Several years ago I wound up getting the same birthday present for my son, Mike, as for my father, Rhino's boxed set "The Remains of Tom Lehrer". And the only reason I didn't get one for me was that (a) I had all the CDs already and (b) I knew that if push came to shove, I could always borrow Mike's. When humour works for three generations, you know the humorist in question must be doing somehting right. Here's a recent interview with Tom Lehrer (who is, yes, still alive):
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/28/1046407753895.html
The first time I met Stephin Merritt we wound up talking about Lehrer, as Stephin had just interviewed him for
Time Out New York. I remember at one point talking about the way that time changed the songs: "When he wrote the Masochism Tango," I said "It was the masochism that was the transgressive element..." I said.
"Whereas now, it's the Tango," finished Stephin.
