LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tom Lehrer, the popular and erudite song satirist who lampooned marriage, politics, racism and the Cold War, then largely abandoned his music career to return to teaching math at Harvard and other universities, has died. He was 97.

Longtime friend David Herder said Lehrer died Saturday at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He did not specify a cause of death.

Lehrer had remained on the math faculty of the University of California at Santa Cruz well into his late 70s. In 2020, he even turned away from his own copyright, granting the public permission to use his lyrics in any format without any fee in return.

A Harvard prodigy (he had earned a math degree from the institution at age 18), Lehrer soon turned his very sharp mind to old traditions and current events. His songs included “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park,” “The Old Dope Peddler” (set to a tune reminiscent of “The Old Lamplighter”), “Be Prepared” (in which he mocked the Boy Scouts) and “The Vatican Rag,” in which Lehrer, an atheist, poked at the rites and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic Church. (Sample lyrics: “Get down on your knees, fiddle with your rosaries. Bow your head with great respect, and genuflect, genuflect, genuflect.”)

Accompanying himself on piano, he performed the songs in a colorful style reminiscent of such musical heroes as Gilbert and Sullivan and Stephen Sondheim, the latter a lifelong friend. Lehrer was often likened to such contemporaries as Allen Sherman and Stan Freberg for his comic riffs on culture and politics and he was cited by Randy Newman and “Weird Al” Jankovic among others as an influence.

He mocked the forms of music he didn’t like (modern folk songs, rock ‘n’ roll and modern jazz), laughed at the threat of nuclear annihilation and denounced discrimination.

But he attacked in such an erudite, even polite, manner that almost no one objected.

“Tom Lehrer is the most brilliant song satirist ever recorded,” musicologist Barry Hansen once said. Hansen co-produced the 2000 boxed set of Lehrer’s songs, “The Remains of Tom Lehrer,” and had featured Lehrer’s music for decades on his syndicated “Dr. Demento” radio show.

Lehrer’s body of work was actually quite small, amounting to about three dozen songs.

“When I got a funny idea for a song, I wrote it. And if I didn’t, I didn’t,” Lehrer told The Associated Press in 2000 during a rare interview. “I wasn’t like a real writer who would sit down and put a piece of paper in the typewriter. And when I quit writing, I just quit. … It wasn’t like I had writer’s block.”

He’d gotten into performing accidentally when he began to compose songs in the early 1950s to amuse his friends. Soon he was performing them at coffeehouses around Cambridge, Massachusetts, while he remained at Harvard to teach and obtain a master’s degree in math.

He cut his first record in 1953, “Songs by Tom Lehrer,” which included “I Wanna Go Back to Dixie,” lampooning the attitudes of the Old South, and the “Fight Fiercely, Harvard,” suggesting how a prissy Harvard blueblood might sing a football fight song.

After a two-year stint in the Army, Lehrer began to perform concerts of his material in venues around the world. In 1959, he released another LP called “More of Tom Lehrer” and a live recording called “An Evening Wasted with Tom Lehrer,” nominated for a Grammy for best comedy performance (musical) in 1960.

But around the same time, he largely quit touring and returned to teaching math, though he did some writing and performing on the side.

Lehrer said he was never comfortable appearing in public.

“I enjoyed it up to a point,” he told The AP in 2000. “But to me, going out and performing the concert every night when it was all available on record would be like a novelist going out and reading his novel every night.”

He did produce a political satire song each week for the 1964 television show “That Was the Week That Was,” a groundbreaking topical comedy show that anticipated “Saturday Night Live” a decade later.

He released the songs the following year in an album titled “That Was the Year That Was.” The material included “Who’s Next?” that ponders which government will be the next to get the nuclear bomb … perhaps Alabama? (He didn’t need to tell his listeners that it was a bastion of segregation at the time.) “Pollution” takes a look at the then-new concept that perhaps rivers and lakes should be cleaned up.

He also wrote songs for the 1970s educational children’s show “The Electric Company.” He told AP in 2000 that hearing from people who had benefited from them gave him far more satisfaction than praise for any of his satirical works.

