AMERICA - The Golden Eagle Band
Posted on October 10, 2007 by banana
Maybe I should have saved this post for the fourth of July. But as I write this, I feel as patriotic as ever (in a retrospective, founding fathers kind of way) listening to this Middle School band (orchestra) pile drive through the great works of American composers and marching band standards. I originally intended to just post this album for the cover art work, which is strangely compelling in its own right, and which the back of the album reveals to be apart of some staging for this "production" they call America. So I put the record on and America it is, a production in sound, a medley of sorts as out of tune trombones and squeaky oboes chortle to the great mantle of democracy and freedom. Unlike 99% of normal high school band records I have found I sat through the entire thing rather enthralled. I could hear the battling egos of clarinet soloists, the dry disinterested gums of the flute players, the overweight timpani boy banging away as if he was chopping wood. All of these disparate souls crammed together in a bunch of spine straightening polyester uniforms, an overheated gymnasium, nascent adolescent body odor wafting across the rows of music stands… aaah the memories! It's a record I wouldn't expect anybody else to enjoy, and I suppose there is really nothing special about it, putting aside the fine cover art my eyeballs popped at in some dusty bin imagining a home made country folk album. simply a slice of life from Del Oro, California. 1968.
Filed under: Kids / School Bands, Weird / Neat Covers
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