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At this year’s Opening Convocation, President Christina Paxson delivered a stirring rendition of the 1977 hit “Back Together (And Baby Don’t It Feel Good)” to the incoming freshman class.
In her musicalized remarks, Paxson explained to the crowd that they had been “Kept apart for a thousand years” and that she needed “Some good reason to dry my tears.” She went on to add that “Shoo bee doo doo, shoo bee doo doo, it always was you, it always was you, baby” before launching into the central theme of this year’s speech.
“Back together! And baby, don’t it feel good?” Paxson exclaimed, executing a skillful “Disco Finger” as the Board of Trustees looked on. “Back together, just like I knew that it should. Ain’t no storm we can’t weather, now that we’re back together.”
Paxson continued to express how “fab and foxy” she felt, now that health protocols and the vaccination efforts of Brown students had allowed for a return to “groove and moxie.” The song, accompanied by Vice President Eric Estes on saxophone and Dr. Ashish Jha on bass ukulele, lasted around 15 minutes. President Paxson ended the speech by reminding the incoming freshmen that she never wants to be “apart from you-hoo-hoo, baby” again.
At press time, Rashid Zia was practicing his own rendition of NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” for Commencement 2022.
