Marching Band Music From The Mcadow Days

[letsgiveacheer]

Thanks for the suggestions about file sharing sites. I hope this works!

Here are several favorites from the McAdow days including the original fight song. Please remember that these were recorded using vacuum tubes (boy, am I getting old!)

The first link is the famous fanfare that Silver Eagle often writes about. It is from a Wagner opera and was played before the band entered the field for pregame. Pregame usually consisted of a march down the field. Then we turned to face the visitor's stands and played their fight song. Then into a block formation facing the home stands for the alma mater, then another formation for the national anthem, usually conducted by the visiting team's director if they happened to bring their band. Then off the field playing the fight song.

The fight song is the original version as posted earlier. You'll recognize the melody of course, but this arrangement is completely different.

"Glory to the Green" was sung by four guys out of the band!

The other three tunes are representative of what we played on the field. "Colonel Bogey" was often used when the band was marching in a precision formation. "Them Basses" was a McAdow favorite played in the stands. "Robinson's Grand Entry" is a circus march that was sometimes played as the band was finishing its half-time show. It was transition music as we moved into an interlocking NT or NTS formation. The band then launched into the fight song while in those formations and marched off the field.

Someone suggested that we have a throwback show and play the fight song as originally written. A few years ago when we were having a marching band reunion to raise money for a McAdow scholarship fund. I wrote the current director suggesting we do this for that occasion but did not receive the courtesy of a reply.

I hope everyone enjoys these.

http://www.4shared.com/audio/-KRZCKDa/Fanfare.html

http://www.4shared.com/audio/zEG3AL-p/Fight_Song.html

http://www.4shared.com/audio/32Ad3Jb3/Glory_to_the_Green.html

http://www.4shared.com/audio/G-16LAVI/Robinsons_Grand_Entry.html

http://www.4shared.com/audio/TOtq8Xuy/Them_Basses.html

http://www.4shared.com/audio/k01m56JN/Colonel_Bogey.html

[MeanGreenGlory]

Very neat to hear all of that! Thanks for sharing!

Edited January 2, 2011 by MeanGreenGlory

[GrayEagle]

Now that's what I'm talking about!

[greenjoe]

It's interesting hearing two versions of the same song (fight and alma). I can really hear the difference from what the GB plays now.

When I saw Robinson's grand Entry, I thought it was "Grand Entry Swing". Do you have that ? I recall it from the Winslow era of music at NT.

[Mean Green 93-98]

Thanks for posting--I like it!

[Ibleedgreen]

The words were different...I was an undergraduate student who graduated in 1970. We learned, "For we know our university is striving for the right..." which is what we sing today. On the recording I just listened to, the words are "For we know our university is forever in the right." I actually like that better.

Correction...The recorded version says, "For we know our university is EVER in the right."

Edited January 3, 2011 by Ibleedgreen

[SilverEagle]

Please keep in mind that the recording is a bit subdued compared to the "game time up-tempo" versions that I always heard the McAdow bands play.

[EagleMBA]

Now THAT is what a marching band sounds like. How have we gotten so far away from tradition? I can understand that the Green Brigade wants to be "hip" and change its performances to accommodate contemporary crowds. Having said that, why should the Fight Song and Alma Mater have EVER been altered? One tradition we should return to the campus beginning with the first game in the new stadium is performance of the traditional versions.

[Graddean]

Thanks for the memory blast. I attended a high school and then a JC with no band. I thought the NT band was the greatest. The "University part of the alma mater was necessitated by the change from NTSC to NTSU. I was, I believe, in the first NTSU graduating class.

[The Kerrfeteria]

First off, the fanfare: wow! Very dramatic, coming from an opera and one of Wagner's nonetheless...really like this one and it's a very unique thing to play. I know many schools play short, rousing pieces like this right before the team runs out of the tunnel. Listen again and imagine the team coming onto the field behind the band, jumping up and down, pumped up to rush into the open. Far more original than just playing a video set to "Thunderstruck". Of course as the team comes out, the fight song is played, but this older version has a lot more to it. I always felt the arrangement the band plays now can sound pretty simplistic at times and lacking something. I, like many others, never heard the original and I must say I prefer it. It's got a lot more...well...musical features to it.

/music nerd

I say play the fanfare for the team or band entrance and switch back to the old arrangement of the fight song (and maybe add another fixture to the repertoire a la "Fly Like an Eagle"), then STICK WITH THESE CHANGES. The vast majority would notice a difference, but not to the point where the university would jeopardize the branding/identity campaign it's been selling to the students and alums. Add in the acoustic qualities of the new stadium and you've created sights and sounds that you expect from an FBS college football game.

[oldschoollefty]

The McAdow version made me want to go shopping for a raccoon coat and a felt pennant to wave. I like both, I really do but the modern version is a little more upbeat and probably does a better job of getting the crowd on its feet.

Final verdict from me: Altered, yes...dumbed down, no.

[Denia Park Pedro]

Traditional fight song at football games, contemporary version at basketball games?

I think that would fit well.

[letsgiveacheer]

It's interesting hearing two versions of the same song (fight and alma). I can really hear the difference from what the GB plays now.

When I saw Robinson's grand Entry, I thought it was "Grand Entry Swing". Do you have that ? I recall it from the Winslow era of music at NT.

Sorry Joe, but do not have that. Winslow came after I graduated and I only met him on two occasions. The first is when he came to audition for the position. He was director of bands at UCLA prior to coming to North Texas.

[greenjoe]

I had forgotten that. Winslow and Hayden Fry also started the "Song Leaders" from the UCLA "Song Girls". The Song Leaders later became the "North Texas Dollies." Which we know today as the "North Texas Dancers."

[Mean Green Matt]

I am really torn between which version I like better. The current version is the only one I have had ever heard, from when I was a little kid until graduating a few months ago. The older version is obviously better musically, but my gut has to side with the current version, probably because of mostly subconscious reasons.

I'm not a fan of changing tradition. EVER. But changing back would be a change in tradition as well. I don't know, I never even knew the song had been changed, which should not have been allowed, but as a younger fan and alum who has heard the current version for 22 years, it would be hard to have it changed again.

One thing I wish they would do is only play through it once after a touchdown, and end with the U-N-T-EAGLES Chant. That may represent a change in tradition to some as well.

Messing around with tradiditions creates crap like this. Hopefully this new stadium will bring in an era that solidifies traditions, then we grow from there.

[yyz28]

Ok... I'm younger, and I played the newer version of the Fight Song so I'm sure I'm biased...

...but the old version sounds... OLD! Sounds like a typical march style piece of music, or something that you'd expect to be playing in the background of a carnival ride. ...it is a nice arrangement, and I'm not dogging it, I happen to really like it, but it isn't a TOUGH sounding arrangement, and doesn't really say "fight" when I listen to it. The current version has an aggressive fanfare and drives forward.

While I understand why the traditionalists like the old arrangement better, it would be crazy to go back now. The VAST majority of UNT alums are UNT alums, not NTSC and or NTSU alums. They also came through this school hearing and remembering the newer version. ...it would be like bringing back flying worm at this point.

Texas has modified "Texas Fight" along the way, adding the Eyes of Texas portion of the repeat in the 60's. The arrangement of Fight Raider Fight changed in the 90's slightly according to 3 friends of mine who were in that band at the time. We're not the only ones.

[Baby Arm!]

Thanks for sharing but......Meh?

They sound pretty dated if you ask me.