All across the U.S., the fall season is serenaded by:
…The distant rhythmic thundering of a marching band drum line puncturing the air on a Friday evening, somewhere on a nearby high school football field.
That sound speaks to me.
I played clarinet in my high school band, but we were not allowed to march.
Instead, we were relegated to playing while sitting in the stands in our street clothes.
I was told many years later that it was because the administration at that time did not want to spend the money to clean the uniforms. That definitely tracks.
There had been plenty of evidence that our male-only private school was all in on sports and academics but invested little in the arts. I was aware of this reality, but it didn’t stop me from loving game night.
Particularly at this time of year, I still think back fondly on the memory of manning the sidelines:
Right up close to the action, performing my various duties as one of the equipment managers for the team…
…and then racing up to the stands to play with the band at halftime.
At the university I attended, I did not play in the marching band, but I knew quite a few people that did.
I went to a number of games and saw the halftime show many times. There are two songs from over the course of four years that I remember from it.
One was “Through the Eyes of Love (Theme from Ice Castles),” from a movie about a blind figure skater, a song which the announcer described as a “haunting ballad.”
The other was Procol Harum’s “Conquistador:”
Arranged in the style of pop-jazz bandleader and trumpeter Maynard Ferguson.
The latter featured a blistering trumpet solo, played by a guy known as Moose.
Unlike most of us in the music department, he was quite the imposing figure, built like a defensive lineman. I once walked into the bathroom of our dorm floor, a floor which was mostly inhabited by music majors:
And saw that someone, likely in a very drunken state, had ripped one of the stall doors off by its hinges the night before.
The resident assistant had no trouble identifying the culprit, mostly because there was really only one person any of us knew that would have been physically capable of such an act.
Moose didn’t just play his instrument; he dominated it.
The highest notes that could be played had no choice but to blast out of his trumpet and beat that “Conquistador” solo into a bloody pulp.
By the end of it, no matter how far back in the stands you were sitting, you could see that his entire face was red, bordering on purple. The team lost a lot of games that year, but at halftime, Moose always stood victorious. It was both awe inspiring and just a shade alarming.
Flash forward to a day a number of years later: When for no particular reason, I started imagining how a marching band arrangement of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” by Nirvana would sound, never thinking that it could actually exist.
I recently remembered this thought, went online, and quickly discovered that more than one version of that very thing was out there.
It sent me down the rabbit hole of marching band arrangements of rock and pop songs by college bands from all over the country. I assembled a playlist, because…
…of course I did.
I’m listening now and getting really pumped up as I write this.
Feel free to crank it up, and join me in celebrating all things Fall.
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Views: 89
haha, now you need to do the opposite
on a cursory search this is the first one I saw that is the opposite
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2sVDj97ua8
I like your thinking. How about this one?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G79hPnN5la8
Oh My Goodness…That Duane Eddy Twangin the Golden Hits album is one I have played since I was like 2 years old. Grew up with it. It remains part of my DNA.
I have little to no interest in sport, but if I ever find myself in the U.S. again I’ll definitely go to a… I’m guessing, football? game, just for the marching bands.
Now to find out who the hottest band in the underground marching band scene is?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsUGUHB6_8Y
Yep, this is what I’m talking about! And I really like their formations.
I’ve got a couple of MSU tracks on the playlist. That Simpsons theme is spot-on.
The movie Drumline would have one believe that the band is more of the story than the actual game. That may not be reality, but the marching band is a big deal at many schools. I went to some U of Wisconsin games as a kid and after the game, win or lose, the Marching Band would come out and perform what was called the “5th Quarter”. Most everybody stuck around for it and it was like a big party. Looks like they still do it.
There is a certain spirit/sound to the brass and drums ringing out across the landscape, isn’t there? I also was in marching band during high school, but not college…also a clarinetist. Band was fun, but with some schools it has become so competitive and elaborate that the time demand almost becomes overwhelming for kids. The props, the costumes, the drama. It’s fun, but sometimes it feels overdone.
But I still enjoy a good marching band! My parents would talk about watching college and pro football games in the 60s, and they would show the halftime marching band on television!
I love that we have similar marching band origin stories. You are right about the uber-competitiveness. Even at the high school level, it can get crazy. The high schools basically demand a level of commitment that feels like one is selling their soul. Summer boot camps, practices every day before school, etc. The school that many of the students attend from the church where I work has one of the top marching bands in the state and the stories I hear of what is expected can get over the top.
Two of my grand-nieces were drum major for their high school band during their respective senior years. The tall one of the two is 5’0″, but they commanded respect when they were on that platform. And, yes, there was so much pressure. Practices, competitions, etc.
I have attached some videos of their respective shows for the band geeks among you.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XrdsYrjs1o
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KieBAvGAMi0
Very nice. Marimbas are an underrated and important part of the marching band sound and I like that you can hear them here.
One song that comes to mind is the “Theme from S.W.A.T.”, the #1 song from Rhythm Heritage from 1976. I was listening to it one day and thought, this would make a great marching band song. A quick youtube search yielded multiple examples of just that.
Yes, it would! It also works as elevator music, courtesy of Ray Conniff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSq6TYPqJxM
Oh, man, that’s great! It is so faithful to the original. So weird.
From a local school:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xd-DPdIPfw
Good stuff, RB!