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  • 2:14 is EPIC.

  • That baritone soloist KILLED IT.

  • Psh, wth is this nerd stuff? Idk how I got here.

  • @screamoc1 nice troll

  • 2:03 is that Shawn Glyde? It looks like him!

  • @homfencing Cool. He's my old bands drumline tech and he wrote our music too. I went to a highschool that he taught at and now I am a freshman in college where he teaches at as well haha.

  • The best show that never won the championship, the 1984 Blue Devils.

  • @piliage THANK YOU!!!!! 1/10th still bugs me almost 30 years later.

  • The Blue Devils' rendition of "La Fiesta" is a most powerful presentation. Everything was just spot on!! BTW, the vibraphone player is one of the best I ever saw back in the day, and probably better than anyone out there today.

  • Need a new pair of pants...

    

  • Of course, the first video I find that's better than Missouri State's is the Blue Devils. Very impressive!

  • Nice! Back when drum corps didn't suck!!

  • maybe why they are STILL my favorite corps

  • My dad marched in this :)

  • @sammyandwilly Who's your dad?? Always kinda fun to hear from someone with a connection to someone I marched with.

  • @sammyandwilly Does your dad know Bo Dingus from the Contra line? I can't recall if my dad marched then or not.

  • @firefly09td Bo Dingus. Great guy. If you do a bit of searching, there is a wonderful photo of him when he was about 15 years old on the Anaheim Kingsmen website from the 1982 tour. He is standing with two french horn players from the corps. And Bo is one of my oldest friends in the world, send him my best regards from Belgium.

  • @firefly09td Bo didn't march BD in 84. He was in Freelancers in 85 and BD in 86.

  • @homfencing Thanks for that, For whatever reason I get the years all mixed up.

  • 1:14 best fucking lip slur

  • Now this is the real Blue Devils.

  • God damn I miss french horns in DCI.

  • Didn't they have the 21 age limit back in the day? These guys all look like they're in their end 20's

  • Bring back the Concert Number! Play a lot of notes really fucking loud and no running!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Wait.. where are the band instruments? The amped mics? The mics for the solos? The 3rd valves? The speakers for the pit? WTF is this... this isn't drum corps.

  • @a53mp Shut up, Eric!!

    

  • @homfencing lol

  • My all time favorite show (and song) in drum and bugle corps.

  • @bodyandsmarts Wow! Thank you! It was a blast to perform as a rook-out! The 2nd greatest day of my life was this show (the 1st being my wedding day, of course)

  • 21 is the max DCI age limit, there is no minimum that I know of.

  • @wcwhitner 14... some corps require that you be 16.

  • 2:16

    that is the bossest fucking face evar.

  • The reason the corps is not marching is because La Fiesta was their "concert" piece. Back in the 70's and 80's, Shows were broken up into 5 distinct sections.. The opener (or many corps referred to it as the "off the line"... harkening back to the days when all corps started on the goal line), The drum feature (where only the drums played... for an entire song), the ballad (self explanitory), the concert piece (literally "park and bark") and finally the closer.

  • @cainanuk I always liked "Park and Blow."

  • @cainanuk And then Garfield came along!

  • Lots of 80's mustaches on display there... oh, and let's not forget the mullets! The 80's ROCKED!!

  • I marched Spirit of Atlanta in '84, I still remember seeing BD the first time in Stillwater, MN and being blown away by La Fiesta. What a great tune!

  • Great performance for the Devils that night...took one of the great shows in DCI history to beat them.

  • @dc62 *sigh* Yes.....yes it did. There's no shame in losing to one of the all-time great shows....but couldn't they have waited a year??

  • was there an age limit in those days a lot of the people look a lot older then 24 or whatever the cut off age is now

  • @crescendopez Oh yes....there were any number of people who looked overage back in the day. In addition to Stymie (the closeup guy in the opening trio...he aged out the following year), there was Ira, the balding blonde guy from 83 Madison (duet with Sean Owens in "Strawberry Soup") and a guy from 83 Bridgemen (closeup in "Waiting for Godot") who looked maybe 30!

  • @crescendopez ... there was an age limit.

  • Love the audio, but they barley move... Pretty sure I saw one dude doin a bump midsong... Like Charlie Sheen says, "Duh... Winning!"

  • @daguy102704 That would've been Rob Brown (left) and Mike Collins (right) shanking hands as Preston prepped for his Frenchie solo. It was magic on the field that night.

