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http://www.wsj.com/articles/holocaust-victims-mocked-in-ohio-state-band-parody-songbook-1438263839
Holocaust Victims Mocked in Ohio State Band Parody Songbook
By SHARON TERLEP
July 30, 2015 9:43 a.m. ET
220 COMMENTS
Columbus, Ohio
A book of parody songs updated in 2012 and circulated privately by members of the Ohio State University marching band included a sendup of the Holocaust with joking references to furnaces used in Nazi concentration camps and the train cars used to transport Jews to their deaths.
The Holocaust song, called “Goodbye Kramer,” whose lyrics haven't been previously disclosed, includes lines about Nazi soldiers “searching for people livin’ in their neighbor’s attic,” and a “small town Jew…who took the cattle train to you know where.” It was written to be sung to the tune of the 1981 Journey hit “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
In a statement, Ohio State said the songbook reflected the sort of “shocking behavior” that the school is “committed to eradicating from its marching band program.”
The songbook, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, included an introduction that noted “Goodbye Kramer” as a new addition, along with a parody of the fight song of University of Nebraska, then a new member of the Big Ten conference. An introduction to the book said: “Some of these [songs] may be offensive to you. If so, you can either ignore them, or you can suck it up, act like you got a pair and have a good time singing them.”
Band members were also urged to keep the book secret. “Take it with you on trips and to parties. But never leave this out of your sight,” it says. “This book is for OSUMB members only, Past and Present. If they were not out on the field in front of 105,000 crazy fans in black (OK, navy blue) wool uniforms, they do not deserve to see this.”
Ohio State’s marching band—known for decades as “The Best Damn Band in the Land,” as legendary former coach Woody Hayes once described it—ranks among the most famous bands in college football. The band made waves during the 2013 football season with mesmerizing halftime shows, which were viewed millions of times online and were featured in a television commercial for Apple’s iPad.
The existence of a band songbook of crude parodies first came to light in July 2014 after a university-led investigation into the band’s culture. At the time the director, Jon Waters, along with many students and alumni from the band, said the songs—which also featured lyrics about rape, bestiality and homosexuality—had been out of circulation for years and were seldom sung.
But a second, more in-depth investigation of the band, commissioned by the school in late 2014, mentioned that the updated songbook contained a “highly offensive song regarding Jews,” although it didn't disclose the lyrics. “Head to the furnace room, ‘Bout to meet your fiery doom,” one line of the song reads. “Oh the baking never ends, It goes on and on and on and on.”
Waters was an assistant band director when the songbook was updated. He said he knew of the songbook in the 1990s when he was a member of the band but that his predecessor, Jon Woods, had banned it. “I understood it to be gone,” he said. “It had been outlawed for a long, long time and was something that was very much on the underground.”
Waters said he was unaware of the Holocaust song and had never seen the 2012 version of the book. “If something like that exists, that’s disgusting,” he said. “I never saw anything like that.”
Lee Auer, the former band member who wrote the 2012 songbook’s introduction, said: “I don’t think you are going to find many 19-year-olds who don’t joke about those things.” Auer, a 2007 Ohio State graduate now working as a band instructor, said he had enjoyed singing songs from the book while on the bus traveling to away football games, though he regrets that the material has become public. “It was fun for me as an individual, but we knew if the public ever caught wind of them, people are going to lose respect.
“Now, I feel worse about it than I ever did.” Auer said he doesn't recall the Holocaust song.
Mark Cominski, another former band member, who penned a song about Nebraska that included antigay jokes and references to sex with animals, said he had “a lot of confidence that it was never going to see the light of day.”
“I knew a lot of people in the band were gay and they knew I wasn’t being serious,” Cominski said. “If I were writing to a broader audience or anyone other than a few close friends I would be horrified by those words.”
Another Nebraska song added for 2012 opens with this verse: “There’s no place as gay as Nebraska, except maybe Michigan U. Where the girls are all hairy, and the boys are all fairies, on your chest we will poo.”
Jon Woods, the band’s director in 2012, couldn't be reached for comment.
Representatives from the Ohio State band alumni group declined to comment.
Waters, who believes he was unfairly punished for the band’s problems, has sued the university alleging wrongful termination and defamation. “They took 50 years of college behavior and silliness and tradition and put it all on me,” he said earlier this summer. “I was the culture reformer.”
