Whiffenpoof Song

[cegan523]

A good friend on mine put together a compilation for me, entitled “Satan’s Greatest Lounge Hits, Vol 1”. Included on this cd were various versions of The Wiffenpoof Song.

Now, said friend has an odd sense of humor, but what is the deal with this song? I did a simple search for an analysis, but I only got listings of groups doing their renditions.

Any help?

[yabob]

The background you want is in here:

Whiffenpoofs

although maybe I should have let Little Nemo answer this one.

[DrFidelius]

If you’re ever in New Haven, stop by the Old Heidelberg. Spend enough time in the cellar there and you will hear more different explanations for that song than you can shake a atick at.

[Northern_Piper]

The reason you likely didn’t have much luck with the web searches is that this is one of those unfair topics where you have to know what you’re looking for to find it, in this case Rudyard Kipling and drunken, singing undergrads at that centre of higher learning, Yale University. (At least that’s what they called it in the calendar they sent to me.)

The starting point is a poem by Kipling, entitled “Gentleman Rankers.” A “ranker” was a term in the British Army for the other ranks, neither officers nor non-coms. Since this was the Victorian period, rankers were normally from the lower classes. There was, however, a sad class of gentlemen, born and bred, who for various disreputable reasons (drink, bankruptcy, pressing need to leave Old England) joined the Army as a ranker. Kipling’s poem is about these “Gentlemen Rankers,” as shown by the first verse and refrain:

To the legion of the lost ones, to the cohort of the damned,
To my brethren in their sorrow overseas,
Sings a gentleman of England cleanly bred, machinely crammed,
And a trooper of the Empress, if you please.
Yea, a trooper of the forces who has run his own six horses,
And faith he went the pace and went it blind,
And the world was more than kin while he held the ready tin,
But to-day the Sergeant’s something less than kind.

refrain
We’re poor little lambs who’ve lost our way,
Baa! Baa! Baa!
We’re little black sheep who’ve gone astray,
Baa–aa–aa!
Gentlemen-rankers out on the spree,
Damned from here to Eternity,
God ha’ mercy on such as we,
Baa! Yah! Bah!

The full thing is available here.

Now, you skip across the ocean to Yale at the beginning of the century, and there was a small men’s singing group, the Whiffenpoofs, which apparently took their name from a mythical creature mentioned in a then-current Broadway play. As their theme song, they adapted “Gentlemen Rankers” to the stressful lot of the average Eli undergrad - for whom singing in pubs like Mory’s and the Temple Bar seemed to have played a major role:

To the tables down at Mory’s
To the place where Louie dwells
To the dear old Temple bar we love so well
Sing the Whiffenpoofs assembled with their glasses raised on high
And the magic of their singing casts its spell

Yes, the magic of their singing of the songs we love so well
“Shall I Wasting” and “Mavourneen” and the rest
We will serenade our Louie while life and voice shall last
Then we’ll pass and be forgotten with the rest

We’re poor little lambs who have lost our way
Baa, baa, baa
We’re little black sheep who have gone astray
Baa, baa, baa

Gentleman songsters off on a spree
Doomed from here to eternity
Lord have mercy on such as we
Baa, baa, baa

Nowadays, the Whiffenpoofs are one of the most prestigious singing groups at Yale, which has a strong singing and drama tradition. Each year, a small select group of the freshman class is invited to join, at midnight on “Taps” night. For more information, see: Whiffenpoofs, and also Whiffenpoof History.

[Note to the mods: I’m pretty sure that both “Gentlemen Rankers” and the “Whiffenpoof Song” are public domain now, but if you have any copyright concerns, feel free to edit.]

[Northern_Piper]

Dr. F - ah, the Old Heidleberg - amazing how many hours of my life that pub consumed.

[cegan523]

So no Satanism, then?

Seriously, thanks for the replies.

There is magic in that song, though. It serves very well in the “song stuck in your head” curse.

[Eve]

Well, I know for a fact that Ukulele Ike attended the New Haevn Locksmith and Beauty College—mebbe he heard the Yalies Whiffenpoofing over the hedges and has some input on this?

[Running_with_Scissors]

Originally posted by jti:
To the tables down at Mory’s

So that’s what Tom Lehrer was talking about:

To the tables down at Mory’s
(wherever that may be)

Tom Lehrer, Bright College Days

I’ve been wondering about that for years…

[Northern_Piper]

frogstein, I believe Tom Lehrer went to some college in the Boston area, so his ignorance of matters Yaleian, though lamentable, is at least understandable.