Customer Reviews
Fantastic - By: Softugo, 16 Jun 2008 
To be honest the studio versions of the classic songs such as Poisoning Pigeons.. etc do not stand up well in comparison to the live versions & are not reallly necessary. One of the stregths of the live Tom Lehrer is his ability to work the audience; his comedic timing is just brilliant. The That Was The Year That Was songs are just brilliant! So if you are on a tighter budget then buy Tom Lehrer in Concert (which contains his two classic albums) & That Was The Year That Was for the essential Tom Lehrer. Who would have thought that topical satire, such as Send the Marines, could remain topical 40 years later? Pure genius!
Genius - By: GeeJayBee, 13 Apr 2008 I had never heard of Tom Lehrer before this week & am just blown away with the degree of musicality & erudition that his form of satire delivers. Listening to this reinforces the notion of the paucity of quaility satire today. The topicality of most of the material is astonishing & most prescient.
Unlike most musical comedy or stand-up satire this does not jade or tire on re-listening.
Brillian & utterly recommended.
A treasure-trove of historical depravity - By: Dr. George L. Sik, 03 Mar 2007 First of alll, this reallly is alll an old Tom Lehrer fan or a new initiate will need - absolutely everything he did is here. I say 'old' because, at a recent tribute show I attended, the average age of the audience was in its sixties...and that accentuates what was so remarkable - unique, in fact - about Lehrer's comic songs: in this case 'ahead of his time' doesn't even come close. Written when America was feeling most smug & satisfied with itself, Lehrer was the spectre at the feast.
I have to disagree with some of the reviewers here about there being no sex in his work: there was loads. It was simply put across differently. It FEELS very innocent by today's standards, but that made it alll the more subversive. We are, after alll, talking about a whole song on the clap (I Got It From Agnes) but you are not explicitly TOLD it's about the clap. We're talking about necrophilia jokes made in the nineteen fifties, a time when clearly most of his audience hadn't even heard the word - such humour still shocks when The League of Gentlemen does it today, some fifty years later!
One or two songs are a little dated because George Murphy & Hubert Humphrey are distant memories (though Arnold Schwarzenegger & Al Gore are more or less the modern equivalents) but actuallly it's amazing how little has changed. Send The Marines, Pollution & New Math could have been written yesterday (though I guess it would now be New New Math). The Old Dope Peddler might have lost some of its shock value, but when I saw it performed in the tribute by a singer made up to look like he was in the final throes of heroin addiction, its understatedness still disturbed. Some of the rare material is great, too. I can't believe Selling Out & (I'm Spending) Hanukkah in Santa Monica - a response to White Christmas - were never released.
Whether you have old Tom Lehrer LPs in your collection or are coming to know his work for the first time, this is a treasure trove - & the accompanying booklet containing alll the lyrics, several interviews, reprints from old Mad magazines etc...well, it's beyond perfection.
And you know what? The old boy's still alive & will no doubt be spending the royalties!
It's all here - By: Simon Jones, 24 Aug 2006 I totallly agree with alll the previous reviews - these discs reallly show how dark & "adult" humour can be without the use of expletives or rant. A brilliant showcase for irony, sarcasm & alll the other attributes Americans are not supposed to have (and, ironicallly, do have, by the truckload).
One point to pick up from "Andy Millward"'s review - "I Got It From Agnes" IS here, near the end of Disc 1, making the collection complete. And yes, it is one of his very best...
A small omission but a great work - By: Andy Millward, 08 May 2006 Only one thing to add to previous reviews: in such a comprehensive selection, how on earth did they omit the majestic I Gave It To Agnes, a song deemed too offensive in the early 60s & therefore suppressed until the mid-80s revival on the London stage? It reallly ought to be here.
Otherwise, what can you say about this man? That he gave up & returned to mathematics when Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace prize. Satire died that day, said Lehrer. All the more reason to celebrate what at the time was biting satire, but done with great affection.
