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Music corps should NOT do


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12 minutes ago, Fran Haring said:

I have a nephew who is a big Phish fan.  Same "jam band" dynamic with them... some fans go to literally every show, every year. My nephew actually misses a few from time to time.  LOL.

I went to a show with him in 2011. That band is great!!!  And the audience..... definitely some interesting people-watching.  Very friendly, laid-back crowd... but I thought I would get a contact high from the ganja smoke filling the air. :tongue:

I went to a zeppelin tribute band concert earlier this month and you could smell weed in that place. 

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Ill throw in this little gem from Sarah Brightman and her band Hot Gossip circa 1978. If you can survive this little ditty without having a "what the ####" moment then you're just better human than I am. 

https://youtu.be/xKtJobLOVYQ

 

Edited by Weaklefthand4ever
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10 minutes ago, Terri Schehr said:

went to a zeppelin tribute band concert earlier this month and you could smell weed in that place. 

So funny. Brittany and I went to a Greatful Dead tribute band a few weeks ago and it was the same deal. It was some pretty spunky stuff for sure. 

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3 hours ago, Fran Haring said:

I completely agree!!!! :laughing:

One of my favorites: "Erotica" Variations For Banned Instruments And Piano. :tongue:

 On the live-album version of that, he introduces his pianist as "having played with major orchestras on both sides of.... Interstate 80."  LOL

 

I love that one! One piece I always listen to is classical rap. Easily one of the most hilarious pieces he has ever written.

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35 minutes ago, Weaklefthand4ever said:

Ill throw in this little gem from Sarah Brightman and her band Hot Gossip circa 1978. If you can survive this little ditty without having a "what the ####" moment then you're just better human than I am.  https://youtu.be/xKtJobLOVYQ 

So glad she married Sir Andrew so he could write Phantom of The Opera for her.

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I just Googled “Bad Songs of the 70’s” and according to Rolling Stone, these might be good to avoid

1. Rick Dees “Disco Duck”

2. Starland Vocal Band “Afternoon Delight”

3. Paul Anka “(You’re) Having my Baby)”

4. Debbie Boone “You Light Up My Life”

5. Captain and Tennile “Muskrat Love”

6. Rupert Jones “Escape (The Pina Colada Song)”

7. Terry Jacks “Seasons in the Sun” 

8. Bo Donaldson “Billy Don’t be a Hero”

9. Morris Albert “Feelings”**

10. Minnie Ripperton “”Loving You”

**According to DCX, performed by Blue Knights in 1976 and Pearl River Cadets in 1986

Of all the songs listed, I am surprised that “You Light Up My Life” was not performed by more corps. Like it or not, it was one of the best selling singles of the 70’s. 

I’d add as honorable mentions “Playground in my Mind,” “Una Paloma Blanca (I’m Just a Bird in the Sky,” “Brand New Key(I’ve got a Brand New Pair of Roller Skates)” and just about anything by Leo Sayer or Helen Reddy.

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2 minutes ago, Tim K said:

2. Starland Vocal Band “Afternoon Delight”

That tune always cracks me up.

The group has such a cutesy, "Disney" sound. Total white bread.

But the lyrics... uhhhh... about, well, you know... :innocent:

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4 hours ago, Fran Haring said:

I completely agree!!!! :laughing:

One of my favorites: "Erotica" Variations For Banned Instruments And Piano. :tongue:

 On the live-album version of that, he introduces his pianist as "having played with major orchestras on both sides of.... Interstate 80."  LOL

 

The problem with PDQ Bach on the field is that a lot of the humor is what he does live with the dialogue and visual performance. There was a concert band piece I conducted in the late 70's with an excellent HS concert band, "Grand Serenade for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion". The audience basically sat on their hands....they just did not get the humor. To them is just sounded like bad band music.

That is also the issue I have with putting "Spamalot" on the field. Much of the humor is dialogue and song lyrics, and the visual stuff inherent in Monty Python. I'm not sure the "Fish Schlapping Song" would go over on the field.

Or "The Song that Goes Like This"....it might just sound like a cheesy ballad without being sung. 

 

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1 hour ago, MikeD said:

The problem with PDQ Bach on the field is that a lot of the humor is what he does live with the dialogue and visual performance. There was a concert band piece I conducted in the late 70's with an excellent HS concert band, "Grand Serenade for an Awful Lot of Winds and Percussion". The audience basically sat on their hands....they just did not get the humor. To them is just sounded like bad band music.