His songs were revived in the 1980 musical revue “Tomfoolery” and he made a rare public appearance in London in 1998 at a celebration honoring that musical’s producer, Cameron Mackintosh.

Lehrer was born in 1928, in New York City, the son of a successful necktie designer. He recalled an idyllic childhood on Manhattan’s Upper West Side that included attending Broadway shows with his family and walking through Central Park day or night.

After skipping two grades in school, he entered Harvard at 15 and, after receiving his master’s degree, he spent several years unsuccessfully pursuing a doctorate.

“I spent many, many years satisfying all the requirements, as many years as possible, and I started on the thesis,” he once said. “But I just wanted to be a grad student, it’s a wonderful life. That’s what I wanted to be, and unfortunately, you can’t be a Ph.D. and a grad student at the same time.”

He began to teach part-time at Santa Cruz in the 1970s, mainly to escape the harsh New England winters.

From time to time, he acknowledged, a student would enroll in one of his classes based on knowledge of his songs.

“But it’s a real math class,” he said at the time. “I don’t do any funny theorems. So those people go away pretty quickly.”

___

Former Associated Press writer John Rogers contributed to this story. Rogers retired from The AP in 2021.

The state court in Wiener Neustadt convicted the 18-year-old defendant, whose name was given only as Luca K. in line with local privacy rules, of involvement with a terrorist organization and criminal organization, the Austria Press Agency reported. He largely admitted to the accusations, which included sharing propaganda of the Islamic State group and glorifying an IS sympathizer who killed four people in Vienna in 2020.

The suspect, who converted to Islam in 2022, was arrested shortly before the planned Swift concerts in August last year but was not charged with involvement in the plot. Defense lawyer Michael Dorn said he wasn’t the closest friend of Beran A., the 20-year-old main suspect, who remains under investigation.

The defendant said he now sees his actions as a mistake and is glad he was arrested, APA reported. “I have had a daughter, now I see life more seriously,” he added.

The time he has spent in custody will be deducted from the sentence. The verdict can be appealed.

NEW YORK (AP) — Two-time Grammy Award-winning musician Chuck Mangione, who achieved international success in 1977 with his jazz-flavored single “Feels So Good” and later became a voice actor on the animated TV comedy “King of the Hill,” has died. He was 84.

Mangione died at his home in Rochester, New York, on Tuesday in his sleep, said his attorney, Peter S. Matorin of Beldock Levine & Hoffman LLP. The musician had been retired since 2015.

Perhaps his biggest hit — “Feels So Good” — is a staple on most smooth-jazz radio stations and has been called one of the most recognized melodies since “Michelle” by the Beatles. It hit No. 4 on the Billboard Hot 100 and the top of the Billboard adult contemporary chart.

“It identified for a lot of people a song with an artist, even though I had a pretty strong base audience that kept us out there touring as often as we wanted to, that song just topped out there and took it to a whole other level,” Mangione told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in 2008.

He followed that hit with “Give It All You Got,” commissioned for the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, and he performed it at the closing ceremony.

Mangione, a flugelhorn and trumpet player and jazz composer, released more than 30 albums during a career in which he built a sizable following after recording several albums, doing all the writing.

He won his first Grammy Award in 1977 for his album “Bellavia,” which was named in honor of his mother. Another album, “Friends and Love,” was also Grammy-nominated, and he earned a best original score Golden Globe nomination and a second Grammy for the movie “The Children of Sanchez.”

Mangione introduced himself to a new audience when he appeared on the first several seasons of “King of the Hill,” appearing as a commercial spokesman for Mega Lo Mart, where “shopping feels so good.”

Mangione, brother of jazz pianist Gap Mangione, with whom he partnered in The Jazz Brothers, started his career as a bebop jazz musician heavily inspired by Dizzy Gillespie.

“He also was one of the first musicians I saw who had a rapport with the audience by just telling the audience what he was going to play and who was in his band,” Mangione told the Post-Gazette.

