I wish more of you could have heard what I heard this afternoon at our annual summer band camp "Dinner with the Band"!  It's a big-sounding band the 2014 edition of the Mustang Band is!

You should have heard "Yes, Indeed!" and "Peruna."   "Shantytown" by itself would have blown you away!

The new band hall is a fantastic addition to the Mustang Band and YOU made it possible!  The practice rooms, the ability to use all the rehearsal time they have better and more efficiently, being so close to the stadium...it's truly remarkable.

You could hear the band through the walls from the outside.  (Yes, all the doors were closed!)  The sound is so strong and powerful!

We were able to serve the band, band alums, friends, and fans of the Mustang Band (You do know that the Diamond M Club is not only for Mustang Band alumni but for anyone and everyone that has played that "Mustang Jazz" or just enjoys listening to it being played!) right after their playing rehearsal and then go into the rehearsal hall to eat and visit all under one roof! YOU made this a reality!

Now, we as an organization that supports and are fans of the Mustang Band need to increase scholarship funding for students that are currently in the Mustang Band and to those that will be in the future.  This is what the Diamond M Club was founded to do.  This is why we exist.  It is the reason why our organization has survived these 30+ years.

You can make this a reality for so many current and future members of the Mustang Band.

You have a unique opportunity this year that coincides with the dedication and opening of the first true home of the Mustang Band ever built on the SMU campus.  You can make a difference.  In addition to your membership dues add some more and put it towards the band's scholarship fund.  Make the Mustang Band's scholarship endowment just as strong...no, STRONGER than the sound of today's Mustang Band!

Join the Diamond M Club today! 

Hubba!

- Roger Pace, '75

Kind, wise, caring, wonderful  lady.  Actual mother to 4 girls.  Mom in principal to hundreds of guys in the Mustang Band.

When I arrived on the SMU campus in the fall of 1970, I pulled up in my 1961 Rambler sedan (with fins, no less), and noticed a slight contrast with the new Buicks, Vettes and Porches.  A definitely not rich kid from Oak Cliff.  If not for the Mustang Band, I would have been a fish completely out of water.  But the Band didn't care about where you came from or the money, just whether you had the spirit, could play loud and were willing to march your butt off, all while being willing to laugh at yourself as much as the others who were laughing at you.

Well, Cathy quickly adopted me.  The fact that I got to the Band Hall early every morning and made the coffee before heading out to class (so she didn't have to make the coffee) may have helped, but mostly we really just got along.

Specific stories about Coach are legion.  I don't have much in the way of specific stories about Cathy.  She was just as important to me, though, but in an opposite way to Coach.  She was always there, always with a pleasant, calming smile and all the time in the world to talk.  Ready to advise, console, sympathize and commiserate without ever judging, even though she had strong opinions about things.  I can't recall ever seeing her lose her temper.  I am still not sure how she pulled all that off, given all the borderline things we did and the sheer mouthiness that would have driven anyone else to run screaming from the building or at least have Security on speed dial.

We stayed in touch over the years and my wife and I were honored to take Cathy to the Mustang Band Reunion at Mack Diltz' hacienda in San Antonio in 2007.  She had a great time there and I think finally realized how much she meant to so many guys.

Rest in peace, Cathy.  We'll miss you more than you know.  

Hubba!  

Bill Broyles

'74 and '75

I believe my '69 freshman year was Cathy's first. I thought of her as our "Mom away from Mom" for all 100 of the band members. She was always there for us. She wiped our noses, listened to our rants and whines, and kicked our buts when necessary. 

We'll start with the basics.  The original title of the song is "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town," a Tin Pan Alley creation first recorded way back in 1932 by Ted Lewis and his Band.  It was originally featured in a film called Crooner.  The song was a popular one almost immediately, hitting Billboard's number one spot and staying there for ten weeks.  Consider the context of the song.  In 1932, America was in the midst of the Great Depression and "shantytowns," crowded collections of ramshackle shacks filled with the homeless and jobless, were everywhere.  The song's original lyrics - spoken more than sung - are from the perspective of someone who's found success and left the old rundown shantytown, yet still feels a longing to go back home to that world and the place he called home.  You can hear Ted Lewis' version below.

Ted Lewis - In A Shanty In Old Shanty Town 1932

In 1946, Johnny Long and his Orchestra recorded the song and gave it a more swing-style, up-tempo vibe.  You can hear that version below.  It should sound familiar to SMU fans since the Doug Williamson arrangement that Mustang Band plays (and sings) is almost surely inspired by this version.  At some point between 1932 and 1946, the lyrics also changed.  Indeed, because "In a Shanty in Old Shanty Town" became something of a folk song covered by many artists and moving deep into the culture, a Google search will turn up any number of lyric variations.  But the Johnny Long version of the lyrics is more melodic, sung rather than spoken.  

