ken9000 Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 Pretty much any drumline from the 70s or 80s puts any modern drumline to shame. Back then you had 10 to 12 guys playing loud, fast, and exposed, with dynamics and razor-sharp precision. Now you have 6 to 9 nine guys playing dirty pitter-patter through the whole show and flailing their arms about during the 4-second "drum solo". There's simply no comparison. My all time top 5... 82 Devils 78 Vanguard 76 Oakland Crusaders 89 Vanguard 79 Phantom Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnytech Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 Man I can't believe no one mentioned 87 BD!?!?!?!?! They played Frank Zappa's Enchinda's Arf (of you) that was the best line I have ever seen except 76 Bd and 75 SCV! Flammaster, here are two 87 BD snare line pics. I can't comment on their parking lot intimidation factor because I didn't see them warmup live...I was too scared to go watch them. :) Those guys were all tall, drums all level, and they had a cool drum solo. You are right though, 87 may not stick out historically as one of the greatest even though they were as impressive as any of Float's lines. I was told 87 snare line had ego problems. There were some other amazing things going on percussion wise that summer to steal BD's thunder. You had Garfield's perfect score. There was SCV and one of their most awesome shows ever and the remake of 70s Fred Sanford drum solo. And Phantom with their 11 man snare line and new uniforms and return of Marty Hurley to teach them. BD came in 4th in drums that year behind Garfield, SCV, and Phantom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UNCGQ Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 Pretty much any drumline from the 70s or 80s puts any modern drumline to shame. Back then you had 10 to 12 guys playing loud, fast, and exposed, with dynamics and razor-sharp precision. Now you have 6 to 9 nine guys playing dirty pitter-patter through the whole show and flailing their arms about during the 4-second "drum solo". There's simply no comparison.My all time top 5... 82 Devils 78 Vanguard 76 Oakland Crusaders 89 Vanguard 79 Phantom just to reinforce what Ken said . . . if you want to doubt him download any of the 80, 81 or 82 Bridgemen APD's. In '80 the drum feature of "The Pursuit of the Woman with the Feathered Hat" is a favorite of mine and “Black Market Juggler” in '82 is well worth the time. It's no wonder they went three straight years with the high drum award. Considering the "technology" of 25 years ago, what all those guys were doing back then still amazes me (being only a few years old when those corps marched). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnytech Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 Pretty much any drumline from the 70s or 80s puts any modern drumline to shame. Back then you had 10 to 12 guys playing loud, fast, and exposed, with dynamics and razor-sharp precision. Now you have 6 to 9 nine guys playing dirty pitter-patter through the whole show and flailing their arms about during the 4-second "drum solo". There's simply no comparison.My all time top 5... 82 Devils 78 Vanguard 76 Oakland Crusaders 89 Vanguard 79 Phantom I'm a fan of old style, but I disagree. I would say taken on a bell curve of every snare and tenor drummer that will march on Saturday night at finals, the whole lot of them executes better rudimentally (won't say about cleaner) than the whole lot of snare/tenor drummers from yesteryear. Another way to express it, the weakest snare drummer from 2007 top 3 line would make a 1976 top 3 line, but not vice versa. I played a bit more modern 86-92, but had old style teachers. I'm a cross of both modern and old, plastic and falam head. I truly wish I could have witnessed Bridgemen live and played the Black Market Juggler tape a hundred times in fall of 86. A snare drummer who played in Bridgemen for the Black Market Juggler solo taught me the snare part and except for the fast left hand, it is not a challenge for today's drummers. My college line played the original version of some old Blue Devils solos, they were not difficult. I agree today's drumlines are more, in one word, "twitchy", but they can play old school book cleaner and with better precision than the old school players can. Every generation has their Rob Carson, or Ken Mazur, or Steve Campbell or today's hot snare drummers, but as a line as a whole, I think today's lines are better end to end. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken9000 Posted July 25, 2007 Share Posted July 25, 2007 I know my comments probably came out a little harsh. I was in no way meaning to attack the ability of modern drummers. I've actually been pretty impressed with some of the stuff I've seen in the lot. And some individual snares and tenors are amazing. The problem is what happens when they go on the field. They aren't given anything interesting to play, and what they do play is generally pretty sloppy. I think this yet another byproduct of the overall shift away from music over the last 15 years. If percussion only counts for 10% of the score, it doesn't matter what they play or if they're clean. They get more points for running around than they do for playing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pearlsnaredrummer77 Posted July 26, 2007 Share Posted July 26, 2007 As with any "sport" i think it's really hard to compare over generations. Everthing was different in the 70s/80s versus today's lines. I agree with the lot comment though. Today's lines are unquestionably awesome in the lot. On the field, however, I dislike the role of the modern percussion section. It seems that drum corps has become less about music (and fan appreciation) and more about a series of riffs (and artistic vision). In the old days, the lines were the backbone of every corps and the pit provided sparkle. If you compare the 80s Bridgemen with any top line of today, it's amazing how MUCH Bridgeman's battery actually plays during the show versus the modern approach. Nowadays, charts seem to be pit driven and segments of the battery play riffs. I'm not crazy about this approach, but some of the stuff the Cadets played in the past couple of years is simply amazing. On another note, I think there's a difference too between being intimidating and playing clean. I've seen some drum lines who were iintimidating, but maybe not the cleanest. When I was in college for instance, I played in a fairly dirty line, but it made small kids cry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BozzlyB Posted July 26, 2007 Author Share Posted July 26, 2007 I know my comments probably came out a little harsh. I was in no way meaning to attack the ability of modern drummers. I've actually been pretty impressed with some of the stuff I've seen in the lot. And some individual snares and tenors are amazing. The problem is what happens when they go on the field. They aren't given anything interesting to play, and what they do play is generally pretty sloppy. I think this yet another byproduct of the overall shift away from music over the last 15 years. If percussion only counts for 10% of the score, it doesn't matter what they play or if they're clean. They get more points for running around than they do for playing. I imagine it's a bit easier to play when you're marching a whole show at 10 to 5's between the hashes and the 30 yard lines, so I think the increased drill demand of modern corps has definitely had an impact on cleanliness. But without question my favorite solos are any Float book from the 80's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tusayan Posted July 26, 2007 Share Posted July 26, 2007 Man, amazing to hear all the love for the 94 BD drums! All I remember is their phenomenal horn line! Actually, pretty much everything about that corps was other-worldly!Did they sweep captions? I seem to remember Cadets winning guard or some such. I'll never forget sitting in about the third row at K'zoo to see/hear/experience their encore. Geez. Ran into Shawn "Smurphy" Murphy at San Antonio. The nickname was from our Sky days (daze?). He also did the 94 corps on Mello. I think he was I&E champ that year, too. Good memories! Garfield did win CG that in 94 even though it wasn't scored as a separate caption but they also won percussion that year. Blue Devils were 2nd in drums and won all the other captions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris ncsu Posted July 26, 2007 Share Posted July 26, 2007 Garfield did win CG that in 94 even though it wasn't scored as a separate caption but they also won percussion that year. Blue Devils were 2nd in drums and won all the other captions. Cadets had the highest finals night drum score, but BD won Sanford based on averages. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tusayan Posted July 26, 2007 Share Posted July 26, 2007 Cadets had the highest finals night drum score, but BD won Sanford based on averages. Thanks for the correction. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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