Mangione earned a bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music — where he would eventually return as director of the school’s jazz ensemble — and left home to play with Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers.

He donated his signature brown felt hat and the score of his Grammy-winning single “Feels So Good,” as well as albums, songbooks and other ephemera from his long and illustrious career to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History in 2009.

Here’s where the Compass is pointing for the next year:

“Annie” (Sept. 19 to Oct. 19 at Maryland Hall)

The first showing of the season is the theater classic “Annie,” which follows an orphan taken in by a rich man. It won seven Tony awards when it debuted in 1977.

Compass Rose’s rendition will be directed by Tracy Adler, a former Howard County high school teacher turned director. Music direction will be done by Barrett Johnson, who played Chiffon in “Little Shop of Horrors” for Compass Rose earlier this year.

Casting is complete and rehearsals are underway. Jules Kanarek will play Annie while James Toler will be Oliver “Daddy” Warbucks. The show will also make use of an animal actor for Annie’s dog Sandy, who will be played by a pup named Sequel. Barbara Webber, Compass Rose’s executive director, said Sequel has already met with the cast.

“Sequel is going to steal everyone’s heart. We’re already well aware of that,” Webber said. “If Annie wasn’t already going to steal it, Sequel is going to be a close call in the running.”

“Pride and Prejudice” (Nov. 14 to Dec. 14 at Maryland Hall)

After “Annie” comes “Pride and Prejudice,” specifically a version by U.K.-based playwright Emma Whipday adapted from the classic Jane Austen novel. It will be directed by artistic director Austin, who plans to helm a show every year.

Austin said she has been working with Whipday to tweak the script in an effort to make it Compass Rose’s own. She said she saw a version of Whipday’s adaptation at a theater in Virginia.

“It was hilarious and funny, but also true to the language, true to the storytelling, but it had a slightly sharp take on [it], and it was adapted so beautifully,” Austin said.

This year also marks Austen’s 250th birthday, another reason Austin picked the show.

“Rent” (Feb. 6 to March 8 at Anne Arundel Community College)

After the new year comes the Jonathan Larson rock musical “Rent,” though this time at Anne Arundel Community College as Maryland Hall begins renovations in early 2026. Stephen Emery will direct, previously directing “Proof” for Compass Rose, while musical direction will be done by Paige Rammelkamp, a music teacher and director.

Based on Italian opera “La Bohème,” “Rent” follows a New York neighborhood and explores themes of the AIDS epidemic, the LGBTQ community and poverty.

Austin, who teaches at Anne Arundel Community College, said putting on the show at the school has allowed the two organizations to collaborate. Department of Performing Arts students are encouraged to get involved so they can gain experience with a professional theater company.

She said the collaboration could open the door to similar arrangements in the future, even after Maryland Hall renovations are complete.

“Compass Rose Cabaret” (April 10 to 26 at Unity by the Bay church)

The season will close with a cabaret show to celebrate the theater’s 15th anniversary, directed by Jack Benedict, who has done musical direction for Compass Rose previously.

The show will have food, drinks and a selection of songs from musicals throughout the theater’s history, although specific pieces have not been announced.

Compass Rose, a nonprofit, aims to give those interested in the theater industry professional experience.

“We’ve created a welcoming space for professional actors and people who are interested in theater, because that’s what we want to grow here is more theater lovers and more opportunities for actors and behind-the-scenes folks and creatives to create great theater in Annapolis,” Webber said.

Have a news tip? Contact Benjamin Rothstein at brothstein@baltsun.com, 443-928-1926.

The panel adopted, 33-25, a package of amendments to the bill funding the Interior Department, Environmental Protection Agency and related agencies for fiscal 2026, which included a provision to designate the First Lady Melania Trump Opera House at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

The vote was mostly along party lines, with Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington joining all Republicans present in voting in favor.

The ranking Democrat on the Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, Rep. Chellie Pingree of Maine, said she was “surprised” by the provision.

“Republicans snuck in something that I think is slightly divisive, which is renaming one section of the Kennedy Center after a family member of this administration,” Pingree said during the full committee markup — a meeting when a bill is debated, amended and voted on.

Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Mike Simpson, an Idaho Republican, responded that the name change was “an excellent way to recognize the first lady’s support and commitment to promoting the arts.”

“Yes, we renamed the Opera House at the Kennedy Center for the first lady, who is the honorary chairman of the board of trustees of the Kennedy Center,” Simpson said.

The Kennedy Center is considered one of the nation’s premier performing arts venues.

President Donald Trump removed several members of the Kennedy Center board in February, replacing them with loyalists who elected him board chair. He also fired the cultural center’s president, Deborah Rutter, and replaced her on an interim basis with Richard Grenell, who has held several roles during Trump’s presidencies.

Interior-environment bill

The House Interior-Environment spending bill proposes nearly $38 billion for departments and agencies covered by the measure, an overall spending cut of 6% compared with current levels, mainly from chopping 23% of the EPA’s budget.

The Interior Department would see a cut of less than one-half of 1% of its current funding, according to a summary provided by committee Republicans.

Arts and culture funding would also see major cuts in the bill.

The National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities would each see 35% cuts, bringing each agency’s funding to $135 million. The Smithsonian Institution would receive $961.3 million, representing a 12% cut. The Kennedy Center itself would see a 17.2% cut, to $37.2 million.

The full House Appropriations Committee approved the bill with the amendment, 33-28.

Appropriations bills must win 60 votes in the Senate to become law, which generally makes it difficult for overly partisan provisions to be included in the final text.

The corresponding Senate subcommittee has not released its version of the bill but is scheduled to consider it Thursday.

Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501(c)(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: scrane@marylandmatters.org. Follow Maryland Matters on Facebook and Bluesky.

There the mayor and governor were, in Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall with their families, cranking their right arms in big circles as if winding up for the pitch, bending their knees and swaying back and forth to the rhythms of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and rap legend Nas.

It was the first time that the BSO had performed with a hip-hop star in the orchestra’s 109-year history. And it is just the most recent example of how Maryland’s largest cultural organization is reaching out to a younger and more diverse population and attempting to grow its audience of the future.

”Man, tonight was incredible,” Scott posted later on his Instagram account, below a photo of himself with his wife, Hana, and her son, Ceron.

”I was just a little older than him when ‘Illmatic’ came out and I remember how life-changing hearing it for the first time was for me.”

Also spotted in the crowd: Baltimore City Council President Zeke Cohen.

Tickets to the concert sold out 48 hours after the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra announced April 7 that Nas and the full orchestra would perform his landmark debut album, “Illmatic,” with new arrangements.

“This is perhaps the biggest night in Baltimore in quite a while,” said Allison Burr-Livingstone, the symphony’s senior vice president and chief advancement officer.

“We know that this album means so much to so many people across the country and also here in our community. We hope that we are welcoming longtime fans of Nas who will now be longtime fans of the BSO.”

It would be safe to say that not all of the sold-out 2,443 tickets went to locals.

Nederizio Candelario of Baltimore lured friends from New York to join her at the concert. She has been to the BSO before — she’s a fan of the BSO’s Fusion Series, which intertwines classical melodies with popular music from such bands as Radiohead and songwriter Kendrick Lamar.

”I told them the acoustics [at the Meyerhoff] were very good,” she said.

Symphony officials, who found themselves turning away disappointed ticket-buyers, still aren’t entirely sure what hit them.

“It really was remarkable,” said Mark C. Hanson, the BSO’s president and CEO.

”We had no idea there was such a pent-up demand from people wanting to be in this hall to hear this music. I wish we could have put on five concerts with Nas.”

Fans like Tevin Eubanks and Sharlay Jauvon, of Baltimore, were prepared to splurge. Eubanks said he had hoped to score two of the pricey VIP packages, which included premium seats, a limited edition tour poster and other merchandise.

“The VIP packages sold out fast, and what was left was general admission tickets,” Eubanks said. “I’m glad I was able to get them.”

