Over the last week or so, I've had a few occasions to see the Thomas Worthington High School Marching Band practicing on the school's front lawn. Each time I drive by, I see a different formation: shorts-and-sandals-clad teens clutching clarinets, flutes and trumpets in symmetrically placed clusters; band members spelling out the perimeter of a large square, one player at a time; parallel lines of musicians marching diagonally across a patch of green -all before a scaffolding on top of which is perched, presumably, the band director. I know the scene well. Heck, I lived it. Seeing my former marching band at practice made me recall -fondly -my own marching cardinal days at (then) Worthington High School. It was a time when music was just plain fun. We didn't care about things like tone quality and expressive nuance, but we did care about keeping our eyes on the players marching around us so we'd all stay in formation. And we cared how the spectacle of a hundred (two hundred? It seemed like legions) marchers came across to those watching us from the stands. We were putting on a show, after all, and had to justify our red and blue leisure suit-style uniforms and white Q-Tip hats. Also, something had to dignify that get-up.
High School Salute: A Tribute to American Marching Bands
So when a CD entitled High School Salute: A Tribute to American Marching Bands (Silva Screen Records 4173) recently crossed my desk here at WOSU, all the memories once again came flooding back.  The disc's second track is a band arrangement of the Europe hit "The Final Countdown," a song (and therefore a band arrangement) that came after my own marching days, but that I have a feeling must have been a regular guest a half-times around the country. The next track features an arrangement of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," a version of this actually quite beautiful ballad that would do Jimmy Page and Robert Plant proud. And lest you think Hollywood has been neglected, the disc also has a rousing rendition of the theme from Star Wars, music from Pirates of the Caribbean, and perhaps most Hollywood of all, the late Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean." A great mix if you like the unbridled fun of American marching band music. So it's interesting and maybe even ironic that the band that made this recording, the Band of the Blues and Royals (the Royal Horse Guards and the 1st Dragoons), is as far removed from America's football fields as any band could be.
Yet, Where Are the Q-Tip Hats?
In this vein, I must comment on the CD's cover art: the recording's title is emblazoned at the top of a photograph of the backs of some of the band's members in their performance wear. No red and blue leisure suits here. Instead, champagne-colored linen(?) tastefully yet conspicuously decorated with Queen Elizabeth II's royal emblem (EIIR) in burgundy velvet and gold embroidery. And Worthington's Q-Tip hats here are replaced with the classic black bowler of the horsey set. Yes, I know it's a British royal band, and yes, I can only imagine that British royal bands must be careful to reflect their company's -I mean, monarchy's - brand in their dress and comportment. But this is Yankee music. We fought for our independence precisely so we could wear Q-Tip hats if we ever wanted to. Nonetheless, the band plays well, if with too much polish to do justice to the authentic American marching band experience. Freedom to play as loudly and crassly as one wants in the name of having a good time was, if memory serves, scratched out from an early version of the Declaration of Independence, but probably only for reasons of space. So if you were once a bandie and want a nice stroll down memory lane (or in this case, Penny Lane), check out this recording. Oh, and one more thing we in the Worthington High School marching band cared about: the post-game parties. But that's for a different blog post. Maybe.