 

 

1712 Overture would seem to work well.  The source music is so well known, the jokes might translate easily.

Here's what I sent Ryan Turner about it years ago:

 

Hokay...here’s my PDQ Bach show...keep in mind this has been in my head for a number of years and may not fit when you’ve done with the HS band.

There are probably musical references in the work that I don’t recognize that could influence gags other than the ones I list here.  Particularly those you could aim at other corps if a corps ever does the piece.

Opening music...the opening strains of...NOT 1712, but "A Bach Portrait."  Visually, think of the opening of 87 Garfield, with all the ballet movements...same thoughts here...and on the opening hit, the corps poses in 1st position, just like Garfield.  If you’ve never heard the work, think – like most of PDQ’s stuff – "Lincoln Portrait" on crack... (Time check: 0:00 to 2:13....Obviously this is WAY too long of an intro and would have to be cut down, but it gives the idea...the only problem is, the opening of 1712 is also a bit slow...may drag it down...but the Yankee Doodle quote needs to be there to foreshadow the piece)

Next, onto 1712...this is pretty much straight through...starting with the Yankee Doodle quote.

There should be a partition of some sort people can hide behind to make some of the gags more effective.

Opening..play it straight...I’ll have to just list the gags and hope it makes sense when you get the time checks.

At 1:47 is a western-type theme that I’m not recognizing...could be fodder for a gag.  One reviewed said there was a “Day Tripper” quote, but I’m not hearing it....the most persistent musical quotes are “Pop Goes the Weasel” and “Yankee Doodle”

Approaching the Pop Goes the Weasel quote, we start throwing in Napoleonic references....the hand in the shirt, that sort of thing, since it kinda sounds like the French natl anthem. (3:22)

1st soft 1812 reference...(4:44) replicate what Regiment did on the field in drill at the same place in 1812.  Now here are a lot of sound references in the source music that can be used for gags...there’s a cuckoo clock sound, then a series of duck calls, in addition to other bird calls.  On the duck calls, we see a duck flying back and forth on each call between the partitions.  The last call sounds like it got shot, so on the last call in this part of the show, a hunter stands up from a duck blind, calls “PULL” and fakes shooting the duck out of the sky (5:15) (it can have a piece of fishing line attached to it so someone can jerk it down)

The next musical section is where PDQ’s testing the organ...(5:30) it starts out with a restatement of one of the themes...goes into some arpeggios and scales, and suddenly hits a blues/early rock riff. (6:50) The gag....during the lead-in to the pipe organ section, a cart is wheeled out with a fake pipe organ and a guy playing on it...the brass can be piling up behind him, either in a large group or small ensemble.  When it gets to the blues section he can throw on some shades for a quick Ray Charles gag.

At the end of this, we go back to a faster 1812 quote (7:07), leading into that one section where the rhythm and intervals keep repeating (after the first series of cannon shots in the original....done on a popped balloon here), but each repeat going down a half step or so...the descending line from Hell.(8:15)

The cannon shots here can be done by a slapstick or a single snare rimshot.

During the long descending line the drums don’t do anything musically....so start with them backing up...notice that the winds are going on and on and on, look around, and huddle up...the snares start playing cards on their drums ...the basses read a magazine (if it was Dream doing it I’d say a fake Playboy)...a bar wench brings drinks to the tenors and leaves her number with one guy, who starts following her, only to be restrained because we’re coming up on the end of the section and about to enter the big slow push where Yankee Doodle is restated.(8:52)

This is company front, Regiment style.  At one point there is a cable car sound (9:06)...have a cable car set drive by through the gap between the partitions...

Next section has the spot where one note repeats for awhile...but in the PDQ it REALLY repeats, (9:28)  then stops and the orchestra takes a HUGE inhalation of breath (obvious gag here).  Leads into a traditional company front...no gags, just straight forward loud!

This leads into the “we march with Phantom ‘cause we like 4th place” quote...and the cannon shots.  (9:53) For the cannon gag, get a line of big balloons and have a guy in the pit pop then with a long pin where the cannon shots are...but have him play it up like he’s saving the day...big motions, over-acting, etc.

When this sequence ends, there’s an accelerando that leads into another front...(10:26) and the band/corps only takes 2 steps forward....but those steps are in the style of the front in 87 VK when the banana got peeled...the facing to the side and high stepping one. (The high steps themselves timed to the glissando in the music).

Last move or so...fast and expanding...tymp’s slamming away...and that organ cart is coming out again, this time covered up.  (11:01) On the rimshot where the music stops the covering is whipped away...revealing the Phantom of the Opera faking playing the last organ lick (small low brass ensemble behind him).  Last loud chord and the end of the show.

 

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