rayfallon Posted September 15, 2014 Share Posted September 15, 2014 (edited) First off, I loved marching in the three corps I marched with starting at age 10 1/2 in 1964, ending with Garfield in 72, followed by teaching and judging in the GSC mid/late 70's. That being said...no, I abslolutely disagree with the title of the thread. The 70's are when drum corps changed a lot...as society itself changed. I recall pushing one of our busses up a hill in Georgia on the way to Miami in 1971 to play a Dolphin/49'er ex football halftime, before going over to Dallas for VFW Nats.We would pull into a fast food area that had multiple fast food joints for our meals mushc of the time. Liabilty insurance? Not that I ever knew of. Yes, I loved it...but if I had the opportunity to be a Cadet today...I'd do it in a minute. Or a MM of Crown, or BK, or...the members today are having an incredible experience, IMO, as are the members of the audience who get to see the incredible shows performed by amazing young people. Mike - You said it much better. I also think you hit some of the sort of problematic areas. Pushing buses was amazingly cool, in a dangerous, stupid sort of way. Great for team building, but awful for insurance purposes. Or just basic Safety. And you're right - the whole world pivoted at that time - the world got litigious to a ridiculous degree - what parent in the 90s would NOT have sued a corps that had their kid pushing a bus? There was much good about the 70s. I think it's worthy to note that guys like Bucky Swan, who never studied at any Conservatory, nor held MMus degrees as many of today's staff members have, taught kids like Al Chez and Jimmy Brady to play like virtuosos, literally. It was a good decade, but best in DCI? Nah... not in my way less than humble enough opinion. Edited September 15, 2014 by rayfallon 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHall Posted September 15, 2014 Author Share Posted September 15, 2014 Let me add that the 70's (as far as DCI) had many corps participating. Just in NY (upstate) you could go to shows in Rochester, Syracuse, Binghampton, Buffalo and their areas every weekend. There were at least 6 to 8 corps in each show. Lets add Pennsylvania corps....Belvederes, Ambassadors, Cambria cadets, etc and a few Ontario corps and there were some pretty good shows. A little bit for everybody! By the 1980s there were a couple corps left. Avante Garde left and all that was left were the Patriots. They had to travel to Mass and NH for shows because they only contest in NY was theirs. The corps I marched held a show every year in the 1970's (70-76) and 1974 to sell the activity in our area more they started up the NT Open. That contest saw Blue Devils win the first ever NT Open and saw corps like Marksmen, Seattle Imperials, Black Watch, Marquis, Charioteers, Floridians, Argonne Rebels, Toronto Optimists, Squires, Greece cadets, Simplex Minutemen, Precisionaires, Colt .45 (now Colts), Devil Dogs, and many others. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rayfallon Posted September 15, 2014 Share Posted September 15, 2014 (edited) Let me add that the 70's (as far as DCI) had many corps participating. Just in NY (upstate) you could go to shows in Rochester, Syracuse, Binghampton, Buffalo and their areas every weekend. There were at least 6 to 8 corps in each show. Lets add Pennsylvania corps....Belvederes, Ambassadors, Cambria cadets, etc and a few Ontario corps and there were some pretty good shows. A little bit for everybody! By the 1980s there were a couple corps left. Avante Garde left and all that was left were the Patriots. They had to travel to Mass and NH for shows because they only contest in NY was theirs. The corps I marched held a show every year in the 1970's (70-76) and 1974 to sell the activity in our area more they started up the NT Open. That contest saw Blue Devils win the first ever NT Open and saw corps like Marksmen, Seattle Imperials, Black Watch, Marquis, Charioteers, Floridians, Argonne Rebels, Toronto Optimists, Squires, Greece cadets, Simplex Minutemen, Precisionaires, Colt .45 (now Colts), Devil Dogs, and many others. I hate to put it this way, but aren't you making my point? How could a large number of our favorite corps disappear during the best decade ever? It's like Londoners loving WWII... okay not quite that bad, but you get what I'm saying... Edited September 16, 2014 by rayfallon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fran Haring Posted September 16, 2014 Share Posted September 16, 2014 I'm with Ray and Mike here. The 70s were a great era for drum corps... but IMO... and for many of the reasons that have been stated... it's better, overall, now. That includes the general care, feeding, and well-being of the members. For one thing... today, there are few "McDonald's stops" for a full-course meal. LOL. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted September 16, 2014 Share Posted September 16, 2014 Mike - You said it much better. I also think you hit some of the sort of problematic areas. Pushing buses was amazingly cool, in a dangerous, stupid sort of way. Great for team building, but awful for insurance purposes. Or just basic Safety. And you're right - the whole world pivoted at that time - the world got litigious to a ridiculous degree - what parent in the 90s would NOT have sued a corps that had their kid pushing a bus? There was much good about the 70s. I think it's worthy to note that guys like Bucky Swan, who never studied at any Conservatory, nor held MMus degrees as many of today's staff members have, taught kids like Al Chez and Jimmy Brady to play like virtuosos, literally. It was a good decade, but best in DCI? Nah... not in my way less than humble enough opinion. Bucky was the horn instructor of the first GSC competitive