You, sir, have my deepest respect and envy. I go back in time a little further than you, I marched for the St. Matthias Cadets out of Milwaukee. Our top three favorite corps were, in this order: (1) The Men of Madison, (2) Phantom, and (3) Blue Stars. I'll NEVER get enough of seeing the Men of Madison. Carpe diem, and YOU ROCK!
Madison Scouts has been my favorite corps since my drum corps days in the 1960s (well, besides my own corps. I was in the color guard and rifle was my fav position.). I come here to get my "fix" of drum corps....back in the day when it WAS drum corps and not the current "theatrical" shows.
Significant show, you can still see the visceral, raw old DCI, but see the beginnings of the refinements that would eventually take it to where it is today in this show. I followed DCI in those wonderful in-between 80s.
1978 was my first year of junior drum corps in New England. We saw Madison at Boston College Stadium. As a contrabass player I was floored by the power of their contra line in the opener and learned the part at 1:50 from memory by our next practice....totally blown away. Thanks, Paul for posting.
Great performance. I competed against this corps in the early 1950s when they were one of the top corps in the nation. We (the Appleton Wisconsin Scouts) never could come close to beating them. In 1957, while I was at the U of Wisconsin, they played at halftime at a Wisconsin/Ohio State basketball game. I convinced my dorm buddies to skip going to the concession stand so they could hear the Scouts play. They stayed and were blown away by the group -- none had heard a really good corps before. The Scouts played indoors in their stocking feet to protect the court floor. Jerry T
For all those who like to downplay the power of the G bugle. Madison was all about power projection into the stands...no MIcs, no amplification, just dudes with some serious lung capacity and chops. Like God Intended.
I was in this show at Mile High Stadium (one of my two years in guard - flag) We had an amazing horn section that year. I think it was the first year the song Malaguana that has become a standard for the MS since. I like watching the staff go nuts on the sidelines. Took 4th.
That note at 5:53....that is a Maynard note if I ever heard 1 lol. Interesting our HS Marching Band (200 musicians plus a huge Guard and Dance Drill Team) in '78 (I was Head Drum Major then) played the Star Wars theme in our HT show. We had 200 musicians and were only a 3A school with about 800 total students!
That's cool Perry. I have no idea when this song waa written. We performed it at LA Tech in 92 and I just assumed it was new. By far in my top 3 favorite marching band songs.
It is a 40, which was not all that uncommon back then. When I marched (six years later) in DCI many groups still carried 36s and at least four I can think of hauled around the big 40.
The corps this year contained a who’s who of future DCI leaders, some of which are still in the activity today. Scott Chandler , program coordinator of the Blue Devils was on the rifle line here. Todd Ryan, visual caption head for Blue Devils was a mellophone here. Dan Acheson, former director of DCI
I'm sure some of them are the ones that killed the drum and bugle Corps activity, turning it into a band competition and there's nothing wrong with marching bands but certainly not a drum and bugle Corps
I LOVED DCI in the 80’s. Went solo to a show/competition in about 2010. What an utter disappointment! No sound power, very little lyricism. Just lots of unwarranted swagger. Let’s hope the musicality makes a return!! Bravo to all those people in this video.
@@tommcconville4270 I purchased a slingerland snare drum in 1958 April of 1958 its stance on the inside, I still have it to this very day, July 2021. Ludwig Drum company is in Monroe North Carolina, I went to that factory a few years back they still make great promise. I attended DCI championship in Texas I forgot the year off the top of my head, but right next to me was Bill Ludwig Junior, a great conversation with him for about two-and-a-half 3 hours maybe longer he was a real gentleman I enjoyed meeting you and speaking with him.
Olds bugles were the best ever made, I would have loved to play one of their baritones. As a baritone player in New Jersey dtum corps, we started with Getzens, and in 1971 we upgraded to Smith horns. I finished my corps tenure with the Sunrisers playing a Smith baritone. By the way, Madison Scouts rendition of God Bless the Child is outtasight! One of the greatest corps all time. Their Star Wars performance great as well.
Back in the day, a significant number of members of drum corps didn’t have any musical experience before joining. It was predominantly a local civic organization and were taught how to play a bugle upon joining.
@@Mark-sj3xb and they did not import members from all over the country and for that matter throughout the world period for the most part we were all neighborhood kids. It was a great youth activity. Sponsors were mainly VFW, American Legion, and Catholic organizations for the most part. One time and United States and Canada there were approximately 7000 drum and bugle Corps. Some of them were parade course, others were standstill competition corpse, then we had competing Junior drum and bugle Corps as well as senior competing drum and bugle Corps. Also in the off-season we would have individual and quartet competition. And many quarts had their own Color Guard competition, members of those color guards were comprised of Bugler's drummers Color Guard personnel. Offseason besides practicing those were our other interest in Outlets. Great memories plenty to do on the offseason. By the way these competitions took place in different states every state pretty much do the same thing as far as individual and quartet and colorguard competitions
Yeah but, there's only 2 of them. So why are pits being mic'd today when they have 10-12 keyboards? Can't be because the horn line are too loud because, they aren't nearly as loud as this.
The recordings only used sideline mics to capture the sound. With only two keyboard instruments corps had to put them near the side line to be heard in the stands. So when these two factors align the recording you hear seems heavy on the bells.
The recordings for 78 were not very good. They did not do a good job capturing the full ensemble sound and captured individual instruments as they passed in front.
Hey Al Bertha, what are your credentials ? are you a college professor ? ? professional musician (wannabee) of some sort ? play in a symphony ? do you even play a brass instrument ? for that matter do you even play anything ? Just curious how someone gave you the right to criticize these fine horn players. For those beloved Scouts alumni and other corps alums, Phantom, Garfield, Blue Devils, the list goes on, you have my respect. Unlike this mouthy individual making this asinine statement. You need to apologize and learn some manners because somewhere between home and your public school you missed a few lessons. . .. . So in closing response to your post, "please learn to shut your mouth."
