1976-09-18 - Harvard
Pregame
Ladies and gentlemen, presenting the Cleverest Band in the World, the Columbia University Marching Band
[fanfare]
J. Jimbo Miller, Head Manager
J. Bobo Freeberg, Drum Major
and featuring on the
[fanfare]
welcomes itself to Cambridge, the world's largest alluvial swamp.
Um, Er, {rustle of paper} according to the A.P. teletype up in the press box, Hurricane Bell has just leveled the campus of Harvard University. However and fortunately, the nations playing card companies have just dispatched emergency shipments, which will ensure that Harvard will soon be as it was before. The band, ever willing to call a spade a spade, forms one.
Please join us in a moment of silence in memory of the university that was, and yet remains a house of cards.
[Form Spade, Play With a Little Bit of Luck]
[Form C, Play Roar Lion]
Half Time
Ladies and gentlepersons, presenting the Columbia University fife and drum corp with Teddy Kennedy driving off the bridge, Elizabeth Ray on the payroll, Louise Day Hicks taking a back seat, and featuring Patrick Moynihan, Henry Kissinger and all the freshpersons on their way back to Cambridge for orientation; trip down memory lane with Gerald Ford and present it's bicentennial minute or two or three...
[March out to Stars and Stripes]
200 years ago today, Kings College stripped itself of it's royal trappings. The Columbia University Band now recreates that historic event.
Take off our clothes.
[Form C, Shout Join Us]
Unconcerned with who might Sioux, the Washington government continued to persist in chopping down the Cherokee. The State department churned out so much sitting bull that there was danger of getting Black Feet on the warpath.
The band now forms a wounded knee.
[Form Wounded Knee, Play Ten Little Indians]
A time of sorrow for the fledgling U.S. was one in which brother fought against brother, father fought against son, N.Y. fought the draft, and America was torn with strife. Yes, the democratic convention of 1968 was a beaut. The civil war, too, was a spat of like magnitude. The south revolted, leaving John Brown singing Axe me no questions, the North hating that grey, and washing it away, and the confederate general staff trying to secede without really trying. The band, trying hard to show that they're not just whistling Dixie, now forms the Mason Dixon line.
[Form Mason Dixon Line, Play Dixie]
Looking back on the glories of American history, the band is awed by the solidarity shown by the American people throughout these 200 years. Just as, 200 years ago, Americans stood shoulder to shoulder, fighting for their liberiY, we see Americans still standing, proud and tall, shoulder to shoulder, waiting for their welfare checks. The band now forms a breadline.
[Form Bread Line, Play Pennies from Heaven]
And that's the way it was... Ladies and gentlemen, please turn to page 80 on your program, and join us in the King's College alma mater.
[Form K, Play Sans Souci]