"(I'm a) Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech" is the fight song of the Georgia Institute of Technology, better known as Georgia Tech. The composition is based on "Son of a Gambolier", composed by Charles Ives in 1895, the lyrics of which are based on an old English and Scottish drinking song of the same name. It first appeared in print in the 1908 Blueprint, Georgia Tech's yearbook. The song was later sung by the Georgia Tech Glee Club on The Ed Sullivan Show in 1953, and by Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev during the 1959 Kitchen Debate.
"Ramblin' Wreck" is played after every Georgia Tech score in a football game, directly after a field goal or safety, and preceded by "Up With the White and Gold" after a touchdown. It is also frequently played during timeouts at the team's basketball games.
The term "Ramblin' Wreck" has been used to refer to students and alumni of Georgia Tech much longer than the Model A now known as the Ramblin' Wreck has been in existence. The expression has its origins in the late 19th century and was used originally to refer to the makeshift motorized vehicles constructed by Georgia Tech engineers employed in projects in the jungles of South America. Other workers in the area began to refer to these vehicles and the men who drove them as "Rambling Wrecks from Georgia Tech." The chorus goes:
<blockquote><poem>Like every jolly fellow
I takes my whiskey clear,
For I'm a rambling rake of poverty
And the son of a gambolier.</poem></blockquote>
The tune was first adapted as a school song by Dickinson College in southern Pennsylvania in the 1850s. The adapted chorus used the following lyrics:
<blockquote><poem>I'm a son of a, son of a, son of a, son of a, son of a DKE!
I'm a son of a, son of a, son of a, son of a, son of a DKE!
Like every college fellow, I like my whiskey free,
For I'm a rambling rake of a college man,
And the son of a DKE!</poem></blockquote>
The song was subsequently adapted by the Colorado School of Mines in the late 1870s This version is the closest adaptation to "Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech."
<blockquote><poem>Like every honest fellow,
I take my whisky clear,
I'm a rambling wreck from Golden Tech,
a helluva engineer.</poem></blockquote>
The Mines version also once included:
<blockquote><poem>Oh, if I had a daughter
I'd dress her up in green,
And send her up to Boulder
To coach the football team
But if I had a son, sir,
I'll tell you what he'd do—
He'd yell: 'TO HELL WITH BOULDER!'
Like his daddy used to do.</poem></blockquote>
The song is also used by the South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, entitled "Ramblin' Wreck" although on campus it is referred to simply as the "School Song." This version is almost identical to the first four lines of "Ramblin' Wreck from Georgia Tech."
<blockquote><poem>
I'm a rambling wreck from Rapid Tech, and a helluva engineer.
a helluva, helluva, helluva, helluva, hell of an engineer.
Like all my jolly good fellows, I drink my whiskey clear,
I'm a rambling wreck from Rapid Tech, and a helluva engineer. Hey!</poem></blockquote>
In the early 1890s, Ohio State University adapted it and called it "If I had a Daughter". At the time Ohio Wesleyan University was their archrival, hence the references to Delaware, Ohio and Methodists. One verse follows:
<blockquote><poem>If I had a daughter, I'd dress her up in green,
I'd send her on the campus to coach the Freshman team;
And if I had a son, I tell you what he'd do
He would yell "To Hell" with Delaware"
And yell for O. S. U.</poem></blockquote>
In 1895, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute adapted it and called it "A Son of Old R.P.I." This version includes the lyrics:
<blockquote><poem>
Like every honest fellow,
I drink my whiskey clear,
I'm a moral wreck from the Polytech
And a hell of an engineer.</poem></blockquote>
The Clemson University Tiger Band's rude songbook, "The Unhymnal", has a four-verse parody of the fight song that is distinctly unfiltered which derides the Georgia Tech coach, football team and cheerleaders.
Here is the unofficial 4th verse to the song from the 1970s & 1980s:
<blockquote><poem>
I'm a twiddly-twat from Agnes Scott, and I dated a guy from Tech,
He took me to The Varsity, and taught me how to neck;
He fed me all those V-Dogs, and pitchers & pitchers of beer,
And now I'm the mother of a nine-pound Engineer!
</poem></blockquote>
In 1929 Norwegian University of Science and Technology adapted it and called it "Nu klinger".