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  • 0:56 Mello guy kicking out the first valve slide. Glad the kids back in those days new how they worked and used them, unlike today!!!

  • @Aaron5ash French horn, actually....we didn't have mellos in the corps in 84...the altos were half flugels and half Frenchies.

  • @homfencing Awesome. I didn't realize that until you mentioned it.

  • @Aaron5ash Actually, the french horn player was kicking IN his first valve slide. Normal position was 'out', and it had to be brought in to play high A-flats (which are normally played with 2 and 3 on a 3-valve horn but are playable but flat with 1st valve) in tune.

  • @gregtyoung Really?! Interesting! I love learning random facts like that. Never played on any older horns, but always wanted to get my hands on one.

  • 1986 was better music !

  • Who's the joker who disliked this? We rocked!!

    *must''ve been someone we cut that year*

  • Great!

  • I just got shivers. I love good marching music.

  • Love love love this! One of my favorite all-time BD charts! I really wish BD would go back to playing this kind of music instead of the weird Stan Kenton crap and choppy arranging they do these days. Oh well, they are still winning championships and I guess that's all that matters... :(

  • I so miss BD of that time

  • dennis eckersley on timps hahaha

  • wow.. marching was different back then compared to now. got to not move at all when you stand in one spot

  • @picktownfball72 Remember that this was "concert." where we gave the guard a chance to show off...this was pretty much the last "concert" number, however, as Garfield didn't really do a park & bark (they went on after us and were the last corps that night), and no one really DID a true concert after then. Trust me, we moved around a lot for the other 4 charts of the show!

  • God love the G bugle French Horns!!!! I know they were such difficult things to play, but MAN, there are about 5 guys from back then that could WAIL on those things. I believe that Renegades still march 3 or 4, in the Senior Corps circuit.

  • Two more thoughts:

    Who is the guy in the pit with the cheezy moustache. He's really having fun!

    This is just fantastic.

  • @mjbari3 Which one? The tymp guy was Jeff Voorhees (and yes, he was always like that). The keyboard guy was Dan Detweiler, and the guy on the rack at the end was Shawn Glyde (I think...either Dave or Shawn was in the snare line that year and I keep forgetting which was which!)

  • @1965bast The guy playing tymps near the begining. I don't know if Bob Bollman played this year, but I know him from the Steel City Ambassadors in Pittsburgh!

  • @mjbari3 Nope....Bob wasn't in the 84 corps. 85 was his first year, I believe....I'd aged out by then.

    @ fnloud. I haven't SEEN Dean since this show. Ran into him on Drum Corps Planet once a few years back, but that was it. I don't know if he's on the brassline alum Facevbook page.

  • @1965bast Haha, that looks like Shawn gettin down on the rack... 

  • @antieverybody Yep...Glyde's big camera moment (mine was in the opener)...ended up being the pic in the program book for 85 Nats. (and just as an fyi...the post you responded to was actually from me...I was on my wife's computer and forgot to sign in)

  • at 1:08 anyone mind telling me if that's a G Baritone or mello? i seriously cant tell lol it looks like a bari but the mouthpiece is sooo fucking small

  • @itwontcomeout5678 Neither, marching french horn.

  • @itwontcomeout5678 It's a marching french horn. They used to be popular in the 80s. We still used them in Cavies until 1992.

  • this was when Blue Devils actually put on a SHOW!

  • As amazing at the Cadets were that year with West Side Story, my love was over the top for BD. I mean they owned it. No disrespect to Cadets, but BD was burning!

  • @enigmasleeps  TRUE!

  • I liked the show in 1986, got to see it in person 2 times and they won a DCI world championship with it, the closer for that show, "One more time chuck corea" was the best song Ive ever heard played by any corps or band for that matter ever

  • SO much fun to hear old school drum corps

  • I believe DC did this arrangement. Loved this show.

  • @brykundo I don't remember DC doing any of the major arranging in 84....Wayne did it, if I remember correctly...his musical handwriting was unique (would it've killed him to actually connect the note heads to the stems??)

  • Wish they'd kept the camera on you at the end of your solo, Preston.  That was a nice shake! Hope you're doin' well!

  • Man I wish Wayne still wrote like this !!!!!!

  • There was too much pit on-camera that year. But man, that vibes player (Peggy?)was smokin' hot. Oh yeah, and she could PLAY.

  • @tommytimp Peggy Watson...a fairly quiet lady, as I recall (but then again, I didn't hang with the pitsters that much). Married one of the sop players who later was in the alum corps.

