Ours was not a musical family. My siblings and I didn’t play instruments, except for a compulsory stint at the piano that never lasted longer than a year. My parents didn’t raise quitters, but who were we kidding? None of us were close to competent and the lessons were cutting into more important things, like watching TV and having sleepovers. My parents didn’t really play music in the house, and as far as singing, only two of us can even hold a tune. We loved musicals, though, and belted show tunes from Anything Goes, West Side Story, and (of course!) Fiddler on the Roof. Today, when asked what I like to listen to, I panic—“I’m a fan of the classics! Hate their new stuff”—and hope no one asks for a follow-up.
No, instead of early rock and roll or jazz, the sonic identity of my house was a combination of NPR’s Fresh Air, Rush Limbaugh (that may sound oxymoronic, but it’s what happens when you have a liberal mom and a conservative dad) the news, the 1966 comedy album When You’re in Love the Whole World Is Jewish and, last but not least, the stylings of Tom Lehrer.
Lehrer, the satirical songwriter and mathematician, whose music came out mostly in the 1950s—many decades before I first listened to it—died this past weekend in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He was 97.
