ironlips

'do good; don't suck' The First Law of Performance is a brilliant one, for it encaptulates the entire essence of the system at the time: do good = the content = the "what" = the book = a build-up caption don't suck = the execution thereof = the "how" = the tick (of old) Truly, this was the insight of giants of the genre, fueled by malt and hops, of course. Yet, we should not blame the judge for the outcome. He/she is usually the last to know what's actually going on. In fact, that's exactly what led to the disappearance of that arbitrary tick. A judge would simply be seeking errors at the wrong places and times (side 1 clean, side 2 disasterous at the same moment, for instance), and have no idea about the placement of the units in the caption in question, hence, not really making any "judgement". The judge didn't even see a recap unless shown one by an instructor. "Where did I have you?" was a frequent critique question and , "I thought I had you higher." an often-heard statement. And consider the gene pool. As John Sasso once famously said, "Those who can, play. Those who can't play, teach. Those who can't teach, judge,... and everybody else writes for Drum Corps News". And "difficulty" is a red herring. I once had a philosophical discussion with Dennis DeLucia, that icon of drum instruction, regarding that concept. He pointed out the credit to be given for the ability of a drum section to attempt densely written material. I posed a scenario: two lines of equal ability, where one plays sixteenth notes at 200 bpm for 10 minutes, wheras the other plays every seventh sixteenth note. "Who has the tougher book?", I asked. He just laughed.

Would you care to elaborate on the aforementioned "First Law", O Mushroom Meister? And after that, please explain how someone of your high-born character came to embrace with such tenacity such a low-brow activity as Drum and Bugle Corps.

" "exposure to error" was a key phrase..." This was a radical concept when it was introduced, and it required some paradigm shifting to take hold. That process took years and is still controversial at times though it's now the standard way of evaluating all competitive groups, from drum quartets to Olympic gymnasts. The "how" and "what" are both considered. To this day, the best advice I ever got about this concept came from the legendary music judge and educator, Dr. Bernard Baggs. In a training for new judges, I had asked how to balance these elements fairly. In that Solomon-like and fatherly tone of his he replied, "Frank, keep in mind that anyone can play difficult music badly. There's not much merit in that."

"...those two HOF'ers still had sweet gas in the tank at the end of the show." Well, maybe Steve had some petrol, but I was usually on fumes by then. But all of us here who ever marched finals in a major show know the adrenelin was pumping so hard it didn't matter if you were half dead. You just kept going. It's no different for today's performers, I'm certain, and they'll be telling their stories 40 years from now. It's interesting, too, that '68 was the closest the Brigadiers and Sunrisers ever got to the DCA title in the decade of the '60s, though they both scored a few later on. No one would have complained if either of them had won in '68, either. There was a good deal of parity in DCA in those days, moreso than now, though that will probably change over time.

True. That Brigs hornline was sweet, and the charts were superior. Was Corky arranging?

Can you ID the corps in the photo for us? Incidentally, you have the best posture and horn angle in the group.

"... parents loved drum corps... Mom said I went to my first contest in the womb." And there you have it. Authentic Drum Corps DNA.

Yes it is,... and he's probably not the only one. Now, what's your story, Tom?

"68 finals weekend, i'm uh created." You are a true "drum corps kid".

Man, what a great story! No one will top that, but I'll bet there are a few other good ones in this crowd. I was a cub scout, you know, blue uniform with some gold piping here and there, beanie cap, dopey look on my altar-boy face. We'd do 2 things: go to meetings, and march in the annual Sacred Heart School Bazaar Parade which was about 6 blocks long. In between, I watched TV, especially "Rin Tin Tin". Those cavalry guys had uniforms too, and they were blue (though you couldn't tell on our B&W TV). I knew that from seeing a John Wayne movie. Best of all, they played a bugle call at the top of each episode. I pestered my parents incessantly until they caved and got me an Official Rexcraft Regulation Boy Scout Bugle for Christmas. I figured out how to make something resembling notes emanate from the correct end, and learned that "Assembly" call. In no time I was the bugler for Pack 333. Around the 6th grade (1958 or so) we lined up for one of those parish parades. We had no band, but the pastor had decided to hire some music this time. Suddenly, from around the block, I hear this rumbling of drums, then they come wheeling around the corner and there's a roll-off. The sliver horns flash in the sun and this incredible music ( the Bill Hays arrangement of "Great Day") fills the world. I had never heard a drum and bugle corps before and, ignoring the scoutmaster's orders, I broke ranks and ran down the street towards the tall red and white flags, and that sound. "I gotta be in this thing!" I'm thinking. Then I see them. They're all girls! My God! My dream is shattered. Drum Corps is for girls! I was the most crestfallen cub scout on the planet. Turns out, this was the St. Catherine of Sienna Marianettes, the Audubon of Queens. It would be three long years before I'd see another corps, when I got drafted into the one at Xavier High School...and (as the poet says) "that has made all the difference".

"Storm cars"? It might have been cheaper to move to Florida, or even Hawaii, where you could get some "Hawaiian stuff", like Fran's shirts. And I think we could get him to play the horn again if the Velvet Knights come back wearing those duds. "Maui Wowee", for sure.

What a bunch of clowns! Who sent them in?

No. You can return to Cru-ville anytime. There must be some cool Corky stories you can share. Didn't he teach both Rochester and Syracuse? Sasso was a great fan of his writing and had us listen to those recordings often.

