I'm a tuba player. I worked my way through high school and college playing in polka bands in the hill country, at Wurstfest etc., the SPJST in Temple, the ones in Waco, Cat Springs, Dessau Hall, all over Texas pretty much. All this was 40-50 years ago, of course.74novaman wrote:What instrument? My dad was a trumpet player in the Aggie band '74-'77. I played through high school but was on to bass guitar and through with brass by college. Thanks to a realignment, we went to state marching competition 3 years, and traveled a bit during the off year so I got burned out by my senior year.JALLEN wrote:I've always been partial to "The Eyes of Texas" myself. \m/
There is a picture of me in the 1967 or 1968 Cactus yearbook holding the original manuscript from the Texas Ex-Students safe. I was in the Longhorn Band while in college and still play in the Alumni Band whenever possible.
Since its a song thread, I love a lot of the stuff the Aggie band plays, but a song most everyone else might recognize as well is "The Ballad of the Green Berets".
The Aggie Band played "The Ballad of the Green Berets" so much that it became to them almost like the Eyes of Texas to the Longhorn Band!
The Longhorn Band, under Vincent DiNino, was the greatest organization I have ever been part of, absolutely fantastic. Back then, DiNino had nearly 500 kids in the band, most between 18 and 25, a few older, who would rather die than let the others down. All were spectacular musicians. Striving for excellence, and executing it, was a way of life. We played the football games, including the Orange Bowl in 1964/65 against Alabama, went to the Inaugural Parade in 1965.... pretty heady stuff for a 19 year old from the hill country, too much fun!