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.

Big Poppa Hops says "I told you so!"

Last night the Rutgers Scarlet Knights beat the #3 in the country, Louisville in a college football game. This has nothing to do with music but I figured I would write about it anyway. You see my dad, Big Poppa Hops, has been a season ticket holder for the worst college football team in history for about 15 years. I remember going to games in less than half full stadium hoping they would only be down by 20 or so at half. They lost to some teams I didn’t even realize had football teams. To say they were bad would be an understatement. So if you said that only a few years after that they would be undefeated, playing in a packed stadium and would beat the #3 team in the country I assumed we would be talking about their new 5,000 seat stadium they built once they decided to drop down to Division III. But Big Poppa Hops always had faith, always knew the "sleeping giant" would one day wake up. I just never really believed it would.

The game and crowd were amazing. RU battled back from 25-7 down and won 28-25. They even turned the Empire State Building red before the game in anticipation of the game. Amazing. And to honor Big Poppa Hops commitment to watching them (and making the rest of us watch them) I bring you songs inspired by Rutgers:

This Never Happened Before by Paul McCartney: It was the first time RU beat a ranked team since 1988, and the first time Rutgers has played in a game with two ranked teams … ever…. And they played in the VERY first college football game.

Better Days by Bruce Springsteen: WAY better days… and of course Bruce HAD to make this list.

Nice Dream by Radiohead: Big Poppa Hops has been talking about this day for years… a day where fans actually came to the game. There were more students at the game last night than I saw combined in about 10 RU games I had been to. I bet he still thinks he’s dreaming.

Mind by The Talking Heads: “I need something to change your mind” sings David Byrne over and over. And RU changed some minds last night!

Jokerman by Bob Dylan: “A woman just gave birth to a prince today and dressed him in scarlet.”

Keep The Faith by Bon Jovi: I am not really a Jovi fan, but you know the RU fans will like this one.

I’m A Believer by The Monkees: I am sure Big Poppa Hops still was worried that the old Rutgers would show up and get blown out by 50 points. It looked like they actually might when they were down 25-7.

UPDATE: I guess I jinxed them as they ended up losing the next week. Sorry Big Poppa Hops!