So Wednesday’s event had all the trappings of a happening, with a pre-performance party in the Meyerhoff lobby that included food trucks, bar service and live music from DJ Impulse.

The concert was divided into three parts: Initially, the Symphony performed a selection of popular tunes from Kurt Weill’s “Mack the Knife” to John Kander and Fred Ebb’s “New York, New York.”

They were joined for the second part by Nas, who gave the crowd what it was waiting for: “Illmatic,” with new arrangements and backed by an 80-piece orchestra.

Finally, symphony musicians left the stage and Nas performed some of his more recent work.

The BSO won’t have audience demographics from Wednesday’s performance until later this year. But Hanson won’t be surprised if attendees prove to be significantly younger and more racially diverse than typical BSO ticket-buyers. He expects many of the rapper’s fans to be first-time visitors to the Meyerhoff, including those who traveled to Maryland from out of state.

Baltimore‘s Grant Coleman said he had never heard the BSO perform before Wednesday’s concert, though his wife, Tiffany, has; she attended a February 2024 concert that paired the music of rap icons Tupac Shakur (who spent his teen years in Baltimore) and Notorious B.I.G. with Gustav Mahler’s “Resurrection” symphony.

“This concert is a blending of two different styles and cultures,” Grant Coleman said. “Nas is an awesome performer, and the BSO is an awesome orchestra.”

Symphony officials noted that the experience was eye-opening for people on both sides of the stage. Wednesday’s concert was the first time some of the players had been exposed to Nas’ music, Burr-Livingstone said.

“The opportunity for us to collaborate with an artist as legendary as Nas is huge,” Hanson said.

“It invites new audience members into the Meyerhoff to experience a symphonic concert. And it also broadens our mindset as an organization, leading to other new ideas and ways of collaborating.”

Of course, the 51-year-old Grammy Award-winning Nas isn’t just any rapper, and “Illmatic” isn’t just any album.

The Brooklyn-born, Queens-raised Nas — his original stage name was “Nasty Nas” — is rooted in East Coast hip-hop and famed for his intricate, sophisticated rhymes and storytelling ability. He was named the third greatest rapper of all time in 2015 by Billboard magazine.

“Illmatic” routinely makes Top 10 greatest hip-hop album lists and is included in the Library of Congress’ National Recording Registry.

The “Illmatic” tour, which began in 2024 in Europe, celebrates the album’s 30th anniversary.

Though Wednesday was Nas’ first performance with the BSO, it was not his first concert in Baltimore.

In 2019, he performed at the Royal Farms Arena, now CFG Bank Arena, with Mary J. Blige. Five years earlier, he headlined the Preakness Infieldfest in 2014, along with the New Zealand singer/songwriter Lorde.

Though Nas has left Charm City, he will remain in the mid-Atlantic region for at least this weekend. He is scheduled to perform concerts on Friday in Philadelphia and in Pittsburgh on Saturday.

Sun reporters Matthew Schumer and Brendan Townsend contributed to this article.

Have a news tip? Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com and 410-332-6704.

In September, the 26-year-old Baltimorean will be a Cafritz Young Artist with Washington National Opera, one of the most competitive programs for emerging opera singers in the U.S.

But it wasn’t always easy being a Black teenage male in the Belair-Edison neighborhood singing music written hundreds of years ago by European men wearing wigs.

“I definitely got pushback,” Henderson said. “I was a social outcast in many ways.”

Nonetheless, he persevered, graduating from Baltimore School for the Arts and Morgan State University, and later earning a master’s degree from England’s Royal Northern College of Music.

Oh, and did we mention that Henderson is also a composer? A song that he co-wrote when he was in his teens was featured in a Netflix television series created by the filmmaker Spike Lee.

”The story that my parents tell is that when my mother was pregnant with me, my father put speakers playing jazz music to my mother’s belly,” Henderson said, “and I came out singing.”

Baltimoreans will have a chance to appreciate Henderson’s talents July 31, when he participates in a free outdoor concert at Mount Vernon Place sponsored by Maryland Opera.

The following interview has been edited for clarity and length.

