1976 Muchachos question

[Fran Haring]

There was a great (and in depth) discussion about this on Sound Machine some years ago. It goes a few pages:

HERE

Thanks for the link to that, Brian. Interesting reading, for sure!

[pianolover1]

I was there. I thought Muchachos were great and I remember my uncle telling me that they were going to make finals with Garfield. I still have cassette recordings of 76 prelims. I took my tape recorder to most drum corps shows when I young.

What is a tape recorder?

JK

[pianolover1]

What is a tape recorder??//

JK

[Fran Haring]

The corps I remember being dumped at '76 DCI was the Garfield Cadets.

Completely agree.

I could live for 400 years and never figure out why they didn't make Finals that year.

[lp1955]

Yes Garfield we didn't beat them that year till the end of July. Than we were back and forth till DCI. Can't figure that one out also.

[Northern Thunder]

I could live for 400 years and never figure out why they didn't make Finals that year.

Unfortunately both percussion execution judges had Garfield 17th. That pretty much kept them out of finals.

[Cubeth77]

You are correct, I marched #2 bass that year.

We had a MAJOR tear and side one of the hornline and the drumline was a full 4 beats off from side 2 hornline after the solos in the opener.

The corps never fully recovered from that blunder for the rest of the show.

What a shame.

The original poster was correct in saying we beat a few finalsts earlier in the week at Randalls Island stadium in NYC during the VFW finals.

I do believe that was the last VFW finals with top junior corps in attendance.

If you have a chance to hear the world open recording from 1976, You will be quite impressed, It was a great corps, YOUNG, But great just the same.

Jay

I was there at DCI prelims in 1976 and saw the Muchachos. They were great even with the phasing problems in OTL. What I also remember distinctly is at the end of their show, a horn player fell out (fainted). You have to also remember that less that two weeks before finals, the corps was victim to a major tragedy when four of their members were involved in a car crash on their way to perform in a parade in Patterson, N.J. One of those four died the following Monday Aug. 9th. One did not get out of the hospital for over three weeks. What I have learned is the cymbal player who passed away was one of the most charismatic, talented and popular members of the Muchachos. This tragedy along with going back to the "place" where the veterans last remember getting told they were DQ'd after prelims in 1975 had to have added to their emotions that day. I think for what all they had been through the past year, they did amazingly well! What a heart that corps had!

[Mucs75]

As a member of the 75 chachos, i was stunned at the drop off in 76. I went to a show in upstate NY to see some of my brothers that stayed with them, and i got misty seeing the perfirmance. It was terrible. OTL was different but same show as 75 thereafter. NOt even remotely performed tge same way. It was sad man. Dead and buried

[BC82Sop]

On 2/22/2013 at 11:01 AM, Mucs75 said:

As a member of the 75 chachos, i was stunned at the drop off in 76. I went to a show in upstate NY to see some of my brothers that stayed with them, and i got misty seeing the perfirmance. It was terrible. OTL was different but same show as 75 thereafter. NOt even remotely performed tge same way. It was sad man. Dead and buried

Congratulations on being a member of such an awesome corps.  I loved the '76 OTL as it was very powerful plus the rest of the show that I listened to (U.S. Open recording) was awesome as well... Seeing them at '76 prelims was a dream come true since my High School band played Muchachos OTL and had Cab clone uniforms.