Satirical musical artist Tom Lehrer passed away on July 26, 2025. Lehrer is best remembered for his sharp wit, engaging musical compositions, and timeless social commentary. In 2020, Lehrer proactively disclaimed his rights under copyright to his lyrics and musical compositions, allowing others to re-use his works without his permission. Lehrer’s dedication of his works to the commons emboldens its power, and reflects his talent to be in-conversation with cultural moments long after he is gone.
Lehrer’s wit and support for cultural remixing shines through in a 2013 comment where he granted 2Chainz permission to sample “The Old Dope Peddler”. “I grant you m*f*s permission to do this,” Lehrer quipped. To celebrate his life, spirit, and contribution to the public domain, we invite you to explore his works for pleasure, inspiration, or just sheer curiosity. Below are a few fan favorites.
We Will All Go Together When We Go
A funny and dark song spoofing global nuclear annihilation fears during the height of the Cold War. Its cheery and delightful-sounding musical composition juxtaposes against lyrics reflecting a dark vision of “universal bereavement” following armageddon.
Known for its savvy skewering of the controversy around the resistance to modernizing traditions and rituals, plus who else could write a lyric like “Two, four, six, eight, time to transubstantiate”?
A fun, whimsical, and breakneck-paced take on the periodic table, itself building off of the public domain tune of the “Major-General’s Song” from 1879’s The Pirates of Penzance.
This post is published with a CC0 Waiver, dedicating it to the public domain.
I’ve been gratified by all the attention given to Lehrer after his death. I had felt the world had forgotten him.
Thank you for informing of his death. At the time, he broke the ice with a nonviolent, non aggressive, very witty and literate, yet inclusive and affirming humour. Hard to believe such a balance could be found, but he did it.
Before Prof. Lehrer made his magnanimous gesture to the public domain
of both his lyrics and his music publishing rights (which he fortunately
owned outright), I explicitly received copyright clearance from Tom himself
some years earlier. This was in conjunction with “The Elements” video
animation I lodged at the Archive here:
https://archive.org/details/elements.118.tom.lehrer
(I should probably update this copy to 1080p, but it’s on YouTube now.)
It was actually a lose “collaboration” done over the years (from the late 90s)
as the official names for the chemical elements trickled out. It started out even more
primitivistic than it ended up being, since all there was HTML and Photoshop
plus interlaced low-rez DVD before Adobe Premiere blossomed.
E.g. I made the theater curtain transition less crude for him by evoking
the Walter Kerr Theater of which he was fond. A plain white-background
periodic table as seen on the wall of zillions of chemistry classes became
a simplified incremental emergence of elements from a dark background.
Mind, public domain does not cover all aspects of his work. Lehrer mailed
be a physical copy of an album of his containing the song because we were
paranoid that if synchronized from a DVD, the studio that reanimated his
master tapes could ding me for a $500 “sync rights” license. So with help from
open-source software like Amadeus, I de-noised the vinyl of The Elements
to avoid this.
At any rate, I’ll always treasure the back & forth phone banter and letters from
Tom Lehrer, including his pointer to the same song in Spanish by radical
Argentinian theater chanteuse Nacha Guevera, which I also synchronized.
J. A. Woods
Tom Lehrer has made me laugh since I was, frankly, too young for me to fully appreciate his songs…
If you go to his website: https://tomlehrersongs.com/ you can download his music, for free
Tom Lehrer’s passing marks the end of an era, but his influence will continue for generations. His decision to place his works in the public domain was as bold as his satire, ensuring that his music, humor, and social critique remain freely accessible. By opening his creations to the world, Lehrer not only preserved his legacy but also empowered future artists, educators, and activists to build upon it — a true gift to the cultural commons.