Kroks of the 1970s
Reflection by Peter Lerangis ’77 (K’75–’77, MD ’77)
For a public-school kid from Long Island in 1973, self-directed a cappella singing groups were unheard of. No one did it. And there was no mention of such a thing in orientation materials. To me, that first week in Cambridge was disorienting, a self-congratulatory bathing in mothballs and tweed, a bestowal of “Harvard” as an adjective for life, like kudzu. Walking to the Yard, I saw a crowd watching a badass bunch of guys sing their hearts out. They projected an effortlessly charming what-the-hellness, an ease with one another that was decidedly unHarvard. Their breakneck madrigals, jazzy harmonies, and ballads dazzled me. And they were funny. I assumed they were local street singers. So when Jack Arnold ’74 introduced the group as the Harvard Krokodiloes and encouraged people to audition (!!), this became my #1 goal in life, just ahead of winning the Nobel Prize.
By the ’70s, the Kroks were exploding their traditional ’50s-medley, novelty-song traditions, spurred by the wild, jazzy, experimental arrangements of Jeff Gutcheon. Under the leadership of its first Black musical director, Leonard Easter ’73, the group had overcome a prep/public school social schism and now projected a more inclusive, laid-back attitude with an equal regard to personal sympatico and crisp musicianship. So this is how I remember the Kroks of the mid-’70s: we sang what moved us — jazz tunes, madrigals, comedy songs, Motown, even a Renaissance motet or two. We considered ourselves the anti-Whiffs, wearing tuxes only when we had to and emphasizing audience connection and improvisatory intros over archness and uniformity. Our five-afternoon-a-week rehearsals echoed with raucous laughter and disciplined harmonizing.
How lucky we were that Peter Mansfield ’76 cut his musical teeth with us, first as amanuensis and then as musical director. We made our Sanders debut in 1973, followed by years of standing-room-only audiences as the group’s campus popularity soared. Until the establishment of the Radcliffe Pitches in fall 1975, the Kroks were the only a cappella group on campus. Earliest admission to the Kroks began in sophomore year (from a second-semester first-year tryout), and very few members dropped out. That solidity boomeranged in 1976–77, when the group lost 11 out of 12 members, at a time when most numbers were not written down and instead learned by ear. But by then the group’s musical bona fides were strong, the auditions were ridiculously competitive, and the group was primed for a renaissance and re-making in the 1980s, led by Alex Aldrich and Stu Malina.
Our ’70s group remained a lucky band of brothers and have stayed close over the near-half-century, still performing, still learning new material. At least twice a year we travel from far and wide to meet as a group fifteen- to twenty-strong. Our annual concerts on the Cape draw, well, dozens. And because memory decreases with age, or maybe in spite of it, we still laugh at the same jokes.
