When History is Kind

[Ediker]

I love when the audio recordings come out and a corps that did not get maximum love (during the season) blows me away. 

85 SCV - though they did get plenty of love during the season

87 Madison - they could make those bugles bellow, in tune

88 Garfield - pure, clear brass sound, super tight percussion

88-90 Star - just wow, wall of sound, deep talent pool during these years

89 Suncoast - the little brass line that could. Hugely confident sound, TQ to burn, incredibly musical, no audible mistakes. Percussion and guard held their own too (2nd place guard?, wow).

90 Blue Devils - couldn’t get enough of this audio.  Complex emotions delivered.

93 Star - gets better with age. Still a sound that would be relevant today

More recently: 2011 Crown, 2016 Cadets, and 2019 SCV, though I liked these shows as much during the season.

[Jurassic Lancer]

On 3/18/2021 at 9:23 PM, Slingerland said:

Lancers' show was mostly re-tread from the year before, and didn't have the Finals spark their 79 outing did. BD was a machine, and even with a middling percussion performance, it wasn't enough to diminish their strengths in horns and visual.

Lancers shouldn't have beaten BD, but they shouldn't have lost to Bridgemen either: 2nd was the right place.

Thanks for saying we had a Finals spark! Actually, our Prelims show was probably our best show, but I am happy that you enjoyed our Finals performance.

[Jurassic Lancer]

On 3/19/2021 at 1:33 AM, Tim K said:

I’m not sure I’d agree that 1979 27th  with a 5th place finish had a spark that 27th in 1980 missed. I do have a great deal of respect the 1979 27th Lancers. They got off to a slow start in 79.  They took the time to clean the drill but even in mid-August there were doubts. Some knew 27th would end up placing in the top five and Madison and North Star who had topped them most of the season would plateau, but even some of their diehard fans thought it was wishful thinking.

Yeah, ‘79 was a rough year for us. We started the season with a 55(!) in Altoona. (That show was a perfect storm of misadventures.) But we worked our ##### off all season and ended up in 5th place. We were ecstatic with our placement at the end. 

[Jurassic Lancer]

On 3/20/2021 at 9:42 PM, Tim K said:

Initially there was a two point score for color guard as part of GE and some people may recall one year where a corps that received perfect 2.0 nearly all season has a rifle drop at finals which cost .1 from the color guard score and .1 in a penalty which was the difference between first and second place. 

While two points may seem insignificant and there were proposals to increase the points early on, when you watch corps such as 27th, Phantom, Blue Devils, Santa Clara, the guards were very much integrated into the shows and if the guard was spot on, the show was too. Bad night for the guard, bad night for the corps. It was about this time Cavies began make strides and their guard played a huge role. About this same time WGI was formed and with the improvement in competitive guards we saw this in the field in the summer. 

Scoring the guard properly took time, but the guard’s critical role in the show happened much earlier, even if not directly scored.

Right, Tim. I know for at least 78-80 (and probably for more years), color guard was 2 points of the M&M GE score. At ‘79 Finals, 27th, BD and Phantom all received 2.0s, yet we got the trophy for best guard, so I guess we got a 2.0+. It must be hard to have number management when you are only working with 2 points.

Interestingly enough, on the M&M execution sheet, there was a 5.0 point subjective sub-caption for marching proficiency. Marching technique was considered 2 1/2 times more important in terms of scoring than color guard. 

Edited March 27, 2021 by Jurassic Lancer