The number one single today in 1961 was made more popular by Elvis Presley, not its creator:
Also today in 1961, the Marvelettes released what would become their first number one song:
Today in 1964, the Beatles met Bob Dylan after a concert in Forest Hills, N.Y. Dylan reportedly introduced the Beatles to marijuana:
At the end of the first week of 2018 UW Marching Band rehearsals …
… came this announcement Saturday:
Michael Leckrone, longtime director of the University of Wisconsin–Madison Marching Band, announced today that he will step down at the end of the 2018-19 academic year.
He made the announcement to the band following rehearsal. Students were visibly moved, linking arms and joining with him to sing “Varsity.”
This is Leckrone’s 50th year leading “The Badger Band.” He made his decision a few weeks ago but delayed sharing it publicly until he could meet with students. “I wanted the band to know first,” he says. “Any other talk, any other planning — that came second.”
The university will conduct a national search for a new director.
Leckrone, 82, has not decided on future plans and says there is no significance to the timing. “I wanted to go before somebody told me to go,” he quips. “No, really, it was going to happen sooner or later, and I didn’t want to stay on too long.”
His wife, Phyllis Bechtold Leckrone, passed away a year ago this month. They were married for 62 years.
Leckrone has had a remarkable career as an educator and conductor. He has won myriad awards and in 2017 was inducted into the UW Athletic Hall Fame. More than 200 of his arrangements and compositions for marching band and concert band have been published. He is the author of two texts for marching band directors, a handbook for band arranging and a text about popular music in the United States.
His impact on campus has been legendary. This fall he will have been on the field of Camp Randall for 50 of the stadium’s 101 years. Only Bucky Badger has reigned there longer, and then only by 20 years. Band members have married and seen their children and then grandchildren under his tutelage. The band has attended 16 bowl games under Leckrone’s direction.
“We are immensely grateful to Mike for the joy he’s brought to generations of Badgers on the football field and in the concert hall. Every time I watch them perform at a football game, I think we have the best band in the country,” says Chancellor Rebecca Blank. “Under his leadership, the band has been a valued part of our campus – I know that will continue.”
“Mike’s record of service is enviable,” says Susan Cook, director of UW–Madison’s Mead Witter School of Music. “He has given tirelessly to the School of Music’s athletic band program and to the university at large, and with his remarkable years of teaching has provided models of musical leadership.”
“What I especially appreciate about Mike,” she adds, “is his commitment to his students. He cares deeply for the students and it shows in all that he does.”
Leckrone is recognized by peers around the country as a titan in the field.
“Mike has changed and enhanced thousands of young lives over his amazing 50-year career as director of bands at the UW,” says Frank Tracz, professor of music and director of bands at Kansas State University.
Leckrone was hired by the late Dale Gilbert, then director of the UW School of Music. His son, Jay Gilbert, is now chair of the music department at Doane University in Nebraska.
“For those of us who have followed in his footsteps as band directors and know him well, we are awed by his incredible musical gifts,” says Jay Gilbert. One of his favorite memories from the 1970s is marching back to the Mosse Humanities Building after a game.
“On the way, Mike would stop the band outside of the children’s ward of the University Hospital, which was in the center of campus at that time, where we would play a few tunes for the children,” he says. “We knew it was meaningful for him and it became meaningful for us.”
In his early years, Leckrone found a partner in athletic director Elroy Hirsch. “He inspired me to do so many crazy things,” says Leckrone, such as riding onto the field on a camel and on an elephant, and departing Camp Randall on a palomino while the band played “Happy Trails.” Hirsch let the band play inside miniature tanks, bring in a calliope and clowns, and allowed a mock Superman to fly on a wire from the upper deck down to the band.
“I don’t ever remember Elroy saying no,” says Leckrone. “He was very important to what I was trying to do.”
Leckrone especially credits his field assistants, who (among other things) line the field to relay his hand movements. Some have been with him more than a decade. “They are primarily volunteers who saw a need to help and just did it.”
In 1985, on the event of the band’s 100th anniversary, President Ronald Reagan wrote to congratulate Leckrone and the band. “Despite the discipline and long hours of preparing for concerts,” he noted, “you have had the good fortune of enjoying yourselves as you’ve entertained others.”
The hours have indeed been long, and the band has indeed enjoyed itself, notably during its famous postgame “Fifth Quarter,” a tradition that began in 1977.