Congratulations on your selection as a Cafritz Young Artist.

Thank you. This is an initiative to help up-and-coming opera singers prepare for international careers. For two years, I will cover [understudy] principal roles in Washington Opera productions and possibly sing small roles. It will put me in an entirely different professional marketplace than I am in now, where I hopefully will be able to earn a living wage.

How did you decide on a career in opera?

I originally wanted to have a career as a pop singer. I didn’t really fall in love with opera until I was 17 and was studying music theory and history. I was listening to Claude Debussy’s Arabesque No. 1, and something kind of clicked. The harmonies brought me so much joy. Classical music remains is still in some ways inaccessible to my generation. I’m going into this career because I want to make opera exciting.

You also still perform popular music.

Singing pop and musical theater is freeing for me. Classical music can be very linear and one-dimensional.  There is a certain way it should be approached. But pop and musical theater [are] still evolving. Just look at “Hamilton.” You can make that music your own.

What is it like to be a Black teenager who sings opera? 

There were people who presented themselves as wanting to help me but said things that were demeaning and disrespectful. Once I was working on a bel canto piece, [music historically performed at royal courts] and a gentleman told me, “It must be hard for you to understand the aristocracy.” Someone else told me, “You ought to consider using Henry instead of Hakeem as your professional name.” It was like running into a brick wall.

What other obstacles have you faced?

When I was 7 years old, I was diagnosed with ADHD [attention-deficit/hyperacivity disorder] and a mood disorder. When I started at School for the Arts, it was my first time in a structured environment.  I didn’t know a C note from a G, I didn’t know how to organize my time, and I struggled with my attention span. I almost flunked out my freshman year. It was very grueling, and some nights I cried. But my father talked to the school and explained that I was neurodivergent, and they arranged to give me more time to take tests and learn. It made all the difference. Now, some of the people who gave me failing grades have become my colleagues.

What was college like for you?

I was very anxious about what the future would hold for me, and Morgan was not even my first choice. I was rejected from Peabody [Conservatory]. But, it was a very fruitful experience. Many doors opened for me at Morgan that I wasn’t expecting. I sang in the Morgan State Choir under Eric Conway, and when we traveled internationally, I sang a solo.

You had a professional debut that most singers only dream about. Performing at the Edinburgh International Festival is a little like going from school straight to Broadway. How did that happen?

Someone asked Dr. Conway if he had a singer who could perform in “West Side Story” at the festival, and he recommended me. I was in the Jets ensemble, and we performed with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Sir John Eliot Gardiner. I had a ball. Everyone was very generous. It was one of the best times of my life.

You’re also a composer. Wasn’t some of your music featured on the TV series based on Spike Lee’s “She’s Gotta Have It”?

When I was 18 or 19, my mother sent me a link that Spike was looking for original music for his television show. I didn’t know who the man was. I had never seen any of his films, but my brother Nazeeh is a writer and a poet, and we often collaborate. We wrote a song about my first love called “I Wish to Hold You Again.”

I didn’t think it was my best work.

But in 2018, I was in the car with my mother and stepfather on the way to a gig and I got a call. He said, “This is Spike. I’m calling to congratulate you. You won.”

Our song was used in episode 8 of that season.

Do you plan on doing more composing in the future?

I also co-wrote a song called “Keep on Movin’ On” with Luis Sullivan, a fellow student at the Royal Northern College of Music, and it subsequently aired on BBC Radio.

At some point, I want to get back to composing. But right now, my schedule singing opera is taking all of my focus and time.

Have a news tip? Contact Mary Carole McCauley at mmccauley@baltsun.com and 410-332-6704.

If you go

Tenor Hakeem Henderson and soprano Nina Evelyn will perform at 7 p.m. July 31 in Mount Vernon Place’s west park with members of the Maryland Opera’s summer camp. Free. For details, go to marylandopera.org.

NEW YORK (AP) — There are pioneering music figures, and then there is Ozzy Osbourne, the larger-than-life frontman of Black Sabbath, whose personal mythology is eclipsed only by the strength and immortality of his songs.

