The Leland Stanford Junior University Marching Band (LSJUMB) is the student marching band representing Stanford University and its athletic teams. Billing itself as "The World's Largest Rock and Roll Band," the Stanford Band performs at sporting events, student activities, and other functions. The Stanford Tree is the band's mascot.
History
The LSJUMB was formed in 1893. However, its modern era began in 1963 with the hiring of Arthur P. Barnes as interim director (he got the full-time post two years later). Previous director Julius Shuchat had been very popular, and his ouster caused several members to go on strike. However, according to band lore, Barnes immediately won the band's loyalty by ceding any meaningful control over it. As a result, the band is almost entirely student-run.
In 1972, the Band went from an all-male band to co-ed.
The band and its new director also clicked over his arrangement of "The Star-Spangled Banner," which featured the striking effect of a single trumpet playing the first half of the song, joined later by soft woodwinds and tuba, and finally bringing the full power of the brass only in the final verse. When it was played at the "Big Game" against California, just eight days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Barnes said, "I've never heard such a loud silence."
Empowered, the student-led band threw away the traditional marching music and military-style uniforms, eventually settling for a mostly rock and roll repertoire and a simplified uniform consisting of a white fishing hat with red trim (and as many buttons as will fit), red blazer, black pants, and "the ugliest tie you can get your hands on." In the springtime and at non-athletic events, band members appear at performances (and sometimes even at rehearsals) wearing "rally" attire, which can range from swim suits to Halloween costumes to furniture and pets, always displaying their freedom from the usual rules of fashion. Its Badonkadonk Land Cruiser, resembling a vehicle from the 1983 Star Wars movie Return of the Jedi, is used as a band-support vehicle.
Songs and shows
The band's repertoire is heavy on classic rock of the 1970s, particularly songs by Tower of Power, Santana, and The Who. In the 1990s, more modern music was introduced, including songs by Green Day and The Offspring. For many years, it has billed itself as "The World's Largest Rock 'n Roll Band."
The de facto fight song is "All Right Now," originally performed by Free. Another frequently played song in their repertoire is "White Punks on Dope", originally by The Tubes. The band prides itself on its vast song selection, never playing the same song twice in one day (except for "All Right Now"). It has a library of over 1,000 songs at its disposal, 69 of which are in active rotation.
One of the first collegiate marching bands to record and release their music, the band has produced thirteen albums since 1967. Arrangements focus on the loudest brass instruments—trumpets, mellophones, and trombones—and percussion—one bass drum (called the Axis o' Rhythm), snare drums, and single tenor drums. This led a Rolling Stone writer to note in 1987, "It's hard for anyone raised on rock to imagine that a band could sound this loud without thousands of watts of amplification."
Many traditional band instruments like bells and glockenspiels are altogether absent. Traditional "marching" is also missing, as the band "scatters" from one formation to the next. The halftime field shows feature formations that are silly or suggestive shapes, as well as words. A team of Stanford students write a script for the halftime show, delivered over the public address system, which provides a basic explanation for the band's formations.
Stunts and incidents The LSJUMB's behavior has made them notorious. They have been criticized and disciplined for their actions on several occasions, and according to Peter Sagal of NPR in 2006, the LSJUMB is "the only university marching band...repeatedly fined and banned by the NCAA". In 1970 on September 12 at the Stanford-Arkansas football game, the band dropped their pants during the nationally televised halftime show. In the 1970s, one halftime show lampooned California student Patty Hearst's kidnapping with a formation called the Hearst Burger — two buns and no patty. The LSJUMB has been banned from Disneyland due to their antics, such as taking over the microphone on the Storybook Land Canal boats, while visiting in Anaheim for the 1972 Rose Bowl. Disneyland officials were upset with the "true story" behind the ride. Additionally the Rose Bowl committee still requires advance review if the band marches in the parade due to their plan to ride golf carts instead of marching in 1971 and their having kegs of beer on a red wagon and passing out drinks to the crowd. The band also spelled out the initials SMUT (Stanford Marching Unit Thinkers – an official acronym for the group of band members who conceive the show or sexually explicit material) on the field before the 1972 Rose Bowl. In 1986, the university suspended the band from traveling to the UCLA football game scheduled on November 8, 1986, after incidents in previous games that season. First, on October 11, 1986, an infamous incident of public urination happened following the home football game against the Washington Huskies. Second, during the halftime show of the home USC game on October 25, 1986, the band spelled out "NO BALLZ" and formed male genitalia. Finally, they performed an anagram show and spelled out an anagram of a four-letter word ("NCUT"). After the UCLA game suspension was served, the band appeared at the Cal game wearing angel halos in an attempt to apologize and get invited to travel with the football team to a bowl game. The band attended the Gator Bowl that