1990

[CSGreen]

1990 is one of my favorite year's

Cavaliers, Star, Crossmen, Velvet Knights, Spirit and Dutch Boy are all very high on my most listened-to list. Bluecoats is one of the top 5 shows in my iPod Counter.

And I really enjoyed Cadets and SCV. Loved Phantom's Closer (though more so in 91), and the arrangements in Blue Devil's Tommy are classics! Plus Madison brought us Remembrance (still one of my favorite Drum corps tunes)

Blue Knights Mass show was incredible, and Freelancer's Batman/Indiana Jones show was a HUGE hit in Charlotte, and is one of the shows that really made me realize that I had to do drum corps ASAP!

[jjeffeory]

I majorly disagree with OP.

'90 was the year I marched. It was highly competitive from top to bottom. 12-16th place corps beat each other all season with great shows, especially Freelancer's Batman/John Williams show and BKs Mass show. It was probably the best overall year of competition in the DCI era.

Edited July 27, 2008 by jjeffeory

[freakyswotboy]

I majorly disagree with OP.

'90 was the year I marched. It was highly competitive from top to bottom. 12-16th place corps beat each other all season with great shows, especially Freelancer's Batman/John Williams show and BKs Mass show. It was probably the best overall year of competition in the DCI era.

Well no surprise that people will disagree with my OP. It's just my opinion. I can't put my finger on it, the year just leaves me cold. There just seems to be boundless energy and emotion in 89 - intensity and power in 91, but nothing much in 90. There are as i mentined a couple of good shows and the rest seem lacking somehow. But hey! its only an opinion.

[tommytimp]

I feel that way about 80, 83, and 86; although I like all three years, up and down the scale there were better years-to wit, 81, 84, 85, 87 and 1988.

[musclebud]

Let me get my 2 cents in here. 1990 paved the way for 1991 (best year in my opinion). There were of course some disappointments, but overall it definitely moved the activity forward. The guard dance during Somewhere of Cadets....... the amazing drill of Cavaliers.... and most of all the movement and difficult music of Star.

I remember jumping to my feet at the company front that Star ran from every direction to at the end of that show. Cheering, clapping, and some said screaming obscenities of joy(holy s**t and stuff) when they hit that. To this day that is one of my favorite shows.

[Lesa]

1990 was my favorite season. Marching in 1990 Star was amazing and the entire tour was an incredible experience. It was a very competitive season and I think everyone had a good show that year.

[byline]

I feel that way about 80, 83, and 86; although I like all three years, up and down the scale there were better years-to wit, 81, 84, 85, 87 and 1988.

Strange, because to me 1980 was a better year than 1981. Oh, well. Just goes to show how subjective all this is.

[Rocketman]

Well no surprise that people will disagree with my OP. It's just my opinion. I can't put my finger on it, the year just leaves me cold. There just seems to be boundless energy and emotion in 89 - intensity and power in 91, but nothing much in 90. There are as i mentined a couple of good shows and the rest seem lacking somehow. But hey! its only an opinion.

Look at it this way, in 89, SCV & PR had highly charged, emotional shows, in '90, they placed 6th and 4th. Perhaps your opinion is based slightly on the fact that the previous years top two, were not as hot.

[supersop]

To an extent, I can agree with the OP. Not based on the final performance product, but based on the following:

SCV's drill design was a downturn from '89 and had some very strange music transitions in the closer that never got fixed and left most of us scratching our heads.

PR was a great corps but didn't have that "I'M GOING TO EAT YOU ALIVE" presence on the field.

BD has the tarp thing going on and the style change of Tommy was a big departure from the norm for them (sans the jazzed up Pinball Wizard section .... most excellent!)

IT seemed that the talent level (overall) for that year was down a bit. Thankfully, the corps still had staff's that could take a bloody meatball and turn it into filet mignon. Every got their butts kicked that summer. Float led Spirit back to finals with a really nice drumline.

Mr. Armstrong (Former DM of Garfield) took Dutchboy to the promised land with a very fun show that was very entertaining.

Madison had their youngest and most inexperienced hornline to date, but still played the snot out of REMEMBERANCE. I saw was Scott B. was doing with the hornline to get them up to snuff. They played VERY solid and a return to fundamental brass playing was evident.

Bluecoats and Crossmen both had really fine shows. Crossmen were a big story with their move up and it was well deserved! The New York Voices show had it's own vibe and that closer just never stopped jamming it down your throat. It was fun watching them battle and push the top 6. IIRC, Crossmen were within a couple of points of CBC in their first show of the year .... I'm sure that gave them tons of incentive to kick butt that season.

Star was the big story. I knew they were coming .... I watched them rise my entire DC career and expected it. They had most of Cadets old horn and visual staff from their 3peat years, since day one ....... so how could you not expect them to make a run? Their show was awesome and they were the favorite of fan$ and competing members alike.

I have to be honest, that the staff at CBC kept us in a bubble most of the summer. We were always on the busses as soon as we were off the field and we practiced no less than an hour away from any show site. There were no housing links on the internet back then. IT was all business all the time. Truth behind CBC that year, we really sucked until April (ok maybe July). I felt like I was going to be in a corps that wouldn't make top 12 .... then all the vets showed up for the April camp. Huge difference. The show was 17 minutes long until 3 days before our first show and it was a constant barrage of changes and tweaks until the final product was there. I remember being down to SCV with less than 3 weeks to go ... in fact we were down to everyone at some point. But, we cleaned the snot out of it and pushed to finals.

So, There were some GREAT corps on the field that year .... great corps with IMHO lesser talent than years prior. These members got their butts kicked to get up to snuff and represent the activity and their alumni in respectable fashion. If anything, I felt like show design across the boards was going through a transition, and 1990 was a testing ground for things to come and still in the process of figuring out how to make techniques and design elements work cohesively.

Down year? NO! It was a landmark year, with some great shows and some VERY interesting writing. No one was the same .... unlike today.

[Nation of Bass]

I LOVE Star '93. Great year for me, 'cause BK was on the rise and so was Star.