esch Posted December 31, 2008 Share Posted December 31, 2008 It's fun to see you "dwarves" (without costumes) waving to the crowd on the '71 VFW video... and hearing the crowd cheer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkyeag Posted January 1, 2009 Share Posted January 1, 2009 (edited) When I first heard Argonne live in '72, I couldn't believe that baroque arrangement of Love Story. What they did on the field in those days was incredible! It was pretty much the same in '73 when they came off the line with Fanfare For The New. It was like they were playing in another league altogether. ....without the hope of being rewarded. These were conscious decisions made by a few corps in the early 70s that would advance the activity. Edited January 1, 2009 by jkyeag Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ironlips Posted January 1, 2009 Share Posted January 1, 2009 (edited) Well said Jeff. You could not get "down" after a loss, because "on any given day...." was more true then than today. In the modern era, judges are kept together for several shows in a row, and more shows are held during the week throughout the season. Oh yea - and the season is a few weeks shorter !!!One thing you gotta give Argonne credit for - is that hornline. Sandra Opie earned more famed for her judging because Argonne was long gone, but if I can make comparisons, she was a female equivalent of Wayne Downey. (Now...don't go and flame me for my remark - it is a comparison based on that era). I think you might admit, 27th was very strong in 1971, and was on a roll starting at 71 CYO and concluding at Danny Thomas. There may have been some regional bias, but I assure you, it was harder for us to win over our local judging chapter that you will ever know. Few kids today have ever heard of the album 5.0 !!!!! Mrs. Opie has always been in a league of her own as instructor and adjudicator. She influenced everybody in drum corps who had ears and a desire to become a better teacher, including Wayne, all the Jimmys (Elvord, Wedge, Wren, Ott, Prime), Gail Royer, Jack Meehan, yours truly and every other Bob and Carol, Ted and Alice on the drum corps planet. After viewing the '72 films it becomes fairly clear that the outcomes of the show would be different judged by today's standards. Those groups that would move up include Argonne. I believe they did win brass that night but were not nearly as competitive in visual or drums in the tick system. In fact, their percussion writing was far more "musical" than most of the corps that finished higher, but far less rudimental. And as for drill, their presentation of the music (a/k/a "staging") was absolutely first rate, but went largely unrewarded under the old system. All of this points to their being ahead of the curve. I would respectfully disagree that the new directions for 1971 corps shows like Madison's, Garfield's and Cavaliers' were driven by the judging community. From the inside it felt as if the impetus came from the corps themselves and this was part of the revolution that overthrew the VFW and Legion systems which were largely influenced top-down, from the judges. This, of course, is simply the opinion of someone who was just a novice at the time. I accept that there are other equally defensible points of view. Edited January 2, 2009 by ironlips Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
denverjohn Posted January 2, 2009 Share Posted January 2, 2009 Does anyone out there have a review on the 1971 VFW DVDs I just ordered? Picture/sound quality, camera angle, etc. Is it better/worse that the Haas videos? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted January 2, 2009 Share Posted January 2, 2009 Few kids today have ever heard of the album 5.0 !!!!! That was a neat "concept album", for sure. Madison Scouts and Argonne Rebels.... the only two corps to score a perfect 5 in the brass Content Analysis caption. Fran Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
esch Posted January 2, 2009 Share Posted January 2, 2009 Does anyone out there have a review on the 1971 VFW DVDs I just ordered? Picture/sound quality, camera angle, etc. Is it better/worse that the Haas videos? I haven't seen the Haas videos, but the '71 VFW DVDs are pretty spotty.... single camera, picture image pretty degraded (some corps worse than others)... it seems the corps later in the night (maybe under the lights) fared better... but I wouldn't trade the DVD for the world. There are shows there I never thought I'd see again... and for those SCV fans, you can see where their cymbal visuals started (if you look closely during the closing fanfare, you can even see their "Cheerleader" routine they only did at certain shows that year). Overall, the DVDs could have been better (and we were warned about that!) but VERY cool.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Northern Thunder Posted January 3, 2009 Share Posted January 3, 2009 Drum Corps World was always up front about the quality of the '71 VFW videos, and the price reflects it. This statement is included with the info on those videos: Please note: the condition of the master tapes is not great because 37 years have passed, but these performances are very watchable and the sound quality is good. For this reason, this set of DVDs is priced below the other sets of discs we have released of the 1967 American Legion and CYO Nationals, and the 1972 Drum Corps International Championships. This material was originally videotaped by Mike Rounds for the Velvet Knights as a training tool. Mr. Rounds has spent a great deal of time restoring the footage to the best condition possible and the result is shows not seen in three and a half decades! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHall Posted January 3, 2009 Share Posted January 3, 2009 1971.....the year St. Joe's folded? The start of Watkins Glen Squires rise in NY. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 I haven't seen the Haas videos, but the '71 VFW DVDs are pretty spotty.... single camera, picture image pretty degraded (some corps worse than others)... it seems the corps later in the night (maybe under the lights) fared better... but I wouldn't trade the DVD for the world. There are shows there I never thought I'd see again... and for those SCV fans, you can see where their cymbal visuals started (if you look closely during the closing fanfare, you can even see their "Cheerleader" routine they only did at certain shows that year).Overall, the DVDs could have been better (and we were warned about that!) but VERY cool.... You can puchase the 1971 Haas videos of the World Open on drumcorpsvideos.com. I have Garfield from the show, and it's pretty decent. Jackie Hass was positioned high in the stands with the camera, while her husband Charlie sat behind them with the reel-to-reel recorder. She was not quite centered for the show...slightly to the exit side of the mid-field stripe. Overall the quality is decent...it too is a single camera look at the corps. When they first came out with the DVD's I actually called Charlie and spoke to him about how they shot them. Fascinating stuff. They sell them corps-by-corps at $15/corps, thought they have just added a complete set of the 71 WO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ajlisko Posted January 5, 2009 Share Posted January 5, 2009 Drum Corps World was always up front about the quality of the '71 VFW videos, and the price reflects it. This statement is included with the info on those videos:Please note: the condition of the master tapes is not great because 37 years have passed, but these performances are very watchable and the sound quality is good. For this reason, this set of DVDs is priced below the other sets of discs we have released of the 1967 American Legion and CYO Nationals, and the 1972 Drum Corps International Championships. This material was originally videotaped by Mike Rounds for the Velvet Knights as a training tool. Mr. Rounds has spent a great deal of time restoring the footage to the best condition possible and the result is shows not seen in three and a half decades! I was able to get the entire set from Mike in 2003 ... What a treasure! ... we had a reunion of the Bpt. PAL Cadets later that year and what a treat it was for everyone to view our performance at the 1967 CYO Nats on a huge 10' screen ... If you have the opportunity to purchase them ... do it!!! Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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