Actually Tom, my sympathy has always been with the poor opposing fans
who have to listen to The Victors, . . . unless it helps us win the
game.  I think the chorus is very sing-song-ish and there are other
fight songs that are musically more imaginative in that part.  But I'm
afraid my question to the band director about why he makes us look bad
would just be countered with "Because it works!" and I don't know how to
argue with that.

"Varsity, down the field" is not a hockey theme, but it's a recognized
Michigan song that could be used to spell Victors.  I'm not sure it
arouses the freshman defenseman from Saskatoon in the same way.  "Keep
it Simple and Repititious Stupid" is the principle at work here.  Also,
the "Let's Go Blue" ditty could be used, but every college in the
country uses that.  I've thought it would be nice if the pep band
provided some entertainment with Michigan favorites like Sing Sing Sing,
Temptation, and Hawaiian War Chant, but I suspect they require bigger bands.

I'm going to blame the fifteen second rule.  The Victors is best when
played in its entirety, which probably only happens in football pregame
shows.  The part leading up to the chorus, when played with a full band,
is just magnificent and I can't believe it was written by a band member
in his junior year.  When Sousa came to Hill Auditorium as guest
conductor, he played the entire Victors and only played it once.  You've
just been the victim of getting tickets to the wrong concert.

Bob

  ... if we had a thirty-second rule, we could play it twice!


Rowe, Thomas wrote:

>Dear Bob:
>
>I understand.  The argument centers around quantity, not substance.
>Michigan may or may not be the National leaders in terms of the shear
>number of times they strike up the fight song in a game (any game, not
>just hockey) but they have to be in the top 10%.  I'n not dissing
>Michigan or their band here - Michigan has a well-deserved reputation
>for excellence in hockey as they do in many sports and our sport would
>be well served by all schools having an enthusiastic pep band at the
>games.  I certainly didn't call the band silly.
>
>I will stick to my guns here, though.  There must be other tunes,
>perhaps even traditional ones, that the band could play from time to
>time instead of a seemingly endless, nay, even mindless, repetition of
>the same tune.  To carry your argument to the logical extreme, the fans
>at Yost would not cheer as loudly or as often at the games without the
>band cuing them with the fight song.  I just think it's a tradition gone
>a bit wild.
>
>And I do feel for those poor Wolverines exposed so often to the same
>tune they probably don't even hear it half the time.  :-)
>
>