Question re Fight Song

[ReedFrawg]

Ok, I have a question about your fight song. Let me first say that I really like it and your band does a great job playing it loud (I've even talked up the SMU band on the FFF). However, it has always annoyed me that your band seems to overplay the fight song. Every time SMU does anything at all during the game the band fires up the fight song. It seems like its the only thing they ever play during the game and it beats me down. Do any of you agree with me? Again, I like the song but I think it loses its effect when its played so often. (I'm sure some of you will just say its because I'm a TCU fan but I think it would annoy me even if I were a big-time SMU supporter...maybe not) Just a random thought on a slow moving Friday afternoon. Good luck against UTEP! I think I would have to take UTEP and the points - and FYI I'd do the same with Army. How can TCU be favored by 31 points????

[EmeraldCityPony]

How annoying it must have been for you to have heard it 570 times at the SMU-TCU game in '68 (A record at the time).

PS - the most times in a game it has been played is 701 in 1979 versus Tulane.

[OldPony]

In the days we scored a lot, I loved it. It sent opposition home with a ringing in their ears and drove them nuts. A TCU buddy of mine hates it but that was all the more reason to play it.

[abezontar]

The band does play other songs during the game. The fight song doesn't annoy me at all, even when my freshman year I couldnt' get the song out of my head and hummed it everywhere I went. Out of curiosity though when the team does do well what are we supposed to play if we don't play the fight song. 50 Cent's P.I.M.P.? I don't thing that would sound very good arranged for a marching band. (just being sarcastic for the sake of humor)

[ReedFrawg]

Originally posted by abezontar:
The band does play other songs during the game. The fight song doesn't annoy me at all, even when my freshman year I couldnt' get the song out of my head and hummed it everywhere I went. Out of curiosity though when the team does do well what are we supposed to play if we don't play the fight song. 50 Cent's P.I.M.P.? I don't thing that would sound very good arranged for a marching band. (just being sarcastic for the sake of humor)

I really don't know what else they could play. It just seems like they play it unnecessarily every time SMU makes a defensive stop after a 3 yard gain or a 5 yard run on first down. I'm sure part of the reason I get annoyed is because its SMU, but I actually like your band and the song. Just curious if it annoyed any SMU fans.

[MustangSally]

Part of the reason we do it is because it does annoy their fans and their teams. I would say a lot of our fans and our players are "immune" to it. While this explanation won't make a whole lot of sense, we understand it. Another reason we play it is because it is literally like 7 seconds long and it is often the only thing we can play from memory at moment's notice when there is a slim spot to play in the game. During timeouts and longer breaks, we pull out other songs and stands tunes.

Our players like it because it is like instant gratification for a good play. Our starting lineman Allen Adami once told me that the team "loves" when the band goes to games and plays. It makes our players feel like they are on our home turf. Our coach Phil Bennett told us a story of how when he played at ATM they warned the aggie team not to get caught up listening to the SMU band. Sure he enough, about halfway through the first quarter, Bennett noticed that he and several of his teammates were tapping their feet along with the SMU fight song. Our fans just accept it and move on and it apparently bugs the crap out of other fans. Even you came over here to ask about it.

Sorry this explanation probably won't give you a true answer, but that's all I got. Another school that does this is USC. They play Tribute to Troy on every defensive play and Fight On for just about every offensive play. All their fans love it but their opponents fans HATE it. Same kind of situation.

BTW the record for playing Peruna is 701 times in a game versus Tulane.

[ReedFrawg]

Originally posted by EmeraldCityPony:
How annoying it must have been for you to have heard it 570 times at the SMU-TCU game in '68 (A record at the time).

PS - the most times in a game it has been played is 701 in 1979 versus Tulane.

Luckily I wasn't alive to hear it 570 times in 1968! However, I think I heard it a thousand times in the week leading up the TCU-SMU game in 1997 because it was played continuously at full blast in our locker room during the entire week leading up to the game. It must have scarred me for life.

By the way, who actually sits around and keeps count of how many times it is played each game? What a fun job that must be! Thanks for the interesting info though.

[SmooBoy]

There is an official Peruna counter (a freshman) chosen each year to carry the mechanical counter.

[SmooPower]

Originally posted by ReedFrawg:
TCU-SMU game in 1997

:(

[DiamondM]

1. One rep of Peruna takes very little time, thus enabling the band to play it more reps in the same amount of time it takes the TCU bands (or most other bands) to play their fight song. Plus the Mustang Band plays it fast.

2. You only think "that's the only thing they play" because you recognize it so well. They play Pony Battle Cry, they play Dial M for Mustang. But it's Peruna that sticks in your head. In my book, that's a good thing, especially if it's annoying the other team itself, which Peruna is famous for doing.

3. So the fact that the TCU band throws in the Darth Vader theme (which personally annoys the heck out me even played once at college football games -- not because I don't like the song, but because it is IMO incredibly high school and cheesy) is better?

4. Sorry for the cheap shot, but seriously, listen to a tv broadcast of an SEC game or another "big time" program and pay attention to what you hear from the bands. USC is a perfect example. That d a m n thing (it's only 2 bars and repeated ad nauseum) they play over and over again is annoying to me, but that absolutely does not mean they should change it. It's their signature. Peruna is ours. In the SEC, seems like every school has the same signature in-between-plays rif (you'd know it if you heard it), and they all play it ad nauseum. Annoying to me? Yes. But should they change it? Except for the fact that all of the SEC schools do it too, nah.

I guess my point is that I'd rather have a signature that people recognize as SMU's call sign after big plays, between plays, etc., than mix it up with Rock n Roll Part II and Mess Call like institutions with less sense of tradition and identity.

(By the way, this preference for having a unique signature also goes to the issue of the size of Peruna in another thread. I guess the DC Editorial Board and like minded students/alumni suffer from the same disease most Texans do -- bigger is always better.)

<small>[ 10-03-2003, 12:25 PM: Message edited by: DiamondM ]</small>

[HorsePower]

Originally posted by EmeraldCityPony:
How annoying it must have been for you to have heard it 570 times at the SMU-TCU game in '68 (A record at the time).

PS - the most times in a game it has been played is 701 in 1979 versus Tulane.

I like to consider myself the biggest SMU fan alive, but if I'd been at the 1979 Tulane game, I believe I would have tried to remove my eardrums with a nailgun.

With that said, even that wouldn't have been as annoying as the damn Houston siren in 1989, and the sight of those UH coaches smiling like they'd really taught their players something useful in life.

[couch 'em]

Just for reference when thinking about 701 times, I think the count was about 60-80 at each of the games so far this year.

[ThadFilms]

I miss the old days when the band just would not stop playing the song during the course of an entire drive- they would just play soft while the Ponies were in the huddle and the BLAST back in to full gear as the play began. And then they would get faster and faster and faster and faster and faster, until it just felt like the whole place was going to explode. And then the Ponies would score, and somehow the band was even louder.

Luckily, I got experience that first hand at a couple of homecomings when the alumni band would lead the way. That was my hands down favorite memory of being in the Mustang Band. I just remember all of the sudden simply no longer being able to keep up at all. We were getting through the song in what had to be about five seconds. Brings a tear to my eye and smile to my face.