"GSAS (Graduate School of Arts and Sciences)"
Words by Tom Lehrer
copyright (c) 1951
Tune: "Goofus", by Wayne King and William Harold

These lyrics are posted here with permission from Tom Lehrer. You are encouraged to download them for your own use, and to notify others of the URL (web address) for this page, or the more general URL of this site. You may not post the lyrics elsewhere on the internet, nor sell copies. All other rights are reserved.

Because the original tune is under copyright, we are not posting the recording of the Physical Revue version here. (Please come back in 2026, when the copyright on the original tune expires. It will be worth it, because this song is just delightful!) However, you can get a fair sense of how the song works by starting this video of the original, and then following along with the lyrics below (starting with "Song begins"). Note that in the video, they sing the bridge through twice, whereas it only appears once in the Lehrer version. Also, in the video they go on to sing the bridge again after verse 2, which doesn't happen in the Lehrer lyrics.


Introductory dialog (spoken by Lew Branscomb):

Let me also say, I hope that each and every one,
All will go right on in physics, when this course is done.
Most of those who do so, as a fairly general rule,
End up, just as I did, in the dear old graduate school.

So let us take a moment now to make that resolution,
As we sing our alma mater, that quaint old institution,
The School of Arts and Sciences, that's known to all, I guess,
By those initials that we cherish -- GSAS.

Note that the song is set into two bar (two measure) patterns, as indicated. The text in the column labelled "pickup to first bar" really fits tempo-wise at the end of the preceding second bar.

Song begins (sung by the entire cast, guitar by Robert Welker):

Pickup to first bar  first bar second bar
     
[Verse 1] Though we end  up as professors, or  selling appliances,
We   will not forget, throughout  all life's alliances,
The  dear Grad-u-ayte School of Arts and Sciences,
  No sir- ee!
  Though there is hardly a  one here who knows if he
Will  be an M.A., or a  doctor of Philosophy,
  Nevertheless,  GSAS,
  We will always be true to  thee!
[Bridge]  Though you have no  football team,
  And no cheers that  we can scream,
  Yet as strange as  it may seem,
  We still  love you.
[Verse 2] Each al- umnus may meet with suc- cess or adversity,
But   whether he feels he should  bless it or curse it, he
Ad- mits it's the best part of  this university,
  Yes sir- ee!
  Far from the real world's cor- ruption and connivery
We   love every one of your  great towers of ivory,
  And we confess, GSAS,
  We will always be true to  thee!

 

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Background image: covers from some of Tom Lehrer's albums