How Our Songs Define Us
by Dave Leathers • January 2009 • 10 Comments •
In 1984, Lambda Chi Alpha decided to revise the official Fraternity songbook in honor of the 75th Anniversary. The hope of our leadership was to revitalize the wonderful tradition of music that united and inspired so many generations of brothers and our founders held to such a high standard. Now that we’re turning 100, I feel compelled as the last editor of Songs of Lambda Chi Alpha to address one of our oldest legacies, singing.
Where Are We Now?
Imagine the scene at your next major sporting event if, when the National Anthem was played, people all over the stadium sang those cherished words to any tune of their choosing. That’s right, “The Star Spangled Banner” sung to the tune of “Oh Christmas Tree,” “Oh Canada!” or “God Save the Queen.” Well, that’s the situation at chapters all over the continent when you hear them sing “We’re All Good Brothers,” “All Hail,” or any other traditional Fraternity song.
Somewhere along the way, the actual melodies have become lost and/or blended to the point where when we are together collectively at a Conclave or Leadership Seminar, it sounds like complete chaos. While it might be fine for your local chapter since everyone will know your version, it makes it really impossible for anyone else to join you. Yes, there is a time to be socially relevant, but there is also a time to link up traditionally. Otherwise, some brothers get excluded.
Need another example? Hey, here’s an idea. Let’s sing “We’re All Good Brothers” where instead of putting your arms around each other’s shoulders to form a circle like we used to do, a “mosh pit” forms where brothers are throwing themselves into each other. Well, that may be fun and culturally relevant in some ways, but I’m guessing you won’t see your alumni “crowd surfing” at the next Founders Day Banquet!
A few years ago, I had the opportunity to attend the 90th Celebration of a nearby chapter. At one point in the evening the undergraduates were called upon to render a song. Well, they sang one. Thankfully, it wasn’t profane. Quite the contrary. They sang a traditional favorite, “We’re All Good Brothers”. Unfortunately, the song was virtually unrecognizable to the more than 100 alumni in the room who would have loved to have joined their voices in song…had they only known the tune.
After the event, I asked one of the active brothers about the song disparity and he replied “that’s how we sing it now.” Wow! We missed a fantastic opportunity to bridge the gap of multiple generations of brothers by uniting in a song we all knew. Or in my case, feeling connected to brothers who weren’t from my home chapter. What was really interesting was that version of the song that most of the undergrads thought was “traditional” somehow had evolved over the years to a completely different tune than their own alumni learned. So much for that tradition.
History of Our Songs
Historically, our songs were a component of our fraternal experience that linked not only brother to brother, but chapter to chapter. Just like the benefit of a standard Initiation Ritual that provides commonality across the continent, songs of the Fraternity were another way to feel connected. Have we lost that connection today? I think so. And it’s tragic in a historical way, because our founders felt so strongly about it that they addressed it in some of our earliest publications.
The first time Lambda Chi Alpha songs appeared in any published “official” format was in 1916 (only seven years after our founding). Former Grand High Phi Louis Robbins (Brown 1912) said in the March 1916 Purple, Green, and Gold, “We cannot have too many songs. It is the duty of every member who has musical or poetic ability to contribute to the…quality of songs.” At one point, the fraternity actually held a song contest, and awarded a diamond badge or $190 to the winner in 1920.
How did the songs come about? Out of practical necessity. Years ago, long before brothers wore shirts with Greek letters on them, it would have been difficult to identify that group of young men who were walking across the campus or standing in front of their favorite sorority house. What a better way to identify your group than with a song? There were songs that said “Hello,” songs that said “Goodbye,” and songs for every occasion from pledging to graduation. There were songs to pray with when you blessed your food, and certainly there were songs we sang while socializing.
International Centennial Celebration
The 6th Edition of Songs of Lambda Chi Alpha was revised in 1984 in honor of the 75th Anniversary. The words were “modernized” to make them contemporary, and guitar chords were added since it seemed more chapters had access to guitars than a piano. Extensive research went into that edition (the previous edition was issued in 1940) with the hope that brothers everywhere would embrace their musical history and see singing as a great way to display and build spirit collectively.
Personally, I would like to sing “We’re All Good Brothers” at the International Centennial Celebration, with hundreds of my brothers from all over, and be able to recognize the tune. I’m planning to get all “choked up” and emotional about it, too. If I have to champion this cause alone, I will but I’m guessing that many other brothers feel as I do.
The Initiation Ritual isn’t the only thing that connects each of us to the other. Your singing a song about things I too remember lets me feel that we share a bond. It’s as if you were actually there when I was there; wherever “there” happened to be.
