Source: Garrison Center
by Joel Schlosberg
“Six decades after Tom Lehrer adapted his songs on such then-current topics as the Second Vatican Council and the vice-presidency of Hubert Horatio Humphrey from NBC’s That Was the Week That Was into his final album That Was the Year That Was, it remains clear that his works will remain relevant weeks, and years, after his passing on July 26 at 97. … Admittedly, as LA Times columnist Michael Hiltzik noted on Lehrer’s 90th birthday, writing about ‘racial conflict, pollution, religious intolerance, nuclear brinkmanship’ ensured engaging issues that ‘have never gone away.’ If anything, Lehrer underestimated the political rancor to come.” (08/02/25)