Monday, March 17, 2003 - 9:32 PM
I was listening to the standstill recording the Cavaliers made in Detroit in 1960 for the Midwest Melodies album, and it just blows me away. I was in my car and playing the cassette loud enough to blow eardrums.The clarity of the hornline and drumline is so much better in the standstill recording than on the recording of the actual VFW Nationals contest at Briggs Stadium. It's too bad there wasn't a standstill recording made every year.
Just listen to Toyland. My God, you can really hear those sopranos soar into the stratosphere. I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about it.
To a very lesser degree, you can hear the same thing subtly in the 1959 recording Legion Nationals recording, and hardly at all in the 1960 VFW Nationals recording.
Every year the corps should have a standstill recording as well as the actual performance recording. It's too bad that didn't happen earlier (like every year in the 1960s and onward), but at least we have that fabulous Midwest Melodies from 1960.
There isn't a standstill recording of the 1961 show that I'm not aware of, is there?
Thanks,
Curt