    Jeff Voorhees pratically had a freakin' TV contract that year!!

  • @homfencing Jeff was indeed a thick slice of ham. But good. He had a great ear. Thanks for the info.

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  • I didn't like their My Spanish Show, but this was really sick! 

  • Dan spotting at :45!!!

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  • Nice see and hear a French horn solo. No one uses French horns anymore.

  • walang kupas. veryy nice!!!!

  • They take high drums and horns and take second. The 84 was one of BD best shows ever. It doesn't get the props because the show didn't win. But Bacchanalia Rock Encounter and Karn Evil 9 were all fierce that year.

  • @Offbeat1000 To continue...."Rock Encounter"? We had no such chart in 84. It was Bacchinalia, Latin Implosion, KE9, La Fiesta, Like a Lover.

  • @homfencing Sorry I meant Latin Implosion. That's the one with the timpani break, followed by the contra "walking baseline". That segment always reminded me of a tune called Rock Encounter,

  • @Offbeat1000 Ahhh....now I understand....I never heard Rick Encounter...if I did I probably would've understood your reference.

  • ANyone know where I can get this whole show on video especially the beginning with Bacchanalia.

  • @Drumkid69 yes, go to dci.org to the media page you can buy and download audio and video shows through the years.

  • They just don't make it like that anymore.

  • This needs to be a BD encore piece.

  • I wish someone would post the 1985 show. I loved Liferaft Earth.

  • 1:20 TILL 1:50 IS MY SHIT

  • YES

  • so much better than drum corps today

  • you won't find power like this in DCI nowadays, nor the balls to take it up in the super Gs lol.

  • One of my all time favorite BD books ever From the opener to the closer. Like it was mentioned before any other year this show wins. But Cadets and West Side Story was too tough

  • AweSOME!!!!!

    Love it... one of my ultimate faves!!

  • WHY ARE THEY JUST STANDING THERE??

    jk

  • @DarmokandJiladLLP Because the songs time signature is all over the place and the piece is very difficult to even play standing still. My high school played this in 1986. We got thrid place in State in Texas. We had to stand still much of it due to time and difficulty. One of the greatest latin jazz songs. We were very good - but Blue Devils were amazing.

  • @allgames7 On the arrangement you played, perhaps, but I just looked at my copy of Wayne score for THIS version....it was a straight 3/4 time for the entire chart.

    It wasn't the hardest horn book of the show..Latin Implosion was for me, but primarily that was because I'd rarely played 5/4 time before and certainly had never MARCHED it.

    From a simple note standpoint, Bachhinalia was the hardest chart.

  • @homfencing Bachhinalia was a wicked great chart, I remember hearing it for the first time in a warmup arc at the Riverside show early in the season. Absolutely blew me away.

  • @piliage Heh....that was my home show (or as close as I got, since I'm from San Diego). I remember when we were setting up and my sister yelling my name LOUDLY until I waved to her.

  • @homfencing Riverside was (perhaps is still) a great show. It was SO early in the season and most folks hadn't seen each other for over a year (friends, competitors, or otherwise), it always had something of a reunion feel about it. It also gave you a good idea regarding SCV and BD vis a vi who had the strong show for the season. However, it is damn year 30 years ago since I was last involved, and life moves on.

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  • @DarmokandJiladLLP - Back then, it was customary for Corps to perform a concert piece. However, by this time, most corps had gotten away from it, as judges expected movement 100% of the time.

    I also like how back then, at the 11 1/2 minute mark of the show, the head judge would fire a pistol into the air to end the execution judging, so that all corps got equal amounts of judging time. After the gun, they had a minute and a half to get off the field or they would be penalized.

  • @smn76 Actually,most corps did a concert up through 84....Garfield was the only one this year that did not have one, thus La Fiesta was the last of the true concerts. The move to almost constant movement took few more years to get set in.

  • @smn76 (part 2) Also, there was no timing gun starting in 84....83 was the last year. And you're a little inaccurate on the 11:30 gun. It wasn't that they had 1:30 to exit the field....it was that they had 1:30 to finish performing (show length was 11.5 to 13 minutes until 1986, when it was shortened to the current length. At 11:30, all judging stopped EXCEPT for GE, so you could suck musically and in marching after that point, but it would not affect the score, as those judges were exiting.

  • @homfencing I stand corrected, although what you said is what I meant to say. If the show lasted more than 13:00, you were penalized. That being said, I'm glad to know my facts are still accurate after all these years. I was in the activity in the 70s, back in the dark ages!

