Thoughts and Questions on 1976

[GrewvyG2]

Here's a list of corps that competed at DCI in 1976. A "Where Are They Now" list

Northern Aurora didn't exist in 1976. The Saginaires changed their name to NA around 1985. The SYO (Saginaires Youth Organization) is still around and funds the North Coast Academy winter drum line.

[bass5]

In fact, Ray (from whom I learned to be a marching band judge when I trained for CSJA many years ago) didn't title the piece. I remember the piece being referred to as the "Baumgardt Original."

Did the corps have a name for it?

The one thing I remember about it is a soprano soloist essentially doing bird calls at the beginning.

I thought "Shaft" had some potential, but "Picking Up the Pieces" left me confused.

We just called Ray's piece "concert".

The bird call guy was Tony King who had come over from the CMCC Warriors in NY City.

"Pick up the pieces" (drum solo with horn accompaniment) was an Average White Band tune from the 70's.

It had to be Fred Sanford's worst drum solo in history, Stone Ground 7 it wasn't.

[danguernsey]

Dave Richards was judging that year. He was the judge who did Brass GE at Finals (referred to in above post).

Actually, Mike Lecrone (sp?) from the UW marching band was initially hired to arrange the horn book. I never understood why the staff went with an unproven arranger instead of sticking with arguably the best horn arranger in drum corps at that time: Ray Baumgardt. Ray eventually did the horn book for the disco show, including the unnamed concert piece. He also did an original concert piece in 1971 (tune just prior to the Alice stuff). If I recall, Dave Richards served as a horn consultant of some kind during the winter of '75-'76.

[Rocketman]

"Shaft" was pretty good, and the longer "McArthur Park" was ok out of concert, but the concert blew chunks and the less said about "Mahogany", the better.

I'm sorry, whenever I hear/see this, I think, "My Hog and Me!"

Anyway, '76 was surprise year, I think, for a few corps, Guardsmen, Bridgemen, Regiment, Scouts, BD, Seneca, all for different reasons. I don't think anyone could have guessed the antic's "Bayonne" would be bringing to the field, especially after not even going to DCI in '75 and finishing 26th in '74! BD's show was "other worldly" that season, Madison part 1 was a memory best forgotten, and part 2 showed the true talent the corps possessed. The Guardsmen rode KFC fame into finals (31st in '75). The "mello yellow" of Seneca lit up the night, and the Regiment surprised many beating all but BD during the season, only to end up sitting all alone at finals after being only .6 from second in prelims! All in all, a good year!

Edited September 2, 2008 by Rocketman

[Roark1]

I didn’t know about Leckrone arranging the horn book at first. He never mentioned it when I was in the Badger Band. I really enjoyed marching for him at the UW, but I would not have thought of him as a drum corps arranger in the mid 70’s. His sound was very different than traditional drum corps. I know he is a well respected writer and arranger, but I remember his style being different than what the Scouts sound was at the time.

[OrlandoContraAlum]

which of the three corps are still here?

Well, looks like These guys are still around. Oh, and apparently so are These guys, or then the last 2+ years were a strange dream...

[danguernsey]

I didn’t know about Leckrone arranging the horn book at first. He never mentioned it when I was in the Badger Band. I really enjoyed marching for him at the UW, but I would not have thought of him as a drum corps arranger in the mid 70’s. His sound was very different than traditional drum corps. I know he is a well respected writer and arranger, but I remember his style being different than what the Scouts sound was at the time.

Roark,

Leckrone may have not been "hired" in the strict sense, but the staff (Fred?) early on had at least approached Leckrone about arranging for the Scouts. It may not have gone much beyond that, but its hard to grasp why Leckrone was even considered over Baumgardt. It boggles the mind.

[dc oldtimer]

Cavaliers dropped way down to an 8.6 in Brass General Effect in Finals. That was 0.6 under the score given 27th Lancers and 1.1 under Bridgemen. The drum line also dropped to 6th after being 2nd in Prelims, 1.05 under Blue Devils after being within 0.2 in Prelims. (The corps finished 0.6 under Bridgemen and 0.7 under 27th.)

That was my second of three years in the corps. I don't know if Finals was that much worse than Prelims or if we were scored too high in Prelims. Things just didn't break our way in Finals.

Thanks Boo for saving me the trouble of looking at fromthepressbox again. I've posted these scores a few times through the years showing how drastically scores could change from day to day in the old "tick" days. It was interesting that some judges found certain ticks all season long that other judges didn't.

The other memory from that year was getting pelted with crap from the back upper deck stands by The Muchachos. Loose change, mouthpieces, hot dogs, etc landed near me as I marched to the back of the field during Firebird. Then we find that some idiot put thier buses next to ours. Let's just say that things would have been "interesting" if our management didn't step in and stop us from leaving the busses with our buckles in hand. That's when I was taught this fine art form passed down from one Cavalier generation to another.

[Rocketman]

Thanks Boo for saving me the trouble of looking at fromthepressbox again. I've posted these scores a few times through the years showing how drastically scores could change from day to day in the old "tick" days. It was interesting that some judges found certain ticks all season long that other judges didn't.

The other memory from that year was getting pelted with crap from the back upper deck stands by The Muchachos. Loose change, mouthpieces, hot dogs, etc landed near me as I marched to the back of the field during Firebird. Then we find that some idiot put thier buses next to ours. Let's just say that things would have been "interesting" if our management didn't step in and stop us from leaving the busses with our buckles in hand. That's when I was taught this fine art form passed down from one Cavalier generation to another.

Your signature - The Dark Years - Funny!

[dc oldtimer]

Your signature - The Dark Years - Funny!

Ya, it was an interesting time. There were a few good years in the 70's but overall it was pretty dark. And it almost carried over and caused the corps to fold in 81. Everyday we thank God for the meeting of The Don's (Don Warren and Donald Stephans...... mayor of Rosemont). Buy the book. The story is in there.