So, to all of our undergraduate brothers, here’s my encouragement. Yes, we want you to learn the songs and sing them every chance you get! But learn some of the songs that the rest of us learned (yes there is actually a melody with notes and everything).
You may have heard of brother John E. Mason (Pennsylvania 1913). While writing the preface for the 1925 edition of Songs of Lambda Chi Alpha he said, “By publishing the best of our songs, it is thought that a song tradition can most effectually be founded.” I’m sure he never imagined that each chapter would sing the songs differently than any other.
If nobody knows the song you’re singing, it’s called a solo!
Bobby Ray Hicks Says:
January 5th, 2009 at 5:39 pmDave:
Thanks for a great article. I cherish the days in the 50’s when we sang a lot at the dinner table. Eventhought I do not know one note from another, something I have always wanted to do was to sing with the choral group at the General
Assemblies. Jill always wanted to sing also and she knew music. Maybe I will just try it at the next one!
In ZAX
Bobby Ray
Patch aka Anthony Howard Says:
January 5th, 2009 at 6:42 pmI had the pleasure of being pressured to join the choir for General Assembly (1994?) in Indianapolis. Until that time I had no idea that Lambda Chi Alpha had so many songs. We had songs for pinning your girl to serenading your housemom. The choir also had the pleasure of being recorded on CD. I still have that CD at my house but I believe I lost the song book. One of my most memorable moments of Lambda Chi.
In ZAX,
Anthony “Patch” Howard
Tom Croft Says:
January 5th, 2009 at 8:49 pmDave, thanks for helping me recall one of my fondest memories as a brother. I was honored to be asked to direct a chorus for a workshop at Depauw in 1961. We actually performed for the banquet at Butler on our last night. We not only sang many of the old songs (alas, I also have lost my song book) but we finished with an original composition from the Georgetown College (Ky.) chapter. I think our picture was in the Fall 1961 issue of Cross and Crescent. It was great fun!
Yours in ZAX, Tom Croft (Epsilon Psi 292)
John Uhle Says:
January 5th, 2009 at 10:11 pmAny recordings available for purchase/downloading?
Ron Michaels Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 12:25 amWhile at Purdue, I was fortunate to be selected to sing with the Varsity Men’s Glee Club. We sang concerts nationally and internationally (Presidential Inauguration, Hollywood Bowl, Grand Canyon, business conventions — most years there were dozens of concerts). Of all the spectacular singing memories I have, one of the sweetest and most rewarding is the inter-fraternity singing competition we Lambda Chi’s at Purdue won in the mid ’50s. We sang “The Trolley Song,” and “My Lambda Chi Alpha Sweetheart” to a standing ovation (and trophy)! But, just as important and just as memorable, we started our rehearsals, our concert, and our evening meals with, “For It’s Always Fair Weather!” followed by, “We’re All Good Fellows”. Coincidentally, the Glee Club also sang “Fair Weather” (For it’s always fair weather when good fellows get together. With a stein on the table and a good song ringing clear) as a warm up and before every meal while we were on the road. One day, after singing an incredibly exciting and widely acclaimed 22,000 seat, sold-out concert in the Hollywood Bowl, we travelled the next day to the El Tovar Lodge at the Grand Canyon on our way back to Purdue. It was a bright day and the canyon was flooded with sunshine as we arrived for lunch. When 56 young, exuberent men with powerful voices begin to sing in the grand dining room of the El Tovar Hotel (with its vaulted, cathedral ceiling), lunch takes on a new meaning and becomes a concert for anyone who happens to be nearby. We always began with “It’s Always Fair Weather” in multi-part harmony that seemed to rattle the floor-to-ceiling wall of glass. The resonance and power of those voices and that moving song can touch the soul. There is nothing more electrifying and joyful! And that experience is available to each of our brothers when they sit down to dinner and sing. That song — and others — can change lives. That type of experience makes a person want to sing forever while it brings the brothers closer together.
Ron McGranahan Says:
January 6th, 2009 at 8:52 amGreat article! I too remember how much our chapter (Alpha Alpha) enjoyed singing LXA songs at dinner time and also weekly visits to sing at sorority houses. Maybe it was the time (’64-’68) and place (Butler U.) but it was great fun and we sang really well! We had the LXA song books and some of the brothers even wrote original songs for special occasions. Thanks for postng some of the original ones - I really love “All Hail.”