Ohio State, in its statement, said the school is in the midst of reforming the band’s culture. The school has said it was justified in firing Waters because he knew about the band’s problems and tried to keep the extent of the troubles from university administrators.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/holocaust-victims-mocked-in-ohio-state-band-parody-songbook-1438263839
Holocaust Victims Mocked in Ohio State Band Parody Songbook
By SHARON TERLEP
July 30, 2015 9:43 a.m. ET
220 COMMENTS
Columbus, Ohio
A book of parody songs updated in 2012 and circulated privately by members of the Ohio State University marching band included a sendup of the Holocaust with joking references to furnaces used in Nazi concentration camps and the train cars used to transport Jews to their deaths.
The Holocaust song, called “Goodbye Kramer,” whose lyrics haven't been previously disclosed, includes lines about Nazi soldiers “searching for people livin’ in their neighbor’s attic,” and a “small town Jew…who took the cattle train to you know where.” It was written to be sung to the tune of the 1981 Journey hit “Don’t Stop Believin’.”
In a statement, Ohio State said the songbook reflected the sort of “shocking behavior” that the school is “committed to eradicating from its marching band program.”
The songbook, which was reviewed by The Wall Street Journal, included an introduction that noted “Goodbye Kramer” as a new addition, along with a parody of the fight song of University of Nebraska, then a new member of the Big Ten conference. An introduction to the book said: “Some of these [songs] may be offensive to you. If so, you can either ignore them, or you can suck it up, act like you got a pair and have a good time singing them.”
Band members were also urged to keep the book secret. “Take it with you on trips and to parties. But never leave this out of your sight,” it says. “This book is for OSUMB members only, Past and Present. If they were not out on the field in front of 105,000 crazy fans in black (OK, navy blue) wool uniforms, they do not deserve to see this.”
Ohio State’s marching band—known for decades as “The Best Damn Band in the Land,” as legendary former coach Woody Hayes once described it—ranks among the most famous bands in college football. The band made waves during the 2013 football season with mesmerizing halftime shows, which were viewed millions of times online and were featured in a television commercial for Apple’s iPad.
The existence of a band songbook of crude parodies first came to light in July 2014 after a university-led investigation into the band’s culture. At the time the director, Jon Waters, along with many students and alumni from the band, said the songs—which also featured lyrics about rape, bestiality and homosexuality—had been out of circulation for years and were seldom sung.
But a second, more in-depth investigation of the band, commissioned by the school in late 2014, mentioned that the updated songbook contained a “highly offensive song regarding Jews,” although it didn't disclose the lyrics. “Head to the furnace room, ‘Bout to meet your fiery doom,” one line of the song reads. “Oh the baking never ends, It goes on and on and on and on.”
Waters was an assistant band director when the songbook was updated. He said he knew of the songbook in the 1990s when he was a member of the band but that his predecessor, Jon Woods, had banned it. “I understood it to be gone,” he said. “It had been outlawed for a long, long time and was something that was very much on the underground.”
Waters said he was unaware of the Holocaust song and had never seen the 2012 version of the book. “If something like that exists, that’s disgusting,” he said. “I never saw anything like that.”
Lee Auer, the former band member who wrote the 2012 songbook’s introduction, said: “I don’t think you are going to find many 19-year-olds who don’t joke about those things.” Auer, a 2007 Ohio State graduate now working as a band instructor, said he had enjoyed singing songs from the book while on the bus traveling to away football games, though he regrets that the material has become public. “It was fun for me as an individual, but we knew if the public ever caught wind of them, people are going to lose respect.
“Now, I feel worse about it than I ever did.” Auer said he doesn't recall the Holocaust song.
Mark Cominski, another former band member, who penned a song about Nebraska that included antigay jokes and references to sex with animals, said he had “a lot of confidence that it was never going to see the light of day.”
“I knew a lot of people in the band were gay and they knew I wasn’t being serious,” Cominski said. “If I were writing to a broader audience or anyone other than a few close friends I would be horrified by those words.”
Another Nebraska song added for 2012 opens with this verse: “There’s no place as gay as Nebraska, except maybe Michigan U. Where the girls are all hairy, and the boys are all fairies, on your chest we will poo.”
Jon Woods, the band’s director in 2012, couldn't be reached for comment.
Representatives from the Ohio State band alumni group declined to comment.
Waters, who believes he was unfairly punished for the band’s problems, has sued the university alleging wrongful termination and defamation. “They took 50 years of college behavior and silliness and tradition and put it all on me,” he said earlier this summer. “I was the culture reformer.”
Ohio State, in its statement, said the school is in the midst of reforming the band’s culture. The school has said it was justified in firing Waters because he knew about the band’s problems and tried to keep the extent of the troubles from university administrators.
