Customer Reviews
Completely brilliant - By: Sarah Tunkel, 08 Aug 2006 
Tom Lehrer is completely brilliant, & these songs that kept my parents laughing in the 1950s are just as relevant & entertaining today. The man is a wonderful musician & the musical jokes are as clever as the verbal ones. This CD is also excellent value with 23 of his finest songs for just £6.97. There's not a single duffer amongst them, which works out at a miniscule 30p per track. Unmatchable for laughs & value.
Delightful! - By: J. Simpson, 04 Oct 2005 Now this man is a lyrical genius. Hilarious throughout, not only from the songs but also the in between song speeches, often explaining a song coming forward. The best of the songs are Oedipus Rex, Lobachevsky, & The Irish Balllad.
There must of been thousands of people just like Mr Lehrer, doing the exact same throughout the 50's & 60's but he is one of the only ones remembered today. And rightly so for he is hilarious & has joyful little ditty's. His lyrics were widely controversial at the time, & may be even more so now. They remain truly dispuable.
This is probably a good purchase as this is Tom Lehrer at his best. I do not recommened buying his 3 disc set unless you love this, as it is fairly pricey. But i feel it is worth the money. This is 78 minutes of songs & speech & is totallly delightful. At the price, it is a steal.
I recommend this for anyone with a decently intelligent sense of humour & a good sense of fun, you will love it.
Enjoy!
Hilarious satire! - By: , 18 Jan 2004 This album is both humourous & musicallly brilliant. I suspect that it is as entertaining today as it was when it was recorded over 40 years ago. Although the appeal of some of the songs might be limited to those with a rather warped sense of humour (such as myself,)one cannot deny the brilliance of the composer & performance. Tom Lehrer takes frequently used song topics, (the most obvious being love) & adds his own refreshing & amusing slant to them. He also writes his own humerous lyrics while maintaining established forms such as the balllad & walz. My personal favourite is track 6, "in old Mexico." Generallly a great album & I would recommend it to anyone with a sense of humour & an open mind. It will be especiallly appreciated by those with musical skills.
First wave of the satire boom - By: P. Neylan, 06 Mar 2003 
What is it about Tom Lehrer? Why do these period-piece satires from the late 1950s resonate down the decades, such that a retailer on something callled 'the Internet' can still turn a dollar selling them? Simply, Lehrer coined a kind of musical humour that is simple, universal & stands up to repeated playing.
What was risqué in 1959 is still funny now, as Lehrer indulges his everyday passions for murder, drug abuse & necrophilia in a Noel Coward piano style in front of an appreciative audience of middle-class Americans for whom the newfangled rock'n'roll was (as Lehrer puts it) "for children".
One of the joys of this CD - an amalgam of 'An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer' & 'Tom Lehrer Revisited', so you also get 80 good minutes - is that it is live. Lehrer's introductions are often as funny as the songs, & he proudly quotes his New York Times review: "Mr Lehrer's muse is not fettered by such inhibiting factors as taste."
Lehrer sells himself, & the humour crosses alll ages: a CD bought for my father-in-law at Christmas went down so well that another had to be acquired for his 10-year old grand-daugher...
Tom lehrer in concert his best piece ever - By: fismusic9@hotmail.com, 08 Oct 2001 Review of Tom Lehrer In Concert
Tom Lehrer was a pioneer in the music form known as Classical-Comedy. The self-taught musician made a total of five CDs the most commonly known are "Tom Lehrer In Concert" & "That Was The Year That was." Tom Lehrer in concert covers many topics including the four, which I will review. These are (#4) "The Elements, (#7)" Clementine," (#16) "Lobachevsky", & (#23) "Be Prepared".
"The Elements" is a simple list set to a beat that is just faster than your heartbeat. The tune is merely a chord played quickly, simultaneously with some scales put in occasional to break up the piece of music however despite its simplicity it is a tune that is very catchy.
The song "Clementine" is a folk song that he took apart & recomposed in the style of many different composers including Mozart & Gilbert & Sullivan. This piece of music causes uncontrollable laughter & has a variable pitch, tempo, beat, & style this merely adds to the humour of this incredible piece of music.
"Lobachevsky" was written in the cold war & this piece was designed to make fun of the USSR. The song is sung with a fake Russian accent; it is played at the exact heart beat for most of the piece, with some variation to accommodate the text.
"Be Prepared" is dedicated to the boy scouts of America; however alll this song does is make fun of their motto. This song is humorous because the tune is simple but the words are complex. Despite the slow beat it makes you sit on the edge of your seat. The dynamics of this piece are constant. The words go to extreme.