You'll hear mention of a Haile Selassie in this vocal, at the part where SMU sings "Mustang Lassie."  We never heard of Haile Selassie either.  Turns out he was the emperor of Ethiopia who'd been something of a cultural icon in the 1950s, in part after giving a rousing speech at the UN.  Must have been, you know, a sassy speech.

Johnny Long and his Orchestra - A Shanty in old Shanty Town

Okay, so we know the song was a huge hit in the 1930s and 1940s (in the 1950s, Doris Day, Jerry Lee Lewis, and the Ink Spots all covered it as well).  So how did it become a Mustang Band staple?  We talked to older Band alums and even drafted the services of Stan Shipman to act as an official "Shantytown" researcher. Here's what we - and Stan - learned.

Guy Echols, 1961:  The version that we sing references the "T-Bird" and could not have existed before 1955 because the Ford T-Bird did not exist before that time.  We played this version the whole time I was in the Band.  By the time I joined in 1961, the T-Bird had become a very popular sports car.

Dick Floyd, 1958: That piece caught on immediately.  I really don't remember the year it started.  Certainly near the beginning of Dreibrodt's reign.  But from the very beginning it was the closer after every game.  I'm thinking that perhaps it was written for a Pigskin Revue and that is was so well received that it became a tradition.  I can't say that for sure but I do believe that could be very likely the case.

J. Paul Johnston, 1958: "Shantytown" was and remains a favorite of those of us who were members of the "Fightin' 40" [the 1958 Band, Drei's first at SMU].  Back at the time of my 35th class reunion, I visited with Drei at the penthouse apartment he and his wife had in a tower on Turtle Creek.  I asked him who wrote the lyrics to "Shanty Town" and he told me he and Jack Rohr. I think Jack did the first arrangement of it, but know that Doug Williamson also arranged it, too.  I think it was written in the summer of 1959-60 but am not sure of that.  In any case it was after Drei got the idea of having the Band serve also as a male chorus -- I think they called us the "Mustang Men" or something like that, but I'm not sure there either. I do know that it was a favorite right from the start and very quickly became our next to last song [before the singing of "Loyalty"] after games, pep rallies and other events.

Lyelle Palmer, 1956: My first memory of "Shantytown" was in a Cotton Bowl home game where we wore straw hats with striped blazers and sang it as a part of the show.  

Stan Shipman, 1967: Both Carl Carpenter and Steve McDermott recall playing the tune in the 1940s and possibly early 50s, but the band didn't sing it then.  They just played the tune along with many other pop tunes of that era.  I contacted Butch Arnold (who was Drei's assistant director for a year or so), and Darrell Chambers - both former DISD band directors whose college years spanned Coach's move to SMU.  Butch was a freshman in 1957 (a sophomore when Coach arrived), and Darrell was a freshman in 1956 (a junior when Drei came in).  Darrell told me that they didn't play much jazz in Oakley Pittman's band but that a graduate assistant would occasionally lead a jazz tune when Oakley would let him.

 Butch couldn't recall playing "Shantytown" at all.  But the Doug Williamson arrangement that included the vocal HAD to have been performed for the first time prior to 1961 since it is prominently featured on the 61 recording.  

Darrell Chambers, 1956: My wife tells me we did sing "Shantytown" in either the 1958 or 1959 season on the field at the Cotton Bowl.  She says I was right that we didn't play it before Driebrodt came. [Ed. Note: this suggests that "Shantytown" as we know was likely performed for the first time in 1958 or 1959.]

Shipman: I strongly suspect that the vocal was conceived during drill team school over a 'cool one,' and Drei had Doug write the tune for the fall semester that summer.

And now a clip of the 2010 Mustang Band performing "Shantytown" where so many of us have played and heard it - in an empty stadium long after the final referee whistle.

Mighty SMU Band

While Tommy arranges all of the wind parts, Jon handles the drum parts.  Both use Finale, a composing software.  There's been talk of marrying their work together into a single Finale file, but for now each Band chart has two scores: one for the winds, one for the drums.  