year, amid very close scrutiny. In 1989, before an away game against USC, the USC Trojan Marching Band toilet-papered the Stanford Tree mascot in the Coliseum tunnel before the pre-game show, resulting in a free-for-all between members of both bands and the mascot that had to be broken up by the referees. In 1990, Stanford suspended the band for a single game after their halftime show at the University of Oregon criticized the logging of the spotted owl's habitats in the northwest United States. The band used formations in the shape of a chainsaw and in the shape of the word OWL changing to AWOL. Governor Neil Goldschmidt (a member of the Oregon Democratic Party) issued a decree that the band not return to Oregon for several years; the band did not return until 2001. After the spotted owl incident, all halftime shows were reviewed and approved by Stanford's Athletic Department. In 1991, the University of Notre Dame banned the LSJUMB from visiting its campus after a halftime show at Stanford in which drum major Eric Selvik dressed as a nun and conducted the band using a wooden cross as a baton. (During the pregame show and first half of the game, the drum major had been dressed as an Orthodox Jew, where the wooden cross was part of a menorah-like baton.) After the halftime show, a female Notre Dame fan ran onto the field, approached from behind the unsuspecting Selvik, and forcibly ripped the nun habit off of his head. Selvik pursued and regained his habit from the attacker, who in the scuffle for the habit told the drum major he was "going to hell for this." In 1992, the LSJUMB was denied entry to Disneyland after being invited there to play in connection with the Pigskin Classic III, which pitted Stanford against Texas A&M. In 1992, Stanford's athletic department pressured the LSJUMB to fire its announcer after one used the phrase "No chuppah, no schtuppa" at a San Jose State University game halftime show. In 1994, the band was disciplined after nineteen members skipped a field rehearsal in Los Angeles to play outside the Los Angeles County Superior Courthouse during jury selection for the O. J. Simpson murder trial. The band's song selection included an arrangement of The Zombies' "She's Not There." Defense lawyer Robert Shapiro described the incident to the media as "a new low in tasteless behavior." Later that year, during the halftime show of the football game against USC (where Simpson had played football and won the 1968 Heisman Trophy), band members drove a white Ford Bronco with bloody handprints around the Stanford Stadium track, an obvious allusion to the low-speed chase in which police followed a white Bronco carrying Simpson around the Los Angeles area. In 1997, the band was again disciplined for shows lampooning Catholicism and the Irish at a game against Notre Dame. The band put on a show entitled "These Irish, Why Must they Fight?" Besides the mocking supposedly stereotypical Irish-Catholic behavior, there was a Riverdance formation, and a Great Famine joke, drawing criticism for its "tasteless" portrayal of Catholics. Stanford President Gerhard Casper subsequently apologized for the band's behavior; the band and the athletic director also apologized. Subsequently, the band was prohibited from playing at games against Notre Dame for two years. In 1999, when UCLA football players were caught in an ADA-accessible parking scandal, the band formed a disability-accessible symbol on the field, and wheeled the Stanford Tree in on a wheelchair. In 2002 and 2006, the band was sanctioned for off-the-field behavior, including violations of the university alcohol policy. In 2004, the band drew national attention and Mormon ire for joking about polygamy during a game against Brigham Young University. The Dollies appeared in wedding veils with the band manager of the time kneeling and "proposing" to each in turn as the announcer referred to marriage as "the sacred bond that exists between a man and a woman... and a woman... and a woman... and a woman... and a woman." The band's hijinks were given a wider audience when they became the subject of Alan Alda's appearance on the "Not My Job" segment on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! on September 9, 2006. In 2006, the band was suspended by Stanford administrators when their former "Band Shak" was vandalized. After moving into a new $2.8 million facility, the previous Shak, a trailer that served as a temporary home for the band, was found with broken windows and profanities spray painted on the walls. Administrators believed members of the band were responsible for the damage, as the band had believed the trailer was to be demolished the next day. The Band was placed on a provisional status for several months, and had many privileges taken away for the duration of the suspension, including the right to be freely student-run. The band was also barred from performing at halftime of the 2006 Big Game as a result. However, the university stated that November they would not press vandalism charges. In March 2007, the university exonerated the individual Band members involved in the incident. It also charged the band $8,000 for damages (though it initially estimated damages of $50,000). In July 2007, the band was fully reinstated, and then two months later, the band's alcohol probation was also lifted. In 2009, the band performed a field show at USC that openly criticized USC alum & Girls Gone Wild founder Joe Francis, drawing ire from fans with lines like, "USC can't take all of the credit for the successes of its students. After all, it takes a special kind of man to be wanted for sexual harassment, drug trafficking, tax evasion, prostitution, child abuse and disruptive flatulence. But that's just the kind of captain of industry Joe Francis is."