corps I marched with in 68 and 69, and I taught percussion with the same corps in 76...he was still the horn instructor. A great natural teacher. To me his greatest skill was that he was able to get amazing sounds out of a group of NON-music-educated kids, which IMO might be the hardest thing to do of all. Garfield's lead solist from 69-74 also learned under Bucky at the same GSC corps before moving on to Garfield after the 68 season. I recall Blue Rock having what I'd loosely call a "bus" in 71 that not only had no reverse gear, the corps members had to push it to get it it to start. In Garfield, on our long tour we would sometime station corps members to sit on a water cooler near the bus driver to talk to him so that he would stay awake when driving late at night. Imagine that happening today! But...I absolutely loved marching when I did, and I would not change it for anything...except maybe being able to march DCI today (with my 1971 knees! ). 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeD Posted September 16, 2014 Share Posted September 16, 2014 Let me add that the 70's (as far as DCI) had many corps participating. Just in NY (upstate) you could go to shows in Rochester, Syracuse, Binghampton, Buffalo and their areas every weekend. There were at least 6 to 8 corps in each show. Lets add Pennsylvania corps....Belvederes, Ambassadors, Cambria cadets, etc and a few Ontario corps and there were some pretty good shows. A little bit for everybody! By the 1980s there were a couple corps left. Avante Garde left and all that was left were the Patriots. They had to travel to Mass and NH for shows because they only contest in NY was theirs. The corps I marched held a show every year in the 1970's (70-76) and 1974 to sell the activity in our area more they started up the NT Open. That contest saw Blue Devils win the first ever NT Open and saw corps like Marksmen, Seattle Imperials, Black Watch, Marquis, Charioteers, Floridians, Argonne Rebels, Toronto Optimists, Squires, Greece cadets, Simplex Minutemen, Precisionaires, Colt .45 (now Colts), Devil Dogs, and many others. I certainly understand that the numbers have declined, for sure. However, I am of the school that believes that competitive MB has replaced the smaller local-style corps circuits. Take a look at the USBand fall schedule (to name just one circuit of multiple circuits in my area), and you will see far more kids are marching and competing today that ever (and the quality of some of the teams is amazing given all the kids have to do today in school). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eleran Posted September 16, 2014 Share Posted September 16, 2014 2010's are the best decade ever. Why, you ask? unlimited potential - who knows what wonders we'll see in the next 5 years? Everything that has gone before is done and known - that removes part of the pleasure. [To quote a 70s tune made famous by Heinz57, "An-tic-ipa-tion, an-tic-ipa-tion ... is keeping me waiting"] my son is marching now, and therefore to him it is the best decade ever, without question, just as the 70's were the best decade ever for those that marched in the 70s Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KeithHall Posted September 16, 2014 Author Share Posted September 16, 2014 Todays corps are certainly better and I agree with you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chasgroh Posted September 17, 2014 Share Posted September 17, 2014 (edited) ...you know, of *course* corps today are much, much, "better" than in the 70's, or any other decade. Duh. I love the fact that age produces *experienced* perspective. One of the huge reasons I'm like I am now is because of drumcorps...and both life and drumcorps, to me anyway, keep improving, morphing, and pushing on forcefully. I'm lucky, as most of us posting in this thread are, to have seen huge changes in our beloved activity...and *participated*in them! My 1950's were the best. Why? Because that's when I started learning at the knees of life-long drum corps people willing to give their time to a bunch of idiot Boy Scouts...even then I knew they (those men teaching us) were special. Now I'm one of them. My 60's were the best. Why? Because I went from being a Boy Scout to a drumcorps kid...starting a new corps, the Velvet Knights...in the process winning some and losing quite a few, listening to the stories about the East delivered by people who knew the history and wild-west nature of it all (I mean, Sac and Boston stories straight from the mouths of real Sac and Boston guys...whoa!). SEEING the Royal Aires. Man, *that* was the best. But wait! My 70's were the best! Now, after a brief respite getting shot at for a living, I'm teaching, back to the womb. Touring is now becoming an artform for us westerners ('cuz, really, ya gotta go where the action is, eh?) and our corps are becoming great, too, if not dominant. Wow. Great, huh? Of course, but my 80's were REALLY the best! Well, you get the picture...'cuz, in all honesty, I think the activity is "best" right now. Oh, and I'll say the same next month...or year... Edited September 17, 2014 by chasgroh 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russellrks Posted November 16, 2014 Share Posted November 16, 2014 It depends on your criteria for the word "Better." If you mean quality, there is no question that the quality of the remaining drum corps is much higher now than it was in the 70's, and that's as it should be. If you look at it from the perspective of inclusiveness, giving as many kids as possible the opportunity to experience the activity and be affected by all that it has to offer to young, impressionable kids, the 70's were a much better time. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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