A godfather and force of heavy metal, Osbourne died Tuesday at 76, just months after his last performance.

The English icon’s idiosyncratic, throaty voice launched generations of metalheads, both through his work at the reins of Black Sabbath and in his solo career. Across his repertoire, there are songs with total global ubiquity and lesser-known innovations with his unique, spooky aesthetic quality.

To celebrate Osbourne’s life and legacy, we’ve selected just a few songs that made the man, from timeless tunes to a few left-of-center selections.

Read on and then listen to all of the tracks on our Spotify playlist.

1970: “Iron Man,” Black Sabbath

It would be a challenge to name a more immediately recognizable guitar riff than the one that launches Black Sabbath’s 1970 megahit “Iron Man.” It transcends the metal genre — an all-timer heard around the world and in guitar stores everywhere.

1970: “War Pigs,” Black Sabbath

One of the great Vietnam War protest songs, Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” is a rare moment where hippies and metalheads can agree: “Politicians hide themselves away / They only started the war / Why should they go out to fight?” Osbourne sings in the bridge.

1971: “Children of the Grave,” Black Sabbath

Osbourne’s heaviest performances are at least partially indebted to Black Sabbath’s bassist and lyricist Terry “Geezer” Butler, and there is perhaps no better example than “Children of the Grave,” the single from the band’s 1971 album, “Master of Reality.” “Must the world live in the shadow of atomic fear?” Osbourne embodies Butler’s words, a sonic fist lifted in the air. “Can they win the fight for peace or will they disappear?”

1973: “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath,” Black Sabbath

Black Sabbath were in a creative rut in the time period leading up to “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath,” the opening track from their 1973 album of the same name. It’s almost hard to believe now — the song features one of their best-known riffs, and its chorus features some truly ascendant vocals.

1980: “Crazy Train,” Ozzy Osbourne

Would the world know what a vibraslap sounds like without the immediately recognizable introduction to Osbourne’s first solo single, “Crazy Train?” To call it a classic is almost a disservice — it is an addicting tune, complete with chugging guitars and Cold War-era fears.

1980: “Mr. Crowley,” Ozzy Osbourne

Another classic cut from Osbourne’s debut solo album, “Blizzard Of Ozz” — released one year after Osbourne was fired from Black Sabbath for his legendary excesses, — the arena rock anthem “Mr. Crowley” pays tribute to the famed English occultist Aleister Crowley and features Deep Purple’s Don Airey on keyboard.

1981: “Diary of a Madman,” Ozzy Osbourne

The title track and coda of Osbourne’s second solo studio album, “Diary of a Madman,” runs over six minutes long, features big strings and a choir so theatrical it sounds like they’re scoring a medieval war film. He wanted big, he wanted dramatic, and he nailed it.

1991: “Mama, I’m Coming Home,” Ozzy Osbourne

It wouldn’t be inaccurate to call “Mama, I’m Coming Home” a beautiful-sounding song. It’s unlike anything on this list, a power ballad featuring lyrics written by the late Motörhead frontman Lemmy and a welcomed deviation.

1992: “I,” Black Sabbath

When Black Sabbath comes to mind, most fans jump to an unimpeachable run of albums released in the ’70s and early ’80s. But “I,” a cut from Black Sabbath’s too often overlooked 16th studio album, “Dehumanizer,” is worth your ear. And not only because it is the first Sabbath album to feature singer Ronnie James Dio and drummer Vinny Appice since 1981’s “Mob Rules,” though that’s an obvious plus.

2019: “Take What You Want,” Post Malone with Ozzy Osbourne and Travis Scott

Late in life Ozzy Osbourne was generous with his time and talent, often collaborating with younger performers who idolized the metal legend. One such example is Post Malone’s “Take What You Want,” which also features the rapper Travis Scott. Osbourne gives the song a necessary gothic edge — validating the otherwise balladic song’s use of a sprightly guitar solo.

