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"Fight Fiercely, Harvard" is a satirical college fight song written and originally performed by Tom Lehrer and dedicated to his alma mater, Harvard University. [1]. The song was written in 1945 while Lehrer was in his second year of study in Harvard College [2] and "eventually made him a local hero".[3]
History
The song was Lehrer's earliest -- and for a while his only -- musical work and included on Songs by Tom Lehrer -- a 1953 debut album that began with 400 copies of the then novel 10" LP record format produced by Lehrer at his own expense and sold in stores around Harvard Square. [4] In speaking about "Fight Fiercely, Harvard" and the rest of his satirical repertoire that brought him a certain level of fame as an undergraduate, he says he did not write to gain popularity but rather:
I mostly thought these songs weren’t of interest to anyone! I wrote ‘Fight Fiercely, Harvard’ in 1945. That’s the earliest song on any of my records. The others were written a little later. I wrote a lot of songs for special occasions ... silly songs, songs about math, and so on, but nothing else that would be recordable until 1948.[5]
Of his undergraduate songwriting, Lehrer has said:
The only one of those songs that eventually made it into my repertoire was 'Fight Fiercely , Harvard,' which was written in 1945 and shows it. I started singing these songs at parties, but never with the intention of their becoming commercial. [6]
An urban legends of sorts sprung up which says that Lehrer, who eventually became a mathematician[7], stopped performing because the displeasure of Harvard University's administration over the satirical lyrics of "Fight Fiercely, Harvard" threatened to ruin his career. In response, Lehrer replied:
...my stimulus came from humor however grim the humor may have been at the base. I wasn't burning when I wrote these songs. I think I still have the craft to write, but I just don't have the inspiration...it amazes me that anyone would think a song making fun of the football team was grounds for expulsion.
Today "Fight Fiercely, Harvard" lives on in the repertoire of the Harvard University Band [9] and was included it on their 75th anniversary album released in 1995.[10] The song seems to remain fairly well-known in the Harvard community. [11][12][13][14][15]
Theme
The humor of "Fight Fiercely, Harvard" revolves around the supposedly more refined and gentlemanly nature of Harvard athletes. As it appears on Songs by Tom Lehrer, a studio album, it is preceded by banter almost as long as the song itself. In talking to his audience of associates in the studio, Lehrer explains that he wanted to create a college fight different from those performed in, as he says with a hypercorrective use of a Latin plural for a common English word, "in comparable stadia." This preamble also says, in part:
...I was reminded not too long ago, upon returning from my lesson with the Scrabble pro at the Harvard Club in Boston, of the days of my undergraduacy long ago when there used to be these very long Saturday afternoons in the fall with nothing to do - the library was closed - just waiting around for the cocktail parties to begin. And on occasions like that...did come to realize that the football fight songs that one hears...have a tendency to be somewhat uncouth, and even violent, and that it would be refreshing, to say the least, to find one that was a bit more genteel. And here it is, dedicated to my own alma mater, and called Fight Fiercely, Harvard. [16][17]
The lyrics are written with an exaggeratedly erudite style of diction and say in part:
Fight fiercely, Harvard!
Fight, fight, fight!
Demonstrate to them our skill.
Albeit they possess the might,
Nonetheless we have the will.
The lyrics also refer to celebrating a victory by inviting the "whole team up for tea" and very conscientiously warn "Let's try not to injure them" Lehrer, who was actually Jewish and from New York City, performed the song in the sterotypical Boston Brahmin accent of his on-stage persona and injected such exclamations as "...and do fight fiercely!" and "How jolly!" for humorous effect. [19][20]
Audio link
- A sample of the Harvard University Band's version of "Fight Fiercely", Harvard can be downloaded from tomlehrer.org
References
- ^ [1] Fight Fiercely, Harvard
- ^ [2] Tom Lehrer: The Elements
- ^ [3] Tom Lehrer the Man, His Myth and his Music?
- ^ [4] A Conversation with Tom Lehrer
- ^ [5] Tom Lehrer the Man, His Myth and his Music?
- ^ [6] Tom Lehrer: The Political Musician That Wasn't
- ^ [7] Tom Lehrer the Man, His Myth and his Music?
- ^ [8] Tom Lehrer the Man, His Myth and his Music?
- ^ [9] Harvard University Band
- ^ [10] Harvard University Band 75th Anniversary Album
- ^ [11] Tom Lehrer the Man, His Myth and his Music?
- ^ [12] Fight Fiercely, Harvard
- ^ [13] Be openly accessible or be obscure
- ^ [14] Harvard Fight Songs
- ^ [15] Fass fiercely Bouvie
- ^ [16] Fight Fiercely, Harvard
- ^ [17] Tom Lehrer Revisited
- ^ [18] Harvard University Band
- ^ [19] Tom Lehrer: The Elements
- ^ [20] Harvard University Band
Did you know...
That "Fight Fiercely, Harvard" is a satirical college fight song written by a mathematician?