After I was the recording secretary of the Delta Psi (??) chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha (?KA) on the College of Maryland, I ordered provides from the nationwide headquarters and seen that they had a document album, Brothers Sing On, for $1.
The quilt regarded so tacky that I couldn’t resist getting a duplicate.
The document got here out in 1964 for the Pi Kappa Alpha 96th Anniversary Nationwide Conference. Even then, I’ve to think about this twelve-track LP regarded and sounded outdated.
It took some time for Brothers Sing On to reach to me. They most likely needed to dig by means of some dank basement to discover a copy, as a result of who was severely ordering this within the early Nineteen Nineties?
After I obtained it, I couldn’t hearken to it, since I’d moved on from information in highschool and solely had a cassette and DVD participant. However after I went to my Dad’s home to go to some time later, I needed to deliver it alongside and put it on the turntable.
Let me preface this by saying I purchased a variety of music after I was younger. I actually spent all my cash on recorded music or live performance tickets, so though I had regular jobs from the time I turned 15, I by no means had sufficient cash for a automotive.
I didn’t get a driver’s license and a automotive till I used to be 23, as a result of my starvation for music was so sturdy.
Anyhow, I purchased the entire music I might get my arms on. After I was low on money, I’d go to the cut-out bins at document shops and purchase low-cost tapes for lower than a greenback primarily based on the covers and music names.
More often than not, these have been terrible picks, however I saved doing it. I additionally revealed a music zine in highschool, and I obtained assessment copies from so many dangerous punk bands. Nonetheless, nothing in my entire music assortment (together with the actually dangerous stuff that I tossed within the trash over time) was ever as dangerous as Brothers Sing On.
Perhaps I’d have appreciated a few of these tunes if our fraternity chapter sang any of those conventional songs. However once we serenaded sororities, the songs we sang have been fairly vulgar and inappropriate. It’s a very good factor we threw superior events, as a result of our songbook was very missing.
To provide you an concept of how these songs sound, the singers have been undergrads and alumni from the Pi Kappa Alpha chapter at Birmingham Southern School, they usually gave the impression of a Forties boy band singing within the model of a barbershop quartet. It makes Lawrence Welk sound like loss of life steel.
Right here is how the liner notes of Brothers Sing On introduce the document:
Fellowship is the hallmark of Pi Kappa Alpha. It flows into deep and abiding friendship and brotherhood.
Singing is man’s pure expression of fellowship. Chapter and group singing are each a trigger and a results of fraternalism. Since 1868, the bonds of brotherhood in Pi Kappa Alpha have been strengthened and hearts made glad by the refrain of voices lifted in songs of fellowship.
This recording will deliver many moments of listening pleasure. It’s also designed to make individuals out of all of us. This singing, by the lads of a single chapter, demonstrates the musical potential in each chapter. Our many lovely Pi Kappa Alpha songs can come alive solely as we sing them.
A singing chapter lives in concord. Hear and sing the songs of brotherhood!
It’s no marvel school fraternity membership declined considerably within the late Nineteen Sixties and Seventies, with this corny stuff happening and anti-establishment sentiments amongst school college students.
If anybody desires a duplicate of this document, Columbia Particular Merchandise launched it (Catalog No. 99021); you might be able to discover one on eBay. However don’t come for mine—these wax tracks will stick with me to the top.