  • This is by far, one of the best parts of a BD show ever....I could listen to this every day....BD rocks....

  • Great stuff ... THIS is DCI. :)

  • The best show ever in DCI for me

  • Thank you! In any other year we probably would've won, but Garfield was VERY tough to beat...we only did it one time (Landsdale, PA....last show before finals week).

  • @homfencing

    I enjoyed reading your posts, homfencing. It's great to get an insider look behind the scenes.

  • My pleasure...always nice to have your work appreciated!

  • I like the blue stars one better, not saying they are better or anything and I loved the marching baritone or mellophone or whatever solo but I think the trumpet solo was written much better to bad he missed the very end and didn't cut off with the band to hit the note lol

  • Hanging over was somewhat common in drum corps...Hunter Moss at Spirit of Atlanta did it all the time. I don't think anyone was ever ticked for it (meaning a score deduction), as it was part of the planned performance and not an actual mistake. If it would've been ticked, no corps director would allow a hangover, especially at finals in the tic era.

  • Yeah I understand it sounds cool and is fun and sometimes hard not to do lol, I was talking the blue stars version the soloist hung over cause he missed the last note and held on to get it right he did but it was the only thing i noticed at first lol

  • 1:06-1:25 great melo solo!

  • Not a mello...it's a French horn. The altos that year were a mix of Frenchies and flugels...I think 86 was the first yer they used mellos.

  • a mellophone is a french horn dude. just the marching version.

  • Incorrect...they both play in the alto range, but a mellophone and a marching French horn ARE different instruments...different timbres, different mouthpieces, etc.

    You don't see marching Frenchies in Jr corps anymore because modern marching speeds make it damn near impossible to play it cleanly, as the intervals are VERY easy to slip into...even in the 80s they had issues (Frenchie solo in 87 VK "Brazil"...easy to hear).

    Besides, I was IN Blue Devils in 84....I know what brass we used.

  • oh ok, you couldve just said that earlier. So whats a Frenchie? never heard of one.

  • Frenchie is a nickname for a marching French horn, that's all. A concert French actually faces backwards...not good for work on the field when you want the sound to go toward the audience.

    The shot of Preston Howard (the soloist) is not a good one for showing the horn, as it's mostly in front of him and it KINDA looks like a modern mello because of the tubing....but French horns always have a lot of tubing. A better shot of a marching French is of Dean Bull at 0:51.

  • Remember also that all of these horns only had 2 valves, so a mello of the era had a LOT less tubing than a Frenchie. 3 valvers didn't get legalized until 1990...AND ALL brass until 2000 was in the key of G. Made it easy to swap parts (the flugel feature at 1:25 was originally in the sopranos, but we couldn't play it clean, so Wayne gave the flugels a shot and they nailed it.)

  • so what instrument did you play back then?

  • Soprano bugle....same as the guys in the opening trio (in fact, John Hendrickson -- far left -- and I both came from San Diego State. He aged out with Madison the following year).

    I managed to find a King K-20 sop (same model we used in 84...the entire line was Kings) on ebay a few years ago....my preferred horn (it even belonged to BDB at one point). In the 07 BD/SCV alum corps, I think I was the only 2 valve G horn amongst all the sops/trumpets.

  • Wow, cool. So your the trumpet in the middle of the opening trio? Well I play trumpet too. Im a junior my high school band, I want to try out for either Carolina Crown or The Boston Crusaders my second year of college.

  • No...That was Stymie. I wanted to audition for the trio -- and had I gotten it, it WOULD'VE been me in the middle -- but I didn't go for it...don't remember why, as I DID try for the duet in "Latin Implosion" (back when Duane's solo WAS a duet) (2nd chart in the show) and made the first cut.

    At the very beginning of this vid, I'm the point in the right devil horn. My horn and left hand get in the frame during the last park & bark as shoot the bell WAY up while taking a breath.

  • so your the short guy behind Stymie at the end of the vid? at 2:16?

  • No...I have no idea who that is...can't see the face clearly...and I had a full beard at the time. In that last set, if you look at the form at 2:21, I'm in the front arc, 5th from the right...nowhere near Stymie (the person you're referencing is on the other side of the 50 from me, in fact). I had one good face shot during the opener, but I've never seen that clip on YouTube.

  • @homfencing I like Dean's awesome 80's white guy jerry curl hair. I met Dean playing in a community concert band in the 90's. What's he up to nowadays?

