The Engineers' Drinking Song (Summer 87)


Sung to the tune of The Engineers' Drinking Song
Written by Steve Heller

Performed at the 1987 Summer Dataflow Course Banquet
Verses sung by Steve Heller, Richard Soley, Rishiyur Nikhil, Natalie Tarbet, and Arvind (he only has one name)
I believe I have this captured on audio tape, which I will transcribe and make available when I find it.


Chorus:

We are, we are, we are, we are, we are the Engineers.
We can, we can, we can, we can, demolish forty beers.
Drink rum, drink rum, drink rum all day, and come along with us
For we don't give a damn for any old man who don't give a damn for us!

Godiva was a lady who through Coventry did ride,
To show the royal villagers her fair and pure white hide.
The most observant man of all, an engineer of course,
Was the only one who notice that Godiva had a horse.

An MIT computer nerd got drunk one fateful night.
He opened up the console and smashed everything in sight.
And after they subdued him, the judge he stood before,
Said, "Lock him up for twenty years; he's rotten to the core!"

Vinod and Bob and Greg and Rich and Steve and Ken and Dave,
Arvind uses "student," but we use the term "slave."
In order to escape from here, acquire any fame,
We must report some progress for the man with just one name.

(Richard)
Over at computer lab they do some dreadful things.
They wire up multiprocessors with butterflies and rings.
But when it comes to research grants, one answer doesn't change.
Who's the man with all the bucks? The prof with just one name.

(Nikhil)
I'm professor Nikhil, and I like to work with types.
My querries are all functional, with that I have no gripes.
When people ask me why my databases are so strange,
I quote professor Dennis, "Data should not change." [Dennis '82]

(Natalie)
The right-hand of the one-named man, I join you in this jest.
For weeks before the summer course, I don't get any rest.
During the long drawn-out year, I like to edit verse,
To simply fix the sentences that couldn't get much worse.

(Arvind)
A one-named man from MIT, I am your gracious host.
Singing at the banquet - is what I love the most.
The reason is quite SIMPLE, why I teach this summer course.
It's the boundary conditions and the quasi-static force.


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