Just Because

Words & Music:

Washington & Lee Swing (1911) via Shelton Bros. (1930s)

 

Thanks to Richard Morton, who must have been having a slow day at the office, for finding the sound clip (http://pw1.netcom.com/~jodya/s59/fwmusic.html.) and this text:  The following is from the Washington and Lee University 250th anniversary timeline under the year 1910:  Thornton W. Allen '13 publishes The Washington and Lee Swing. The chorus originated with Mark W. Sheaf '06L of South Dakota, who taught the tune to members of the guitar club in 1906. C. A. Robbins '11 wrote words and Allen composed additional music for the verses. The song caught on and by 1924, is popular all over the country, "being sung, played, and danced to in every important city from coast to coast," according to the Alumni Magazine.

 

And under 1924:  More than fifty colleges have written for permission to adapt The Washington and Lee Swing as their fight song, but Tulane University tries to claim it as its own, calling it the "Tulane Swing." William B. Wisdom '21, an irate W&L alumnus, writes to the New Orleans newspaper that W&L students "regard The Swing as a sacred trust, and the singing of it has become almost a religious rite. It has long been traditional for the students to stand with bared heads whenever The Swing is heard, and it is the song invoked when the team is in sore straits as well as when it is on top of the score."

 

G                                                                  D7

When I come to think of it baby, there's nothing much that you've really got.

D7                                                                G

When you wake up early in the morning, gee, but you don't look so hot.

G                                          G7  C

I'm waving goodbye, honey, you'll miss your old Santa Claus.

C               C#dim7           G              E7     A7       D7     G

You're going to grieve while I'm laughing up my sleeve because, just because.

 

Maybe you think that you're a honey, maybe you think that you are hot.

But I've got a little bit of something baby, something that you haven't got.

You're gonna miss me, honey, you'll miss your old Santa Claus,

How about the dough?  Honey, when I go because just because.

 

I'm gonna tell you a little something, baby, something that you never knew.

There's a million gals a-waiting, just to take the place of you.

You need a little education from your old Santa Claus.

I'm telling you, that I'm through with you, because, just because.

 

The original words (from somewhere else):

When Washington and Lee's men fall in line,

They're bound to win again another time.

For W-L I yell, I yell, I yell!

And for the university I yell like hell!

So fight, fight, fight, fight, fight for every yard.

Circle the ends and hit the line right hard,

And roll the enemy upon the sod, yes by God!

RAH! RAH! RAH!