John could be tough, but I never saw him disrespect anyone. With him, it was all about demanding efort, moreso mental than physical. Once at the Eastport camp (around '65) he had us playing until around midnight on Saturday evening. Everyone's chops were fried. Still, he pushed us. He was merciless. At the last note of the final run-through, Sal Crimi loosened his belt so that his pants fell to the floor on the final release. To this day, I have never laughed harder and I seriously doubt John has, either.

"When the 1984 Vanguard had a semifinal "blip" that left them 4.0 behind, they were in 4th place. The 1980 Vanguard was only 3.35 out of 1st in prelims, yet that was only good for 7th place." An interesting point there. Note that the adjudication system had changed meanwhile, from the "tick" system to evaluation by criteria reference. This cut both ways, first by ghettoizing some corps into "neighborhoods" such that it became harder to execute one's way to the top since overall design and coordination became more heavily valued, while at the same time spreads within the groupings tended to be compressed. Eventually, it also led to higher overall scores for those at the pinnacle. One could interpret the above Prelims numbers in any number of ways. (The finals spreads were different, and Vanguard was 3rd in '84.) In 1980 Semis, SCV (theoretically) made 33.5 more "errors" than the first place corps, discounting GE and MA. This opend up to 50 for Finals. That's a lot of ticks, relatively speaking. For the '84 result, one could posit that the 4 point spread indicated a real difference in kind between 1st and 4th place in the earlier show, but it closed to only 6 tenths in Finals, and the corps moved up one position. Some will point to this as evidence of judging inconsistency, forgetting that the job of the prelims adjudicator is essentially to rank, insuring that the right corps get through to finals. Also, one must take into account that corps are actually capable of quite wide swings in performance from one to the next. Or all of this could just have been the new system working through a transition. I think this more likely. After all, to this day there are still some who believe it should never have been adopted and still doesn't work.

"The corps is learning a new style of drill AND now has to learn a new concert piece when they normally would have been cleaning what they had already learned. I would think that this would affect more than one caption. " In my view, Lincoln has this just about right, and I was there as a brass instructor (for the first half of the season), and producer of "State of the Art". That session was recorded between tours, and the changes in the show came a bit later. These were extensive, and involved much more than replacing Dave Barduhn's very creative Caravan chart. (He was writing for Stan Kenton at the time and had penned the iconic version of "Send in the Clowns" for that band.) In addition to learning Mr. Royer's Evita Medley, the corps also endured a complete re-write of "Procession of the Nobles", altering the key of the entie piece, this having been recommended by a brass judge who felt the original key interfered with the tenor drum timbre. (Even if this fuzzy rationale were true, it would have been much simpler to just take a drum key to the hoops.) These alterations in the program guaranteed that the corps performance level would decline in some areas, and that certainly was not offset by a GE caption boost. While all this was going on, my former team, the Blue Devils, were polishing the best brass line ever fielded to that point, and 27th Lancers were mounting their most serious charge at the title on the strength of a super drum line and drill. No one can say what might have been. SCV wasn't going to win that year, but probably would have finished a few clicks higher without gutting the show. This takes nothing away from the corps that passed them by. They were deserving, to be sure. The above is opinion of course, but informed opinion. I doubt this issue will ever really be put to bed entirely, but we can pull the blankets over its head from time to time.

You are right, of course, but I didn't think everyone here knew Sandra Opie. Here's a little anecdote: In 1970, I was preparing to warm up the Garfield kids in the parking lot in Miami at Nationals. About 100 yards from us there was a corps I did not recognize, but when they played, I flipped. The horn line was astounding. I wealked over to one of their staff and asked, "Who teaches your hornline?" "That lady over there, Mrs. Opie", he said. I walked over to her and said, "You don't know me, but that's the best horn line sound I have ever heard". "That's such a sweet thing to say", she replied. "We just hope to do as well as Garfield". "Don't worry", I said, and walked away shaking my head. Check this: http://www.dci.org/about/fame/view_member.cfm?member_id=b4b811b8-c815-4f6a-aeaa-7d9d03ecb5cc

"...Or the pick up "Mini Corps" from Garfield Cadets, St Raphael's, , St Patrick's and "??????" that played Garfield's old "Intermission Riff" number?" St. Loozee's? And, who you callin' "old East Coast vets", anyways? Growing up is forbidden here.

Hold on there. I just guessed a letter. It could be Laura Schachter, Laureen Smith, Sharon Sarbach, Suzanne Borden, or any number of prominent drum corps babes. And as far as Staten Island is concerned, at a certain time in the history of drum corps it was the FAR west, as in cowboys (and girls). I mean, after all, they had "Lawmen".

First initial "S"?

Thanks. This was really buggin' me. Jeez! A BAND!!! F

I see this going south in a hurry.

Drum Corps culture shock. It's all relative, as when NYC kids went to contests in PA in the '60s. My first ever show with St. Catherine's was in Emmaus in '62. It was so rural compared to St Albans I kept expecting to see cowboys and Indians.

Among the three of us I thought we had almost every drum corps album and photo in existence, but I never saw this one of the Ft. Edward Vagabonds. Do we know when it was taken?

Actually, both Dennis and I were teaching; my pen, his technique, more or less. That corps was a hoot. Most of them had never been out of CA and thought New York was all West Side Story and concrete canyons. When they saw the Adirondacks they were blown away.