Overhype

"Tom Sawyer" by Rush would fit perfectly with SCV's theme this year, and it kicks some serious b#tt, musically speaking. My favorite passage starts at about 2:25...

Here are the Freelancers in the 1984 movie, "Chattanooga Choo Choo." They first appear at about 21:21 and keep popping up for a while.

Once and for all, "Nocoats" is ONE WORD!!!

They yell "FREEBIRD!," the Lynyrd Skynyrd song they start playing right afterwards. Then they make a wing formation.

I discovered "B!tches Brew" recently and like it a lot! It reminds me of something that would have been at home in the BD 2013 show (Rite of Spring). I don't think an entire show of BB would work, but some of it in context of other music could be pretty awesome. I'd especially like to see BD do it!

I believe curvelinear drill was one of the most significant performance innovations, and I believe it was the Garfield Cadets that brought that in the early 1980s. I believe there had been some asymetrical drill in marching bands and pre-DCI, so I'm not sure how innovative that truly was for DCI. As far as off the field, I believe the national tour in the 70s was a major innovation. I believe Jim Jones of the Troopers was among the first to develop that. Though rock bands, other types of performers, and sports teams have probably toured nationally in busses, I don't know that touring with such a large group of performers and equipment had been done on such a scale. Sleeping on gym floors, etc. I can't think of any significant innovation in performance since Garfield in the 1980s. Many of the more recent evolution in DCI has already been done by other types of performing groups, so I would not consider that to be true innovation. While there have been many unique effects and props over all the years of DCI, at the moment, I can't think of many that became commonplace throughout the activity.

CROWN SHOULD HAVE WON!!! Oops. Sorry. Wrong room.

Well, there HAS to be a way we can ensure that Crown wins championships. Average the last three shows. Maybe average the entire season. Give BD an automatic -2 point handicap... better make it -3 just to be safe. Play a Dr. Beat real close to BD during warmup every night. Make BD go on first. Let the air out of their tires. Send Scott Johnson to Fort Mill. Whatever it takes, make it happen. That is my "modest" proposal. </sarcasm>

Anybody have the prelim, semi and finals scores for 1988? I'd be very curious to know how those would shake out. (I'm aware of corpsreps.com, but I don't believe they have scores other than finals.) I'd be curious about the years when there were ties and placement flips from night to night too.

Tickets sold. Mods, feel free to delete.

I wonder if "The Power of 10" is in any way a reference to the Cadets' 10 DCI championships.

The Blue Devils go to eleven...

My choices for champion are based more on my favorite overall program than by who I think was the most technically excellent. And I personally place much more weight on music than visual. 1983 BD - Though I love Garfield too and would not have complained at all about a tie. 1985 Suncoast Sound (Florida Suite) - Suncoast's music more than made up for any visual book they were lacking. 1987 SCV (like Russian music box come to life) 1988 BD (Jazz. Death to the blind draw!) 1989 Phantom (New World) 1993 Star (Barber & Bartok) 1995 BD (Carpe Noctem - edgy and dark for its time) 1996 Garfield (Beef!) 1997 SCV (Fog City Sketches) 1998 BD (Romeo & Maria, or whatever) 2003 Cavaliers (Spin Cycle) 2004 BD (choo-choo-trains) 2005 Phantom (Rhapsody) 2011 BD (A House Is Not A Home) 2013 Garfield (Barber) 2014 Bluecoats (Tilt)

1985 Cavaliers - "Also Sprach Zarathustra" I remember there being many crash cymbal players (red cymbals). I believe they were guard members, but they could have been other percussionists.

Some modern arrangers tend to arrange the snot out of their source material. They take out all repeats. They add 32nd note runs as countermelodies that wind up sounding like a poor man's "Flight of the Bumblebee" (gotta get credit for that 'demand'). Chop and bop, and completely change the vibe of the original piece. So by the time the piece has been "arranged," it may be recognizeable, but will probably lack the character of the original. This obviously isn't the case with all corps/band arrangements (BD 1988). But with genres like rock/pop, which rely so heavily on tones and ambience of electric instruments and effects, much is lost when translated to a large brass ensemble. I mean, imagine a U2 band/corps show without Edge's amplification and effects. Unless you have an electric guitar and/or other electronics, the music is probably going to sound more like a Sousa march than U2.