While June is traditionally Pride Month, Annapolis Pride Board Chair Joe Toolan said the new date still comes “at a time of importance.” The first March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights was held in October 1979, and October has since been designated LGBTQ History Month by a coalition of education organizations in the U.S. The parade and festival will be a week after National Coming Out Day.

All of the details of the June parade and festival remain mostly the same, including U.S. Space Force Col. Bree Fram being the parade’s grand marshal.

The parade will begin at 10 a.m. at Calvert and Bladen streets, continue through Church Circle and up West Street, and end at Amos Garrett Boulevard. From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., the festival will be held outside the Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts and the Bates Athletic Complex.

One concern with summer parades is the heat, and Toolan said the October parade will be much cooler and safer. He encouraged people to wear Halloween costumes for a “spooky-themed” parade and festival.

The Annapolis Pride Board will see how October’s parade goes and determine whether it will be held in the summer or fall in the future.

“We’re really rooted in community here, and we’re going to help stand with each other no matter what,” Toolan said.

He said it was a difficult decision to postpone, but the right decision to make for everyone’s safety.

“This year has been really difficult for all of us, and we were really looking forward to spending time together as a community and really being there for each other,” he said.

Annapolis Pride’s other events in June included a beer launch at Forward Brewing and a music and food festival.

Have a news tip? Contact Tori Newby at tnewby@baltsun.com.

The mission of Fine Tuned Presents, which brings concerts to areas in and around Carroll County, is to “build community and culture” through affordable live music, he said. Fine, 26, organizes these performances about once a month, inviting touring artists and groups that are traveling between cities for shows and might pass the area on the way.

Most recently, Fine Tuned Presents hosted Richmond, Virginia, band Drook at the Westminster Skatepark in June and Washington, D.C., band Dim Wizard in May at AMH Records in Manchester. Fine said the next event will be at the end of August and is a “pretty special one,” but he hasn’t announced who will be playing yet. The event will most likely be held at AMH Records, he added.

Fine had originally planned to double major in economics and sociology his first year at McDaniel, but quickly found his love for music and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in the music program. He then got his master’s degree in teaching from McDaniel, and now teaches music to kindergarten through eighth grade students at the Montessori School of Westminster.

“I realized as I grew more attached to Westminster as my home and Carroll County as my home, that I was just trying to learn and apply [the live music scene] to here,” Fine said.

Although Fine has moved five times throughout his upbringing, he said Westminster feels the most like home, which is why he founded Fine Tuned Presents here. But Westminster didn’t have the live music community he found in other places he’s lived and performed in. That, he said, was his biggest motivator to create the organization.

“There’s work to be done everywhere in terms of building community and creating things that inspire,” Fine said. “I enjoyed traveling and seeing that happen in other places, but I wanted it to happen here — I wanted it to happen in my community.”

This past year, he said, Fine Tuned Presents was able to offer about one show per month to the community, but he hopes to be able to host two or three shows each month starting this fall as demand grows.

For events that aren’t free, Fine said tickets are sold on a three-tier “pay-what-you-can” sliding scale to ensure residents can attend without worrying about the cost. There are access tickets (the lowest price), sustainable tickets (the medium price) and general admission tickets (full price).

The access price helps support further Fine Tuned programming, the sustainable level helps the event break even and the organization typically loses money on general admission, Fine said.

So far, he said Fine Tuned Presents sold over 1,000 tickets for events, and added that he’s putting the money he makes from these shows back into Fine Tuned to “build it sustainably.”

“Fine Tuned feels like the point of not only my music career, but why I exist fundamentally,” Fine said. “My purpose is to bring people together through music.”

Eventually, Fine said, he hopes to bring a concert venue for Fine Tuned Presents to the area not only to expand his organization but also to continue creating opportunities for area workers, musicians, artists and engineers through an increased number of live music performances. Fine said he also hopes to expand Fine Tuned Presents to other localities, but said it’s a priority to never leave Carroll County.

“What we’re doing is inspiring people to look around their community and the spaces they’re in and create what they want to see,” Fine said. “It’s not only helping the artists in a really genuine way, but it’s also putting Carroll County on the map.”

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