It’s been a while, Krokodiles.
The Krokodiloes, Harvard’s oldest a capella group, lured 220 ex-Kroks to their 60th reunion concert last Friday. The gala featured concerts, banquets, celebrations, and even a tearful marriage proposal.
Plummer Professor of Christian Morals and Pusey Minister in the Memorial Church Peter J. Gomes kicked off the show, introducing the Kroks as “the most unsubtle of music groups.” As if to prove his words, alumni singing groups—with names like “The Primordial Oohs” and “The Dinosaurs”—sang about Viagra and masochism. “I think you can tell where our withering minds have come to rest,” joked a Krok alumnus onstage.
In contrast, the younger alumni and current Kroks sang innocent love songs as they leaped and danced across the stage. “In the older groups, you see more standing and singing, there’s nothing remarkable like tap dancing,” says Ken S. Williams ’78. “I wonder if there’s a whole new set of qualifications.”
But a capella fans shouldn’t be fooled by the Kroks’ new tricks. Music Director Thomas K. B. Wionzek ’08 says that the Kroks “observe the golden age of music.” Golden indeed; the Kroks showed off their musical roots at the end of the concert when over 200 voices harmonized on the Krokadiloes standard, “Loch Lomond,” a diddy from the 19th century.
“I felt much the same as I did 30 years ago!” says Marc T. Johnson ’78. Not surprising, for as the Krok alums showed with their number about Viagra, it’s not how old you look that counts, but how old you feel.
