Here's one of the first protest songs I ever collaborated on while resident in Michigan:

TENURE TANGO, THE
(Words by Clark Akatiff & Charlie Ipcar, © 1969; tune: ragtime style as in "What are We Fighting For?)

G
It's a cloistered place, an ivory tower;
C
Professors gettin' richer by the hour,
D--------------D7--G
Doing the ten-ure tango:


Chorus:

G
It's one step forward, two steps back,
C
Moving down that tenure track,
D--------------D7--G
Doing the ten-ure tango!


That tenure train is all the rage,
If you fit the tenure gauge,
Doing the tenure tango: (CHO)

Don't look forward, don't look back;
You might jump that tenure track,
Doing the tenure tango: (CHO)

Don't look left, don't look right;
Do your research every night,
Doing the tenure tango: (CHO)

Textbook here, textbook there;
Here-a-text-, there-a-text, everywhere a text, text,
Doing the tenure tango: (CHO)

We've got students from wall to wall;
Anymore come, have to stack 'em in the hall,
Doing the tenure tango: (CHO)

Leave your students in the lurch,
You can call it "Pure Research,"
Doing the tenure tango: (CHO)


Notes:

This song was put together for a demonstration protesting the firing of a popular sociology professor, Bert Garskoff, at Michigan State University back in the late 1960's. The overall message does not appear to be dated.

Charley Noble