The great witty lyricist has died at 97. By Valerie Grove
Of all the clever parodies and jokey songs about the COVID lockdown that did the rounds (The Beatles' I Gotta Wash My Hands; Simon & Garfunkel We’re All Home-bound; the Bee Gees' Staying Inside etc), most of us agree that the funniest was a YouTube clip from 1965 showing the great satirist Tom Lehrer at his piano singing ‘I got it from Agnes...’
'I got it from Agnes /She got it from Jim / We all agree it must have been Louise who gave it to him/ Now she got it from Harry/ Who got it from Marie/ And everybody knows that Marie/ Got it from me'.
The charming veteran Harvard professor of mathematics, who has died at 97, might be amused to know that his song remains suitably contagious.