The Marching Band is a one-credit class at the UW–Madison Mead Witter School of Music. In the spring semester it’s named Varsity Band, and students perform at indoor sports events, leading up to the three-night Varsity Band Concert, an annual concert extravaganza at the Kohl Center that draws as many as 21,000 fans from adjacent states and every county in Wisconsin, and is subsequently broadcast statewide on Wisconsin Public Television.
The University of Wisconsin band was formed during the 1885-86 school year, as part of the University Military Battalion. The band’s second-longest-serving director was Ray Dvorak, a showman and noted John Philip Sousa scholar. A UW institution himself, Dvorak led the ensemble from 1934 to 1968. He instituted the singing of “Varsity” and its traditional hand-wave. He maintained the military band demeanor of the group’s early years.
He also gave his successor a supreme gift: “a clean slate,” says Leckrone. “Ray told me that it was my show now, and that he would never intrude, he would never second-guess me.”
However, on Monday mornings following a game, Dvorak often would stop by. “He’d tell me what a great show we’d had, and how much he enjoyed it,” recalls Leckrone. “And then he’d lean back and say, ‘Y’know, one thing I might have done …’”
Leckrone intends to give his successor the same freedom he enjoyed when he took over in 1969.
By the end of Dvorak’s career, campus had undergone abrupt change. Leckrone arrived during the Vietnam War years, and he recalls protests and the smell of tear gas. “Marching around in a military uniform wasn’t exactly popular right then,” he says.
Band enrollment was down and, after two interim directors, morale was poor — especially when Leckrone instituted physical conditioning. Band members have since trained like athletes in order to perform the band’s particular high-step, called “stop at the top.”
Leckrone thoroughly remade the organization, including its distinctive uniforms, which he designed.
“It’s the band — all the students from all the years — who deserve the credit. I just happened to be the guy standing in front,” says Leckrone, “although, depending on where you sit in Camp Randall, maybe I was the guy in the back!”
Others see it differently. “Mike has given me and countless others the talents, ambition, energy and enthusiasm that few have or ever will,” says Tracz, who received his master’s in music at the UW. “In a world where we have all needed inspiration, Mike has been there to provide what we need.”
The School of Music includes three University Bands, the Concert Band and Wind Ensemble. Leckrone usually conducts the Concert Band each spring. As director of bands, he oversees them all, though many of these duties have already been passed to Professor Scott Teeple. Leckrone will also step down from these responsibilities at the end of the school year.
If you’ve read this blog — say, here, here, here and here — you know what I think about this.
All I learned, as he said in the video, was how to have fun while doing good work, the value of excellence whether or not anyone notices (between 1983 and 1988 UW had one bowl game and zero NCAA tournament appearances in any sport), such phrases as “Root hog or die,” “Eat a Rock” and doing things with “Inergy!” and “Drive!” A fellow band member estimated that he taught those things to about 4,000 band members over 50 years, and I think none of us have forgotten those things.
(I graduated from UW–Madison 30 years ago. I rarely have dreams about college classes. Much more frequently I have the dream in which I am supposed to play or march in that night’s game, lacking most of what’s needed, such as a uniform, music or marching charts. The trumpet isn’t an issue, and at least at this point during these dreams I have been wearing clothes.)
There are seven home football games, 16 home men’s basketball games, 17 home men’s hockey teams, one assumes some number of postseason games, and of course three UW Varsity Band concerts April 11–13 (tickets on sale in January). Those and the other band concerts before the Kohl Center finale will be the last chances to see a Leckrone-direcrted UW Band.
State Rep. Travis Tranel (R–Cuba City) was one of many people who posted this example of Walker Derangement Syndrome this weekend:
As Madison’s Isthmus put it …
As Madison continues to battle flooding,
@GovScottWalker filled sandbags at Tenney Park this morning. An Elizabeth Street resident used Walker’s appearance in Madison to remind the governor about climate change.#wipolitics
Is this a political photo op? Of course it is, but at least Walker was contributing something to the flood efforts. Sign Boy behind him was not.
As for the argument here … someone who knows history might observe that Madison was carved out of a swamp around lakes Mendota and Monona. Someone who grew up in the People’s Republic of Madison and left because of imbeciles like Sign Boy might also note the irony of that sign considering that Madison is a classic case of making your own environment worse yet more flood-prone by covering up said swamps with concrete, asphalt and the impermeable surfaces that make up buildings, and by sucking up wetlands and farmlands to build more buildings.
And someone who observes politics might observe that Sign Boy isn’t likely to make anyone vote for Tony Evers, but he probably will push more turnout among conservatives for Walker and other Republicans.
