Through inception, demise, and rebirth, the Carleton Ravens football program has come full circle in 2013.
But thanks to James Wright, associate professor of music at Carleton, and Nick Dyson, director of the newly formed Carleton Conspiracy Pep Band, 2014’s resolution envisions the return of a musical touch to the sports-going experience.
Wright and Dyson are the creative team behind “Red, White, and Black,” Carleton’s new fight song. The song is expected to be unveiled later this month, according to Wright.
Wright penned “Red, White, and Black” as an original lyric composition, though it borrows from a much earlier Carleton fight song from the 1950s, he said. It is based on the well-known “Liberty Bell March” by John Philip Sousa.
“They are partly my words, but they are built on words going back to the ‘50s, then I wrote a melody around that,” Wright said.
The job took about a month, according to Wright. While he said most of the updated version is pulled out of thin air, two lines are common between the old and the new.
“Fight, fight, fight to victory,” and “And if they score, we’ll never show defeat,” exist in both versions.
“I’m imagining to get a bunch of Carleton music students together for one of the upcoming basketball games to sing,” he said.
The song’s tune is reminiscent of the theme from Monty Python’s Flying Circus, a British comedy series. Wright laughed at the comparison, offering an explanation for the song’s light-hearted feel.
“It should be quite singable, the way the song is written . . . we hope it teaches itself to some extent,” he said.
Wright said Dyson was an obvious choice for musical collaborator. Dyson attended Boise State University in Idaho and from there was steeped in an American system of marching bands and crowds of 100,000 at sports events.
Dyson recalled the tradition down south as “very big,” even though at the time he attended his alma mater, “nobody had heard of Boise State.”
“We’re playing some similar music,” he said. “There are some of the same tunes that are classics. We’re sort of putting our own spin on it, trying to play music that our audience is going to recognize and connect with.”
The Conspiracy Band, which is a new band that was launched in the fall of 2013 with the return of the Ravens football team, includes 25-30 members.
Though it has played “The Liberty Bell March” at home football and basketball games this season, they’re waiting to reveal Wright’s revamped melody and lyrics. The reason for the delay, Dyson said, is accessibility.
“As of right now we are waiting for new arrangement of it. Apparently the key that we play it in isn’t one that is very friendly for singers,” he said.
Wright acknowledged that unfortunately, this new song has the potential to steal the thunder from the old, stand alone chant of “Go Ravens, Go Ravens Go!” which most Carleton sports go-ers recognize. Wright’s angle is deliberate and hopeful.
“The student body and our side, we said we need something to spice up the games. I know speaking with the president’s office—with Jennifer Brenning—we asked what can we do to spice up the games,” he said.
The opening words of “Red, White and Black,” charge out of the gate: “Carleton Ravens down through history we fight, fight, fight to victory!”
Telling from the first line, another motive that seems to have inspired to Wright is creating tradition.
“We’re going into our 75th anniversary—we’re not a young Canadian university anymore—and we need to build up traditions,” Wright said. “You look at the older schools like McGill, University of Toronto, and you go back to American schools, they all have the great traditions of songs.”
