Tom Lehrer puts himself in the public domain—and here, for a limited time, are all his songs. (Really.)

Paul Alper points to this site and writes:

Most of the material is familiar but some are far more obscure. Lehrer will be 95 on April 9, 2023. And, draw whatever conclusions you feel like, his near-contemporary, Kissinger, will be 99 on May 27, 2023. Lehrer denies that he ever claimed, “Political satire died when Kissinger was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.” Assuming each is still coherent, what would they talk about? Same goes for Woody Allen and the Dalai Lama who are but 4-5 months apart.

This site is amazing: it has lyrics for 96 songs and music for a lot of these.

Also this:

“I no longer retain any rights to any of my songs.” How cool is that?

It says the site will be shut down soon so you might want to go check it out already.

Maybe Henry, Woody, and Dalai will jump on the open-source train next.

4 thoughts on “Tom Lehrer puts himself in the public domain—and here, for a limited time, are all his songs. (Really.)

  1. I remember Tom well… i was about 10 years old… so that would have been in 1953. I was a camper at a summer camp in Androscoggin Maine. Tom was a counselor at the camp. Tom would sit on the steps of the bunkhouse playing an accordion and singing his songs. Us kids couldn’t get the humor but the other counselors loved it. It wasn’t until some years later i came across his album and appreciated his genius. I have told that story to many people and shared his music. Thanks Tom!

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