Songwriter, satirist, and mathematician Tom Lehrer has placed all of his songs in the public domain.
Now age 92, he has all of the songs (some as recordings, and all as lyrics and sheet music) on his website for download. The site has the following caveat, however:
THIS WEBSITE WILL BE SHUT DOWN AT SOME DATE IN THE NOT TOO DISTANT FUTURE, SO IF YOU WANT TO DOWNLOAD ANYTHING, DON’T WAIT TOO LONG.
As with all works in the public domain, Lehrer makes it explicit:
...permission is hereby granted to anyone to set any of these lyrics to their own music, or to set any of this music to their own lyrics, and to publish or perform their parodies or distortions of these songs without payment or fear of legal action.
This makes my 2017 song about Trump called "Projection" — which was a take-off on Lehrer's song "Pollution" — even more legal than I already thought it was. Thanks, Tom!
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