“Some people have a way with words,” the comedian Steve Martin used to say, “and other people . . . uh, not have way.” Tom Lehrer very much have way. The American musician, mathematician, and songwriter, who turns 97 today, is the creator of nearly 100 satirical songs, almost all of them written in the 1950s and 1960s, whose popularity, as a Wikipedia entry puts it, “has far outlasted their topical subjects and references.” The canon includes “Fight Fiercely, Harvard” — one of Lehrer’s earliest compositions, written when he was an undergraduate at that institution — and “We Will All Go Together When We Go,” a hymn to nuclear Armageddon. (“There will be no more misery/When the world is our rotizerie.”)
The anthem nearest to our hearts here at Strong Language Central, though, is of course “Smut,” which like Lehrer himself is celebrating a significant anniversary this year. Although the lyrics reflected a set of social and legal circumstances specific to mid-1960s America, their sentiment has proved to be timeless. In honor of its 60th anniversary and Tom Lehrer’s long, remarkable life, here’s our salute to “Smut.”
Strong Language 