Songs and cheers a grand band tradition

"Crash through that line of Blue And send the backs around the end! Fight! Fight for every yard! Princeton's honor to defend (rah rah rah!) Roar, Tiger! Sis boom bah! And locomotives by the score! We will fight with a vim that is dead sure to win For Old Nassau!"

Thus the band sang out last Saturday against Penn, performing Princeton's primary fight song, the Princeton Cannon Song.

The history of songs at Princeton is a long one, dating back to the beginning of this century.

In 1922, two Princeton alumni, Frank D. Halsey '12 and A.C.M. Azoy, Jr. '14 published the book Goal Line which detailed many of the early songs and cheers.

Most of these were in the form of a lyrical ballad, celebrating the accomplishments of one great player in a single game.

Some examples include DeWitt's Duet, from an 11-6 Princeton victory over Yale in 1903 and Gilroy's Gallop, from a 10-3 win over Harvard in 1921.

One of the earliest non-player specific songs is the Battle Hymn of the Bowl, in honor of Princeton's 13-6 victory at Yale on Nov. 10, 1919.

"Now Glory to the Lord of Hosts, for whom all glories are! And glory to those agile youths whose fame have gone afar! Now let there be the merry sound of music and of cheers, Albeit Prohibitions come and we're done out of beers, And thou, New Haven-on-the-sound, proud city of the Yales Again let gloom enshroud thy walls and loudly rise thy wails."

From this tradition have developed the modern fight songs that the band still plays today, which include such numbers as (in addition to the Princeton Cannon Song) Princeton Forward and Goin' Back (to Nassau Hall).

The band does not restrict itself to the older songs. Often times they bust out a new favorite, including Welcome to the Jungle by Guns and Roses.

One traditional song remains above all else. At the end of every game, win or lose, the band always plays Old Nassau.

The band, however, is not the only one who participates in the song-singing festivities. Every year on the night before the Princeton-Yale and Princeton-Harvard games, the Princeton Glee Club does a concert with the opposing school's glee club.

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At the end of the performance, the Princeton Glee Club sings a medley of traditional football songs, inviting Glee Club alumni on stage to join them.

Most of these songs were written in the early 1900s, and were last revised in the 1960s. Glee Club President junior Drew Fornarola recently gave them another revision.

"Unfortunately, [the last] arrangement was done before the school went coed, so they have not been properly written for a mixed chorus," Fornarola said. "I was concerned with writing more appropriate choral parts, and with editing the accompaniment and improving transitions. The challenge was to revise the music while still being true to their original sound and style."

The Glee Club performed the new revised medley in October before the Harvard game, and it was well received. They will perform it again at Yale on Friday.

In addition to the songs, the band engages in some raucous cheers. These mostly serve to show disapproval for the decisions of the referee or encouragement for the players.

Examples include, "Hey, ref! If you had one more eye, you'd be a cyclops! A blind cyclops!," and "Defense! Defense! Block their means of egress!"

Obviously, some of the cheers are received better than others, and some very clearly let on that Princeton is an academic powerhouse with a vocab to match. Through it all, the band has become a symbol for tradition and continuity, their orange and black jacket an emblem of University athletics.