‘My songs spread like herpes.’ Why did satirical genius Tom Lehrer swap worldwide fame for obscurity?
Francis Beckett profiles the caustic singer/songwriter, who is still alive at 96. Beckett never gets an answer to the question, but concludes:
Tom Lehrer is a prodigiously talented man who has no interest at all in money for its own sake, or in money to wield power. He wants enough to be comfortable and to do the few things he wants to do, and he has that. I suspect too that, despite his protestations to the contrary, there is a serious man underneath the caustic, cynical front. He once said that you cannot be funny if you are angry. He could just about stay detached enough to be funny about Eisenhower’s America. Trying to be funny about a nation that can elect a President Trump might tear him apart.