0:41 – Run on/Missouri Fanfare 1:44 – Missouri Waltz 3:15 – Tiger Rag 4:12 – Eye of the Tiger 5:34 – Give a Cheer 7:17 – Treasure by Bruno Mars (arr. by Matt Schmitz) 9:29 – Locked out of Heaven by Bruno Mars (arr. by Matt Schmitz) 11:52 – Marry You by Bruno Mars (arr. by Matt Schmitz) 15:20 – Mizzou Drumline 21:38 – Hey Baby 23:42 – Every True Son/Fight Tiger 25:15 – Old Missouri
Concert on the Quad
Francis Quadrangle, Columbia MO
August 24th, 2014
Just about everyone has been impacted by now with the wars that have developed between those that own content, those that deliver content, and those that receive content.
My latest problem is with the video coverage of my beloved Missouri Tigers.
This weekend, CBS (which has the rights to the their # 1 selected SEC game every weekend, and their # 2 game on their selected weekends) is passing on the # 14 ranked Tigers hosting the # 22 ranked Florida Gators. Mizzou is the top team in the SEC East, but that didn’t matter to the CBS game pickers.
ESPN has the rights to the next 3 SEC games, and they also passed on the MIzzou game. The result? I wasn’t sure if I would be able to watch the game or not.
Good news, though: the fledgling SEC network is syndicating the game to 300+ TV stations across the country (no national network picked up the game). I finally found a list of those stations, and it is here. For me, I have to watch the game on channel 56, KDOC-TV out of Anaheim. It’s a station once known for professional wrestling and roller derby. Now, it’s a sports station airing football games that CBS and ESPN don’t want.
Thank goodness.
I’m not a victim: I get to watch the game I want to watch. There’s a lot of people that won’t be so fortunate. They may have to watch CBS’s twin pick of the week: # 15 Georgia (that Mizzou just beat) at the unranked Vanderbilt, and # 24 Auburn at # 7 Texas A&M. I believe both of those games will be totally uninteresting. I’ve run around the football field at Vanderbilt … but couldn’t care less about those 2 football games.
And here’s news for you: if you are a cable subscriber … or a satellite subscriber … then you are paying to have those CBS games delivered to your home. The ESPN games, too, if you get ESPN. You see, ALL cable subscribers pay, whether they watch football or not. That’s how our system works.
How much are you paying? Those fees are negotiated with each cable system owner, but ESPN’s fees average $4.69 per month. That’s what you pay whether you watch sports or not. The CBS fees are more difficult to figure out, as they include all of the CBS affiliated networks, such as Showtime.
I don’t know how much my Dish Network pays KDOC, but I’m glad they do!
David Byrne, 2006
On another front, today I read an interview with Talking Head’s David Byrne (the voice of the 80s signature hits, “Once in a Lifetime” and “Burning Down the House”). He made the somewhat provocative statement that paying for music content the way we pay for cable content will “suck all creative content out of the world.” The link’s below. Mr. Byrne feels that if we do generic licenses for music, such as we do with Pandora and Spotify, then artists will get the short end of the stick. Record labels will suck up a large portion … and artists starve.
As Mr. Byrne pointed out,
“Even Wagner was always in debt and slept with rich women to get funding – so nothing’s new, right?”
October 12, 1974 is when I first experienced mass hysteria.
I never saw it coming. Though I had been warned to look out for those ‘Huskers. I was told they might steal my hat.
In 1974, here’s what they looked like:
Herbie Husker
If you know me at all, you know this image offends me deeply. The idea that it was viewed as both a positive and literally iconic look for an entire state just astonishes me. But I digress.
I was a freshman at the University of Missouri and a proud member of Marching Mizzou. I played the timbales, which means I was not one of the 16 best percussionists in the band.
Really. There was an audition.
So, as percussionist # 17, I played the timbales. Marching Mizzou was taking a road trip to Lincoln, Nebraska, where our mediocre football team would be playing the 5th-ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers.
76,525 fans and me. And if you’ve ever seen the stadium at Lincoln, you know it’s an emotion-filled place. It rocks in support of Nebraska’s favorite football team. A sea of red confronts every team:
The home of the Huskers since 1923 and the location of a continuing NCAA-record consecutive sellout streak that reached 325 games in 2012, Memorial Stadium provides one of the most exciting game-day experiences in all of college football. The streak of consecutive sellouts started on Nov. 3, 1962, when 36,501 attended the Homecoming contest against Missouri.
It was in this environment that the Missouri Tigers and Marching Mizzou found themselves. Back in the day, the Tigers were known as being very inconsistent on the field … and giant killers when they could get it together. They lost spectacularly, and occasionally won spectacularly.
This game turned into a defensive battle. After 3 quarters, Nebraska led 0 – 3.
And then at the beginning of the fourth, Nebraska scored to lead 0 – 10.
And then it just broke loose.
Mizzou scored: 7 – 10.
And then there came the moment that this post is really about.
Hysteria, Sweet Hysteria.
The band was seated on the field, behind the endzone. Because I played that big kit of timbales, I had to sit at the bottom of the bleachers, out of the way of everyone. Worst. Seat. In. The. Stadium.
Suddenly, everyone was screaming. Everyone was jumping up and down. Jubilation! Hysteria! WAHOO!!!
What happened? I had no idea.
Video screens were a future dream, nothing more. All I could see was a bunch of black & gold music nerds jumping up and down, screaming. And they were surrounded by 70,000 red-clad fans. Screaming.
So what did I do? I jumped up and down and screamed, of course. You’ve got to go along to get along.
Mizzou scored: 14 – 10.
And Mizzou scored again: 21-10. 21 unanswered points, all scored in the 4th quarter to win. Game over.
It was exhausting. It was incredible. It was truly unbelievable.
It was real.
Marching Mizzou exited Memorial Stadium (yes, I protected my hat) and loaded up into the 8 Greyhound buses that brought us to Lincoln that day. We had a long ride home.
But we did stop at a tiny roadside liquor store for the band to acquire, uh, refreshments. I’m pretty sure that the liquor store’s cashiers got to enjoy a different kind of hysteria as they were invaded by 300+ Tigers that day.
Today, 39 years later, the Tigers are again playing the 5th-ranked team in the land, but this time it’s the Georgia Bulldogs.
