Keith Smerage Lyrics

They threw me out of Harvard in 1921

My name is Keith Smerage, I never hurt anyone

I grew up north of the city

My mother managed the local inn

She saved every penny she ever earned

Just to get me in

The investment in me was something

I felt I had to answer for

Nobody went to college

In my family ever before

My father never said much

I was a quiet kid

I never went in for the things

That the other boys did

I would have been a good father

But I could never picture a wife

I wanted to work in the theater

Make something out of my life

Harvard had a reputation

A secret that lived underground

A savage administration

Determined to shut it down

I attended some of the parties

Had encounters with some of the boys

I was haunted by my nature

And a punishing voice

I had a thing for a student named Nathan

A thing that I grew to despise

We had a feel for each other

Harvard could never abide

President A. Lawrence Lowell

He had it in for our sort

He ordered an inquisition

Created a secret court

The room didn't have any windows

One dim light by the door

Five against one they questioned

Each of us for two hours or more

How old were you when it started

Give us the other boys names

How many times in a week

How many times in a day

32 interrogations, Seven days after that

Fourteen of us convicted

Twenty-four hours to pack

Letters sent to our parents

All of our records erased

Anyone asking about us

Details of our disgrace

My mother wrote eloquent letters

Please to the deans she implored

A little bit less of your justice she said

Jesus a little bit more

But they never showed any mercy

They never did from the start

Mercy was not in their nature

Jesus was not in their hearts

No remorse for their devastation

No quarter for leniency

They had a job to preserve and protect

Their Ivy League fantasy

President A. Lawrence Lowell

Unrepentant and unreconciled

They said that he had a loveless marriage

He never fathered a child

Born to a Brahmin family

He knew he had God on his side

But the road to heaven is narrow

The road to hell is wide

Most of us never recovered

Some of us didn't survive

The weight of the guilt and the shame and disgrace

Three of us took our own lives

Goodbye Eugene and Cyril

They never mourned your loss

They built the devil a city

They put their sons on a cross

I held it together a while

But I never found my way

I held it together exactly until

1930 September the 8th

Glory be to the father, Mary, full of grace

Say goodbye to my mother

I'm sorry to leave her this way

The Pine Grove Cemetery

I lie with my name on a stone

Buried next to my mother

On a rise overlooking our home

They threw me out of Harvard, in 1921

My name is Keith Smerage

I never hurt anyone