paulymo

Michael, I find your sarcasm a bit childish as discussing the season ahead of us is a legitimate conversation. Isn't speculating about the 2013 Drum Corps season similar to discussing who will win the Super Bowl next year? By your logic ESPN should cancel a majority of its programming and only report on post-game recaps. You would be taking half the fun out of sports. And for the person who called me a troll, I have not tried to hide my identity. Am I a regular poster at DCP... no. I simply posted my comments here because I thought it was the best format to get a sensible discussion. I have and will fully admit the shows that BD has produced have been very technically good shows and they have shown that by having two undefeated seasons (recently) and winning three of the last four years. I think the people who understand my argument understand and agree or can post justifiable arguments and others will just say I am trashing BD. BD is a great organization with great staff but I strongly feel they have lost their identity and their show selection for this year is not a great one. In a few years, fans will be saying play When A Man Loves A Women or Legend of the One Eyed Sailor not play Ritual of Abduction. As a BD Alumni... I hope they have another undefeated season but it doesn't mean that I won't enjoy someone else's show more and be happy if that other corps wins. But that is just speculation and won't know till I actually see some performances. Paul

People who keep saying that I (or others) am "slamming" BD because they are successful don't get my post. I marched BD for 6 years in the A Corps and 3 years in the B Corps... I want nothing more than success for BD and love the fact they have 15 Championships. I hope they win it this year and next and next but it doesn't mean that I have to "love" the music they play. Like me, many people have one shot to see a durm corps show and have to drive several hours to see it. I don't want to be told the show is awesome after you see it five times live and several more times on DVD. I want to go to a show and be singing the music on my four hour drive home. Last year, I went and watched Cadets practice for about an hour and was singing their show in my head for days. A lot of people bashed Cadets show last year but it was great to enjoy and sing the music. As someone said, I hope drum corps realizes they have gone away from their formula that works for fans and gets back there to be more successful than they were before.

Michael, the problem is the closest show to me that BD will be attending is over four hours away. So yes, I need to listen to the source material and decide if it is worth the eight hour round trip to see them. I have listened to the source material and personally not a fan and would rather hear the original version of the Rite of Spring. Reading through everyone responses there seems to be a majority of people that have liked one or two shows over the past 5-7 years. I knew my post would draw some criticism because BD keeps winning. But in an activity that is geared towards entertaining a crowd I think BD has lost their identity and moved away from a formula that worked at entertaining the crowd. I am still a supporter of BD and they will always be my sentimental favorite to win every year and I even donated quite a bit a money to the brass scholarship fund this year. However, I would have to go back to the 90's to be able to listen to a BD show in the car and enjoy it. Take last year for example... there were snippets of great music but once you started to enjoy the music it was broken up to fit some visual element of the show. There are still corps that you are able to enjoy them musical when listening to them in the car... BD is no longer one of them unless you just want to hear great clips of music hear and there. Thank you everyone for reading my post and responding with great comments.

I've giving this a lot of thought since the announcementof this year’s Blue Devils show and am very disappointed with the showselection this year. First off, I have no doubt the corps will soundawesome and they will perform the hell out of it but will the audience enjoyit? The Blue Devils playing the Rite of Spring (that's whatit is no matter what you call it) is like Philip Glass as the musical guest onSaturday Night Live. In fact, I would go as far as to relate thelast few years to Season 11 (85/86) of SNL when the show almost got cancelledbecause they tried everything and anything that year. In Episode 13,Philip Glass was the musical guest with Francis Ford Coppola as the host and itwas the only time the musical guest wrote a different intro to the show whichmatched Glass's style. When we watch SNL we don't usually want to see a musicalguest like Philip Glass and when we go to watch BD we don't expect them to beplaying Stravinsky. If I wanted to hear Philip Glass I would go seethe symphony play it and if I wanted to hear Stravinsky in Drum Corps I wouldexpect the Cavilers or Phantom to play it. One could argue that BDis playing the "Jazz" versions but I personally believe Rite ofSpring does not transfer very well from classical to Jazz. I expect the crowds will not understand the show or evenboo when they win. This is because The Blue Devils have letStravinsky be their musical guest when the fans expect Buddy Rich or StanKenton styles of music. Don't blame the crowd for not understandingthe show... I think it is time for the Blue Devils staff to see the disaster ofa decade (musically and fan appreciation) they are having with their identitycrises and go back to what works. Note - I disregard the Championships asworking because the crowd did not enjoy the show for at least half of them forthe past decade. Paul Morris BD Alumni 92-97