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  • scott cuthbert he marched quads that year.

  • Heh....I kinda remember Cuthbert....being in the brass line, I didn't hang with the drummers much.

  • There's something to be said for the 'PARK AND BLOW' drill set ... Just sit in the stands on the 50 yard and listen, as the Blue Devils proceed to make you sterile. :) ...

    Peel my face off ecstasy.

  • my band director marched this year

  • What's your director's name....and did he march BD or another corps in 84?

  • tom float's ride cymbal pattern kicks ass... this line was awesome.

  • i marched this year and omf i loved bd. i will go out on a limb and say best show ever!

  • seems that DCI does not allow HAIR like they did back then. Bring back the hair!

  • That depends on the corps....plenty of facial hair in BD, Bluecoats, etc....CADETS don't allow it, but that's their choice.

  • I have shown this video to my performers for years, in an attempt to demonstrate what pure focus and intensity looks like. Can you find too many better examples than the soprano (John Belushi lookin dude :) at the end of this chart? Whoah. Now that's awesome! No offense meant to this guy...I don't know him. But surely respect his efforts.---SAFye

  • Steve "Stymie" Leanene....awesome player...we called his cam shot at the end "The Look," and seeing it on a replay on the way home was the first time I laughed since the show.

  • @SAFye I love the mean mug at the end. I played my video to threads back in the 80's watching the entire finals over and over.

  • WHY don't they play music like this anymore??

  • The baddest of badass Blue Devils. My God, what a horn line. The end of this piece has been kicking my ass for 25 years, with the middle horns, then the baritones come in on top of them with the sopranos screaming at the very end...plus that totally off-the-beat ensemble percussion part...wow. Terific arrangement and performance.

  • Sitting in the stands at Grant field that night, I was pulling hard for the Devs to win. High Brass (tie), high drums, and high colorguard, but an unbelieveable second place to Garfield Cadets. I still can't believe that result. What a great show to listen to, year after year! Magnificent arrangements and stellar playing.

  • BD back in the day when DRUM CORPS WAS IN YOUR FREAKIN' FACE!!!!! ... No dancing, no chairs, just great MUSIC ...(not whole notes that last for 8 bars either) ... Someone should start a drum corps that is strictly OLD SCHOOL.

  • @MarineBugler Well, you can lay the blame for the current state at the feet of George Hopkins. He is the vanguard of what is happening in DCI today. And he is one of the old school directors, so I dont understand why.

  • I remember Rondinaro saying something like..."had to turn the headset down; the Devils are playing very aggressively tonight!" That's how they always USED to play. Was disappointed in DCI in general this season. Guess that makes me one of the "out of touch old geezers from the past. Give me more like the 84,85,86 Devils anyday.

  • That's one badass drum corps. And not a folding chair in sight ...

  • In my mind, this is one of the best shows ever played to not win the DCI title. The 84 show was superb. The opener Bacchanalia was brilliant as well.

  • So awesome!

  • Mike Deke was in this. He was my SOP instructor in 1992.

  • Heh...Mike was part of the closing sop quartet in 86. Florida Wave before BD, if I remember right (I think he and Gino Cipriani both came from Wave, but a year apart).

    Great guy...funnier than all get out....and the inventor or the infamous "Stupometer."

    Last time I saw him was mid 90s, I think....instructing the B corps

  • Do you have the rest of this show? "Bacchanalia" absolutely fucking ROCKED.

  • 84 was my first year in corps... I was in a dinky nothing corps. When I saw BD do this show it blew my freakin MIND.

  • YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!

  • Whoaaaa baby..

  • Love this show especially because it was at Georgia Tech. A friend marched flugel in 84 Devs and another guy was an instructor at my high school band camp a few years later.

  • Names????

  • Kevin Torres is the friend and Dan Detweiler assisted with our camp.

  • Heh,,,I kinda remember Kevin. Early in the season Wayne Downey asked if any of the sops wanted to switch to flugel...I almost did, so I would've marched closer to him. Except for the last set in LF I don't think we were ever near each other.

    Dan Detweiler...great pit player (got some good camera in LF, too from 1:39 to 1:46...dude right in front of the camera.

  • Oh man....I LOVED playing this chart. I'm the soprano at the very top of the "horn" on tihe right side at the beginning of the vid.

    The crowd response from the field was deafening.

  • Yeah. Now the crowds just clap politely. Like they are at a freaking golf tournament! Oh, wait ... DCI SOUNDS like a golf tournament these days!