We begin with an interesting anniversary: Today in 1965, the Beatles used the final day of their five-day break from their U.S. tour to attend a recording session for the Byrds and to meet Elvis Presley at Presley’s Beverly Hills home.
The group reportedly found Presley “unmagnetic,” about which John Lennon reportedly said, “Where’s Elvis? It was like meeting Engelbert Humperdinck.”
Today in 1967, Jimi Hendrix released “Purple Haze”:
Three years later, Hendrix made his last concert appearance in Great Britain at the Isle of Wight Festival, which also featured, for your £3 ticket …
Does anyone find it a bit creepy that the number one song in Great Britain today in 1957 is about Paul Anka’s brother’s babysitter?
Three years later, the number one single across the sea required no words:
Two years later, the number one U.S. single was a dance that was easier than learning your ABCs:
Urbo:
Sometimes, the meaning of a popular song is fairly obvious. When Kesha wrote “Tik Tok” after a night of partying, she didn’t try to hide her experience with metaphors; she basically jotted down the first words that came into her (pounding) head, which led to literal lyrics that, by her own admission, “kind of sucked.”
But some songs become massive hits without actually saying much of anything—or, at least, anything obvious. Sure, you know Toto’s “Africa” is about something, but you don’t really know what songwriter David Paich was actually trying to say (more on that in a moment).
Today in 1963, Little Stevie Wonder became the first artist to have the number one pop single and album and to lead the R&B charts with his “Twelve-Year-Old Genius”:
Today in 1974, one week after the catchy but factually questionable number one single (where is the east side of Chicago?) …
… the previous week’s number one sounded like Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony compared with the new number one:
Today in 1990, at the beginning of Operation Desert Shield, Sinead O’Connor refused to sing if the National Anthem was performed before her concert at the Garden State Arts Plaza in Homdel, N.J. Radio stations responded by pulling O’Connor’s music from their airwaves. To one’s surprise, her career never really recovered.
That was the same day that Iron Maiden won a lawsuit from the families of two people who committed suicide, claiming that subliminal messages in the group’s “Stained Class” album drove them to kill themselves.
As a member of the band pointed out, it would have made much more sense to insert a subliminal message telling listeners to buy the band’s albums instead of a message that, had it been followed, would have depleted the band’s fan base.
Marquette University announces:
A new Marquette Law School Poll of Wisconsin voters finds a tight race for governor following last week’s statewide primary elections. Among likely voters (that is, those who say they are certain to vote), incumbent Republican Scott Walker receives 46 percent, Democrat Tony Evers receives 46 percent and Libertarian Phil Anderson 6 percent. Only 2 percent say they lack a preference or do not lean to a candidate.Among likely voters in the race for the Wisconsin U.S. Senate seat on the ballot in November, 49 percent support the incumbent, Democrat Tammy Baldwin, and 47 percent support Republican Leah Vukmir, while 3 percent say they lack a preference or do not lean toward a candidate.
Among all registered voters surveyed in the poll, the race for governor remains tight, with Walker at 46 percent, Evers at 44 percent and Anderson with 7 percent.
There is a wider margin among all registered voters in the Senate race, with Baldwin receiving 51 percent and Vukmir 43 percent.
Awareness of Evers and Vukmir has increased among registered voters since the last Marquette Law School Poll in July. Forty-six percent lack an opinion of Evers, down from 60 percent in July. For Vukmir, 48 percent lack an opinion now, compared to 66 percent in July.
Among likely voters only, 35 percent lack an opinion of Evers and 41 percent lack an opinion of Vukmir.
Evers is viewed favorably among 38 percent of likely voters and unfavorably by 27 percent. Among all registered voters 31 percent have a favorable view and 23 percent an unfavorable opinion.
Vukmir has a 30 percent favorable rating and a 29 percent unfavorable rating among likely voters while among registered voters 25 percent rate her favorably and 26 percent rate her unfavorably.
Few respondents lack opinions of the incumbents. Among all registered voters, 5 percent lack an opinion of Walker and 17 percent have no opinion of Baldwin. For likely voters, 4 percent have no opinion of Walker and 11 percent have no opinion of Baldwin.
Walker is viewed favorably among 49 percent of likely voters and unfavorably by 47 percent. Among all registered voters 49 percent have a favorable view and 45 percent an unfavorable opinion.