<blockquote><poem>
Studenter i den gamle stad, ta vare på byens ry!
Husk på at jenter, øl og dram var kjempenes meny.
Og faller I alle mann alle, skal det gjalle fra alle mot sky.
La'kke byen få ro, men la den få merke det er en studenterby!
Og øl og dram, og øl og dram, og øl og dram, og øl og dram.
</poem></blockquote>
Two different sources are claimed to have been the origin for the song's music. The first is the marching tune "The Bonnie Blue Flag", published in 1861 by Harry McCarthy. The second, and more widely cited, is Charles Ives' composition of "Son of a Gambolier" in 1895.
Creation at Georgia Tech
thumb|right|300px|The first publication of "Ramblin' Wreck" was in the 1908 [[Blueprint (yearbook)|Blue Print, entitled "What Causes Whitlock to Blush". The words "hell" and "helluva" were too hot to print: at the bottom, it explains that "Owing to the melting of the type, it has been impossible to print the parts of the above song represented by blank spaces".|alt=A white page with black text. "What Causes Whitlock to Blush" is written across the top.]]
Georgia Tech's use of the song is said to have come from an early baseball game against rival Georgia. Some sources credit Billy Walthall, a member of the school's first four-year graduating class, with the lyrics. Entitled "What causes Whitlock to Blush",
After Michael A. Greenblatt, Tech's first bandmaster, heard the Georgia Tech band playing the song to the tune of Charles Ives's "A Son of a Gambolier",
Rise to fame
thumb|right|300px|[[Arthur Murray's 1920 Radio Dance, as portrayed in the 1920 Blueprint; "Ramblin' Wreck" was one of the songs played that night.|alt=There are four separate scenes portrayed, on in each corner, all in black and white. In the top-left picture, there are many people with brass musical instruments standing in front of a brick building. On the bottom-right corner of that scene, there is a large drum. In the top-right picture, there are many dancing men and women in suits and dresses, and the viewer appears to be slightly above them. In the bottom-left picture, a woman and a hat and a jacket is standing. There is a man and some children behind her. In the bottom-right picture, many people wearing headphones are surrounding some electronic equipment sitting on a table.]]
In 1920, dance instructor Arthur Murray organized the world's first "radio dance" while he attended Tech. A band on campus played "Ramblin' Wreck" and other songs, which were broadcast to a group of about 150 dancers (mostly Tech students) on the roof of the Capital City Club in downtown Atlanta. Murray also opened the first Arthur Murray Dance Studio while in Atlanta. It was located at the Georgian Terrace Hotel. In 1925, the Columbia Gramophone Company began selling a recording of Tech songs (including "Ramblin' Wreck"); Tech was one of the first colleges in the Southern United States to have its songs recorded.
On October 11, 1953, the Georgia Tech Glee Club sang "Ramblin' Wreck" on Ed Sullivan's "Toast of the Town" program (later known as The Ed Sullivan Show) on CBS. Because only 28 seats were available on the train to the show, Glee Club members auditioned for the available spots. The group prepared three songs—"Ramblin' Wreck," There's Nothin' Like a Dame, and the alma mater. As the story goes, Nixon did not know any Russian songs, but Khrushchev knew that one American song as it had been sung on the Ed Sullivan show. The copyright to that version expired in 1952, so Greenblatt wrote a new arrangement and applied for a new copyright. In 1953, Greenblatt sold the copyright for the new version to Georgia Tech for one dollar. and it was dropped. A different request to change the word cheer to join with respect to alumni daughters surfaced in 2015. Over the years, a few variations of this song have been created at Georgia Tech; "To cheer the brave and bold." is often substituted with "To increase the ratio," "To raise the ratio," "To help the ratio," or "To boost the ratio" as a reference to the large ratio of undergraduate men to women. Women, especially alumni, often substitute "Like his daddy used to do." with "Like his mommy used to do." At the conclusion of the song there is a call of "Go Jackets!" responded to with "Bust their ass!" Following three of these calls and responses, the song was ended with a call of "Go Jackets! Fight! Win!" Recently, however, the student body has yelled "Fight! Win! Drink! Get Naked!"
References
Works cited
External links
- Official Georgia Tech Athletics page on song (with audio file)