Ron McGranahan Butler ‘68
Glen Alan Graham Says:
January 12th, 2009 at 3:54 pmDecades before I moved into “Music City USA” a.k.a. Nashville in mid-’08, song and music was an integral part of my life. I’ve never felt led or called to make singing my profession, but I certainly do like it being an on-going central part of my life. I sing along with songs on the radio, sing in the church choir, etc. LCA has to be thanked for this, largely.
As I commented in response to an earlier article about our Brotherhood’s connection with the founding of Kappa Kappa Psi, we brothers of Epsilon-Gamma Zeta (University of Idaho) in the mid 1970s were always singing. Serenading our Little Crescents at their various sororities, singing during keggers and other functions, solo singing if a Brother got caught making a raunchy comment or violating etiquette at the dinner table, etc., etc.
I remember so fondly such standards as “All Hail, All Hail to Lambda Chi” and “Drink to All the Happy Hours” and “We’re All Good Brothers/Fellows” (score pictured above) and even the irreverent “To H— with You!” and the “California Drinking Song”.
Brother Dave, I too would really like to sing one of these — more than one would be even better! — at the International Centennial Celebration (provided that I can afford to go). And I must confess that I wouldn’t just get “choked up” at singing “Good Brothers”. My head would leak a good one upon my singing that or especially “Happy Hours” with its lyrics about “Lambda… Chi… Alpha.., hail to thee! Raise your standard high! Brothers in the mystic delta, dear old Lambda Chi!” Heck, my head’s threatening to leak simply due my typing these lyrics! Oh, the memories!
Count me “in” on THIS cause. You are not alone in championing it!
In ZAX — forever,
Glen Alan
EG 540 (Idaho BSEduc 1976, Vanderbilt MA 1988)
chris bond Says:
January 29th, 2009 at 7:19 pmWhat’s the one that says: “the cross and the crescent…it’s the grandest thing”…”because we want the world to know”…”we stand together now–we stand to win and how –for dear old lambda chi-ah-i” That song’s been running thru my head for the last 35 years!!
Bob Kellogg Says:
February 9th, 2009 at 11:36 amThis is certainly an interesting article and topic. I, too, fondly recall the singing at Alpha Kappa chapter in the early fifties. We sang at mealtime and often on the week ends.
But, the songs that were the most fun to sing were those bawdy, politically incorrect songs, unprintable in that day. Looking back, I realize that there were only a few that used unprintable words, instead, they were full of implication and innuendo. And, those unprintable words may be heard on national media today.
So, in the interest of preserving a bit of Americana that could be lost, I’ve taken on the project of putting these old songs on paper. My Alpha Kappa brothers have contributed some memories of words, and the internet is a help. I’m also writing the music as we sang the songs, so the record will be complete. Most of the melodies have origins back in the English music halls.
It looks like we’ll have about 10 or 15 such songs when complete.
JOHN P.[JACK] HAMM Says:
February 25th, 2009 at 7:24 pmOUR GAMMA OMICRON CHAPTER AT MICHIGAN STATE
UNIVERSITY USED TO PARTICIPATE IN A FRATERNITY SING
EACH SPRING HELD AT A BAND SHELL LOCATED ON THE BANKS
OF THE RED CEDAR RIVER WHICH RUNS THROUGH THE ENTIRE
CAMPUS. MOST OF THE FRATERNITIES ON CAMPUS WOULD
PARTICIPATE AND IT BECAME A MAJOR CAMPUS EVENT. EACH
CHORAL GROUP WOULD SING SEVERAL OF THEIR CHAPTER
SONGS, AND WINNERS WERE CHOSEN. IT WOULD MAKE FOR A
VERY ENTERTAINING EVENING FOR ALL THE BROTHERS AMD
THEIR DATES.
OFTEN, OUR GROUP WOULD SING AT OUR BEER BUSTS, AND TO
SAY THE LEAST, A GOOD TIME WAS HAD BY ALL !!! IT WAS
AT THESE EVENTS THAT OUR GROUP WOULD SING NOT ONLY
THE TRADITIONAL LXA SONGS, BUT WE WOULD ALL SING THE BAWDY SONGS AS WELL. ” THE SEXUAL LIFE OF A CAMEL ” IS
ONE OF THE MORE POPULAR ONE THAT COMES TO MIND.
THE SOUNDS WERE GREAT AS WAS THE FRIENDSHIP ENJOYED
BY ALL. OH WHAT MEMORIES !!
DOES THE NATIONAL HAVE ANY RECORDINGS OF A NUMBER OF
OUR FRATERNITY SONGS ? IF SO, I FOR ONE WOULD LIKE TO
OBTAIN A COPY.
YOURS IN ZAX
JACK HAMM