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Tom teacher, the influential song satirist, whose dark-comic texts found a cult support for decades after his musical withdrawal, died at the age of 97.
Teacher died in his house in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as his long -time friend David Herder said of the “Associated Press”. A cause of death was not mentioned.
Early career between Harvard and black humor
Teachers, born in New York City and trained at Harvard University, began to make music during his mathematics studies. He started his humor in song form to deal with topics such as racism, militarism, religion and nuclear war in the 1950s and early 1960s.
The best known songs include “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park”, “It Makes a Fellow Proud to Be a Soldier”, “The Vatican Rag”, “The Masochism Tango” and “The Old Dope Peddler” – the latter was sampled by 2 chainz decades later.
Influence despite a small catalog
Although teachers only took up about three dozen songs during his musical work – in the 1970s he concentrated again on teaching mathematics – his work had an enormous influence on later generations. It inspired songwriter like Randy Newman, Donald Fagen and Walter Becker by Steely Dan. Also “Weird al” Yankovic, who often teachers songs on Dr. Demento heard, felt inspired.
“My last living musical hero is still my hero, but unfortunately no longer alive. Rip to the great, great Mr. Tom teacher,” wrote Yankovic on Sunday on Sunday.
The “Harry Potter” actor Daniel Radcliffe was also an admirer-“the smartest and funniest man of the 20th century and somehow my hero,” said Radcliffe-and once performed the complex song “The Elements” in a British late night show. Radcliffe’s spontaneous performance of the periodic system contributed, among other things, that he later took on the role of “Weird al” in its quasi-biopic.
Nerdtum as a sign of connection
“I used to sing this song in college cafes,” said Yankovic about “The Elements” and Radcliffes appear. “Singing this song is extremely nerdig. It is exaggerated nerdig. And I thought: ‘Okay, this type understands it. This type is a related spirit. He can embody me on the screen.’
In 2020, teachers provided his entire work under public freedom so that future generations can freely discover and use their music. “All copyrights of lyrics or music that I wrote or composed were permanently and irrevocably abandoned and are therefore now community -free. All of my songs that were never protected by copyright and were available for so long are now also inherently. wrote teacher on a still active website with all his songs and texts.
“In short: I don’t keep any rights to any of my songs. Serve – and do not send me any money.”