Don and Tommy clearly trust Jon and give him lots of latitude.  He can arrange the drum parts as he sees fit so long as the drum parts properly serve to the chart.  This summer, for example, Tommy re-invisioned "Pennsylvania 6-500," taking inspiration from the Brian Setzer Orchestra arrangement.  Tommy showed the chart to Jon, gave him an idea of the style, and let Jon create the drumline part.  Everything Jon writes and arranges has three important elements: it has to fit the style of the song, it has to be fun to play, and it has to be easy to learn.  

When we talked to Jon earlier this month, he was hard at work getting everything ready for band camp.  He'd just organized the huge new drum room and was about to finish up the final six songs that needed drum parts written.  Once August 14 rolls around, he's not going to have any time to write.  Jon will be busy at SMU working with the drumline all day.  Band camp remains a hectic and intense experience for everyone, cramming a lot of practice into just a few days.  The drumline has to learn cadences, cheers, fight songs, plus all of the show songs.  There could be 30 or 40 pieces of music to learn in any given football season.

When it comes to who plays what instrument, that all gets settled at the first band camp rehearsal.  Once the "battery" is set, that configuration is locked in for the season.  But positions do change from year to year, so student who doesn't make the cut for snare and winds up playing bass drum can try out for snare again next year.  Drummers can keep a position they've already earned.

Once school starts, Jon will be with the drumline at every rehearsal - in the band hall and on the field - and at every home game.  He goes to as many away games as his schedule will permit.  On game day, Jon serves the same purpose as Don and Tommy.  He's there to help guide the students as needed, but at this point, the days of Jon helping call specific cadences and cheers are over.  His drum captain now leads the section and knows what to play and when to play it.  Jon's proud of the way certain cadences will get 5000 SMU students dancing and cheering.  But even with all of the support he provides, Jon "doesn't make a sounds."  It's up to the students to perform what they're practiced.

Incoming SMU students have changed over the years as marching bands at the high school level have evolved.  Jon notes that drummers now have a lot of experience with written scores and many expect it.  That means there may be a reluctance to just make things up.  That doesn't mean Jon and the Mustang Band drumline shy away from developing new cadences and drum parts.  Jon encourages creativity.  He asks only that the drummers with an idea take the time to write out the parts and create a score.  Only then can the drummer present the idea to the group.  Jon believes this process forces students to think everything through.  Jon tries to workshop any new idea feels is feasible.  In general, and since time began, drummers like to ask "Can we do this...?"  So long as it promotes a good show, Jon is open, though time constraints are often a factor.  Once school starts, there's limited opportunities to work up new ideas. 

Jon has big hopes for the new band hall in Dedman Center and suspects it will be a boon to recruiting.  More and more, suburban high schools have spacious, gleaming band facilities that rival major university facilities.  Having a first-class band hall, Jon believes, goes a long way to helping legitimize the Mustang Band to incoming students.  But the Mustang Band, of course, isn't 13th grade.  Even with those fancy band halls, most high school programs still spend all season on a single show.  Last year, the band has six days to learn an entirely new show.  The work must still be done.

As for the way the Mustang Band is steeped in tradition and history, Jon likes that the Mustang Band honors tradition and plays certain songs the way they've always been played, but also embraces newer, contemporary songs.  Jon also appreciates the way band members are required to learn names and memorize dates.  There was a Mustang Band before they arrived and there will be one after they leave.  Jon also likes to point out to the freshmen that at every away game, no matter where they go, there's always a group who show up in the stands and know the words to "Shantytown."  "They know the same songs you know," he says.  

He finds particular humor in a newer tradition, known as "grenade."  A student will throw a set of car keys (i.e. a live grenade) to the ground, shout something like "Juniors, if you love this band..."  That's when the juniors all fall on the keys and at the proper moment, jerk their bodies to mimic the explosion they just absorbed for their friends.  There's a pecking order to the tradition, of course.  You can only call for a grenade on classes younger than you, which means freshman can't grenade anyone and only Don can grenade fifth-year seniors.

Jon first worked with the Mustang Band with director David Keheler, who needed someone to help develop the drum section.  Jon had just finished a master's degree at Meadows, so the timing seemed right.  If you're wondering, Jon was too busy with a full-time job and pursuing a performance degree to consider joining the Mustang Band as a grad student.  In addition to helping the Mustang Band, Jon is the Director of the SMU Percussion Ensemble and also an adjunct professor teaching percussion.  He also spends time in the serving as a "hired gun" for local high schools, coming in to spend a week or so working with the drumlines.  He played in his high school drumline, of course, and also drummed on the field for the University of North Texas.  

But we won't hold that against him.  Jon is an official Mustang Band member: he's gone through the beanie ceremony one year and has a band beanie.