would mean that it’s better (for you) to sell 10 licences for £1,000,000 a pop to rich customers who really need the service rather than 500,000 licences for £1. It’s a shame because those 500,000 miss out on your product even though it would cost you nothing if they were to use it. This is where price segmentation comes into play - maybe you can still charge those 10 big customers the full whack, while providing benefit to the 500,000.
Readit News
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. All of my songs that have never been copyrighted, having been available for free for so long, are now also in the public domain. In other words, I have abandoned, surrendered and disclaimed all right, title and interest in and to my work and have injected any and all copyrights into the public domain.
The permission granted includes all lyrics which I have written to music by others, although the music to such parodies, if copyrighted by their composers, are of course not included without permission of their copyright owners. The translated songs on this website may be found on YouTube in their original languages. Performing and recording rights to all of my songs are included in this permission. Translation rights are also included.
In particular, permission is hereby granted to anyone to set any of these lyrics to their own music, or to set any of this music to their own lyrics, and to publish or perform their parodies or distortions of these songs without payment or fear of legal action.
Some recording, movie, and television rights to songs written by me are merely licensed non-exclusively by me to recording, movie, or TV companies. All such rights are now released herewith and therefore do not require any permission from me or from Maelstrom Music, which is merely me in another hat, nor from the recording, movie, or TV companies involved.
In short, I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs.
So help yourselves, and don’t send me any money.
NOTICE: THIS WEBSITE WILL BE SHUT DOWN AT SOME DATE IN THE NOT TOO DISTANT FUTURE, SO IF YOU WANT TO DOWNLOAD ANYTHING, DON’T WAIT TOO LONG.
Tom Lehrer November 26, 2022
You can help out by hosting a copy somewhere!
It’s sad that these things will eventually be lost to centralization and digital aging. Make physical copies as well. How long does the USB standard last?
Think about the music that has been lost to time/death/natural disaster/RIAA
We are thankful.
If not, do we know which subset of his work is free?
EDIT:
His Wikipedia page lists the following labels:
- TransRadio
- Lehrer
- Reprise/Warner Bros.
- Rhino/Atlantic
- Shout! Factory
- Needlejuice Records
His sheet music was published by Crown Publishers Inc.
His public domain dedication is a noble gesture, but legally it probably doesn't mean much.
> As a souvenir for [his graduate student friends], Lehrer decided in 1953 to make a record of the songs he had written at Harvard. He recorded Songs by Tom Lehrer in one session at Trans Radio studios in Boston on a 10-inch LP.. bought the rights to the record from Trans Radio, and began selling it by mail order.. By 1954.. he had sold 10,000 records.. By the end of the decade, he had sold 370,000 records.
The songs aka compositions/lyrics may be controlled by publishers
Seeing the New York Times publish wrong out-of-date information has been funny since Judith Miller.
I almost ended up TA'ing his class the next year but I had to focus on my undergraduate thesis instead. I would have loved to get to know him better, as his sense of humor was incredible.
I also had Ralph Abraham- a chaos theory guy and psychonaut who taught hist class (Nature of Math) in a natural amphitheater- at points, I could almost picture him wearing a toga, lecturing us on greek math.
I wouldn't say there's a ton to connect. Hash collisions are expected and you don't rehash as soon as the first one occurs.
What's the point of your rude post? OP already knows this. In fact, they learned it from Tom Lehrer.
"Tom Lehrer releases song lyrics to public domain" (2020), 130 comments, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24833683
"Tom Lehrer at 90: a life of scientific satire" (2018), 80 comments, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16774608
Tom Lehrer and Santa Cruz: the trail of one of America's premier satirists - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40986181 - July 2024 (26 comments)
Why did Tom Lehrer swap fame for obscurity? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=40439810 - May 2024 (170 comments)
Tom Lehrer DAT Recordings - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38778749 - Dec 2023 (2 comments)
That's Mathematics – Tom Lehrer Songs - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38471908 - Nov 2023 (1 comment)
Tom Lehrer puts all music and lyrics in public domain - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34038206 - Dec 2022 (1 comment)
Looking for Tom Lehrer, Comedy's Mysterious Genius - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34034896 - Dec 2022 (1 comment)
Tom Lehrer has released all of his songs into the public domain - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34024968 - Dec 2022 (130 comments)
Tom Lehrer – We Will All Go Together When We Go - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30509279 - March 2022 (2 comments)
Tom Lehrer – So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III, 1967) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30496103 - Feb 2022 (1 comment)
Tom Lehrer Puts His Music into the Public Domain - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24882384 - Oct 2020 (1 comment)
Tom Lehrer releases song lyrics to public domain - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24833683 - Oct 2020 (132 comments)
Tom Lehrer's Mathematical Songs (1951) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24279151 - Aug 2020 (44 comments)
Tom Lehrer’s memorable “Revue” session - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18036813 - Sept 2018 (6 comments)
Tom Lehrer at 90: a life of scientific satire - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16774608 - April 2018 (83 comments)
Looking for Tom Lehrer, Comedy's Mysterious Genius - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10684409 - Dec 2015 (3 comments)
Tom Lehrer - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10675682 - Dec 2015 (32 comments)
Tom Lehrer's last (math) class (2001) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1914399 - Nov 2010 (1 comment)
Godspeed, Tom. This has been a rough week - three of the heroes of my formative years have checked out of existence - Lehrer, Ozzy and author Ingvar Ambjørnsen. Sigh. Who's next?
I still have a T-shirt somewhere proudly sporting the domain name under the NTNU (Norwegian abbreviation for Norwegian University of Tecnology and Science) logo, slightly modified - the real logo is a circle bounded by a rounded square; the T-shirt has a hazelnut standing in for the circle.
> Reflecting on his bicoastal life in a 1981 interview for Newsday, he said he planned to keep his Massachusetts home “until my brain turns completely to Jell-O, at which time I will of course move to California full time.”
To think he is only a couple years younger than Mel Brooks.
> Lehrer once stated that he invented the Jello shot during this time, as a means of circumventing the base's ban on alcoholic beverages.[18]
18. Boulware, Jack (April 19, 2000). "That Was the Wit That Was". SF Weekly. Archived from the original on November 28, 2018. Retrieved November 27, 2018.
https://web.archive.org/web/20181128164739/https://archives....
Full text at https://web.archive.org/web/20211025111743/https://archives.... for the time being. Save your copy while the Archive still exists!
Some years ago they asked me to have Jell-O, and - thinking of Lehrer - I replied that it's adult only, as you make it with alcohol. Much to my surprise that explanation stuck - and they never had Jell-O so far.
.. important to get the German english right!
"Diseases of the rich" has always seemed like a useful metaphor for one way to decide on what product you are going to build. Does it heal a "disease" of the "rich"?
His comments between songs are at least as funny as the songs themselves. For many years I thought that recordings only existed of those comments for An Evening Wasted and That Was The Year That Was. Then I discovered The Remains of Tom Lehrer, a 3 CD set that includes, not only the original Songs By Tom Lehrer (straight off the 10 inch LP), but also a live recording of the same songs from a concert, with comments between the songs! (This set also has studio recordings of the songs from An Evening Wasted, done before the live concert recording.)
Just to give a taste, before he even plays the first song in the concert version of Songs By Tom Lehrer, he gives a biographical introduction of himself, as though he were a toastmaster or an impresario. Here's how it starts (at least as much as I can capture it with just typing):
"Endowed by nature with perhaps the most glorious baritone voice ever to be heard on an American stage since the memorable concert debut in 1835 of Millard Fillmore; endowed also with twelve incredibly agile fingers..."