When the Stanford Fleet Street Singers were building a repertoire in the early 1980s, they wanted to include historical Stanford tunes. But all they knew was the Stanford hymn ("Hail, Stanford, Hail") and "Come Join the Band." Digging through the archives of the music department, they hit pay dirt: a dozen Stanford songs written between 1901 and 1915.
Alumni audiences loved the old stuff. Now Fleet Street has released some of these songs on a CD, Up Toward Mountains Higher. Numbers range from the spirited "Sons of the Stanford Red" ("Fight for the conquering Cardinal! / Over the foe let the victors go, / Triumphant march ahead!") to the wistfully romantic "Stanford Mandelay" ("For the dear old Quad at Stanford / Is the only place for me. / Through the Arboretum wheeling / With a pretty girl I know").
Produced with the help of the Stanford Alumni Association, the CD includes some of Fleet Street's recent -- and more irreverent -- songs, such as "Prayer to the God of Partial Credit" ("So when it's passing midnight, / Put your pencil away. / My advice to you, buckaroo, / is to get on your knees and pray"). It also contains the LSJUMB's rendition of "All Right Now" and Fleet Street's ever-popular 1987 rap version of the Stanford hymn.
To order, call (800) 786-3738.