Baldwin has a 46 percent favorable rating and a 42 percent unfavorable rating among likely voters while among registered voters 43 percent rate her favorably and 40 percent rate her unfavorably.
The Wisconsin State Journal: adds:
The governor’s race results are similar to what the poll found at this point in the 2014 cycle. The August 2014 Marquette poll showed Democrat Mary Burke with a 2-point lead over Walker among likely voters, but Walker leading by about 3 points among registered voters.
All things considered, this is good news at least for Walker, and maybe for Vukmir too. Walker predicted last week he’d be behind in the first post-primary polls, but he’s not in the poll that is more credible than other polls.
That point about where Walker was four years ago is important as well. Four years ago voters didn’t know who Mary Burke was, but they came to discover her overstated involvement in her family business and other things that proved she wasn’t ready to be governor.
Four years later, Evers is going to have to explain a few things, such as what James Wigderson reports:
Americans for Prosperity is spending $1.8 million on an advertising campaign to remind voters Evers actually praised Governor Scott Walker’s last education budget before the schools superintendent decided to run for governor himself. Evers was for Walker’s budget before he was against it.
Thanks to his pro-growth policies, Governor Walker has invested millions in our schools and received a lot of praise:
A “pro-kid budget …”
“An important step forward …”
“… Commitment for K-12 education is good news …”
So who said those things? Tony Evers.
But now that Evers if running for office, he’s trying to take back his praise.
The truth? Governor Scott Walker is improving Wisconsin education … and Tony Evers knows it.
Paid for by Americans for Prosperity.
Not authorized by any candidate, candidate’s agent or committee.Eric Bott, the state director of Americans for Prosperity in Wisconsin, commented on the flip-flop by Evers in a release announcing the ad buy.
“Tony Evers had it exactly right when he praised Governor Walker’s education budget as a ‘pro-kid budget,’ an ‘important step forward,’ and ‘good news,’” Bott said. “Now that he wants Scott Walker’s job, Evers is backpedaling so fast, I’m worried he’s going to end up in Minnesota before too long.”
There is concern over whether Walker could suck resources from other Republicans, specifically either Vukmir or Attorney General Brad Schimel, whose opponent should be elected if you believe in lawsuits for the sake of lawsuits instead of, you know, law and order.
More from the poll:
When asked the most important issue facing the state, 24 percent of registered voters pick jobs and the economy, 22 percent choose K-12 education and 19 percent say health coverage is their most important issue. No other issue reached double digits as “the most important,” although the condition of roads ranked fourth, with 9 percent of registered voters selecting it.
When voters were asked for their second-most-important issue, the condition of roads rose to the top three most-frequent answers, with K-12 education first at 18 percent, jobs and the economy at 17 percent, the condition of roads at 16 percent and health coverage at 15 percent.
I bet the economy number is actually bigger with voters. In fact, in my lifetime, every election has been decided by the economy, or more accurately voters’ perception of the economy. If voters think the economy is doing well, they vote for incumbents. If they don’t think the economy is doing well, they don’t vote for incumbents.
Fifty-three percent of Wisconsin registered voters see the state as headed in the right direction while 41 percent think the state is off on the wrong track. In July, 52 percent said right direction and 42 percent said wrong track.
Walker’s job approval among registered voters stands at 48 percent, with 45 disapproving. … Among likely voters, 50 percent approve and 47 percent disapprove.
All of this is generally in keeping with what was reported here last week — that among “swing” counties Walker is doing pretty well.
There is also this, though how it will affect this election is unclear, as pointed out by Facebook Friend Nathan Schacht:
More Dems than Republicans are against tariffs.
58% of Republicans think steel tariffs will help the economy, 9% of Dems think they will help.On free trade, more Dems than Republicans think free trade agreements are a good thing:
45% of Republicans think they are good,
72% of Democrats think they are good.So the Democrats are more conservative on trade issues now…good Lord.
I’m not sure “more conservative” is as correct as “more free-market,” except that Democrats are certainly not free-market on such other issues as education and health care. One wonders if Democrats have suddenly realized the virtues of free trade, or if Democrats are now free-trade because Trump isn’t. I think I know the answer by posing the question of whether Democrats have discovered the virtues of free markets in education and health care.
Secretary of State candidate Jay Schroeder passes this on:
Hmm. Maybe if state treasurers were doing this sort of thing more often, I might have not voted to eliminate the position. This is the first time I am aware of any state treasurer actually exposing waste, fraud or abuse.
Steve Prestegard.com: The Presteblog 