Marching to the Beat of Your Own Drummer

You know who doesn't get enough respect? Marching bands. Yeah that's right. Marching bands, especially really good ones are laughed at. Why? The good ones are really entertaining and work really hard. Often, I enjoy them more than the football games they're playing at. Last week Big Poppa Hops' alma mater, Rutgers, played a tiny Virginia school called Norfolk State. The highlight according to both Big Poppa and Mama Hops? You guessed it - the halftime show. Yesterday I saw a posting about a highschool marching band playing "The Hand That Feeds" by Nine Inch Nails (view here - its not great but they're just in high school).

This got me to thinking about marching that play popular songs. I remember watching the Bayou Classic Battle of the Bands when I was a kid and seeing the Grambling Band play TLC's "What About Your Friends" (or was it Southern that played it?). It got the crowd fired up! So for you viewing pleasure here are some great clips of college marching bands. Before you laugh and call me a geek check them out.

The University of Arizona playing Radiohead:


Ohio State doing their famous "Script" (Michigan fans look away):


And because I didn't want to get My Buddy Brad angry, here is Michigan's band doing "Thriller":


You have to give alot of credit for the merging of marching bands and rock music to Fleetwood Mac. back in the late 70's they got the USC Marching band to help them with their song "Tusk". They even performed this live with the band on stage at their reunion concert. So if you're wondering where Kanye West and Jamie Foxx got the idea to bring on a marching band at the 2006 Grammys look no further than the video below:


For more amazing marhcing bands check out the Southern University Human Jukebox, the Norfolk State Spartan Legion, the Ohio University Marching 110 (doing Bon Jovi) and the Florida A&M Marching 100.

And for the record I was NOT in a marching band....ever. Though I did play the trumpet in my district band. I was terrible.