# Music man **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 19, 2005, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543 "2005-05-19T05:38:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![lachesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@lachesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lachesis)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543/21 "2005-05-20T19:11:05Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Ah…THAT makes much more sense! > And what IS a horse platoon, anyway? danged if i can find any on-line references when i Google, but i _swear_ i once read somewhere that a nickname for a tuba was a “horse **spittoon** ”. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543/22 "2005-05-20T19:23:02Z")
> [@flodnak](#): > > A more important question is whether farting bedposts (a.k.a. bassoons) have ever been part of a marching band in a parade. A concert band, sure, but bassoons are heavy, and double reeds are mighty fragile… My high school band, the Anderson H.S. Marching Indians had marching bassoonists. My girlfriend was one of them. Yes, bassoons are ungainly, but they are lighter than bass drums and bass horns. Historical note: J.F. Sousa replaced the massive tuba with his big circular sousaphone, which was “worn” over one shoulder and around the body. The sousaphone’s bell was nearly straight up; today’s forward-bell horn is called, simply, a bass horn. The euphonium, and its single belled brother, the baritone horn, are roughly in the same range as a trombone, but with valves instead of a slide. **Flodnak** knew that, of course. Marching bands often share a parade route with horse groups (providing some slippery moments for the musicians,) but I’ve never seen horses as part of the band. I have seen tympani, and even a small piano, in a marching band, but they were on wheels. I personally don’t feel that towed instruments belong in a marching band. That also goes for the huge bass drums sported by the Purdue and U. of Texas bands. Those 3-drum harnesses you see in some bands look pretty silly, too. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543/23 "2005-05-20T19:41:07Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > You know, they have the BIG title song- “76 Trombones” . . . [nitpick] “76 Trombones” may be the most famous song from the show, but it’s not the “title song.” [/nitpick] ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543/24 "2005-05-20T19:45:02Z")
But Handy was a classically-trained concert coronetist before he started collecting and publishing blues songs. He may have simply been one of the aforementioned ‘110’. > [@Governor Quinn](#): > > According to the lyrics, Gilmore [presumably Patrick S Gilmore], Pat Conway, The Great Creatore [real name: Giuseppe Creatore], WC Handy, and John Phillip Sousa had all come to the same town on the same date. > > (All of these men are real, however, they don’t fit well on a timeline, as Gilmore died before the Great Creatore ever visited the US, and **Handy was not, to the best of my knowledge, a concert bandleader.)** ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 7:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543/25 "2005-05-20T19:48:11Z")
And no, I didn’t mean to say he played a crown, I just can’t effing _spell!_ (Cornet, not coronet) ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 7:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543/26 "2005-05-20T19:51:40Z")
I would guess that a horse platoon was a platoon of mounted horsemen. ---
**Author:** ![Kizarvexius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/da6949/32.png) [@Kizarvexius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kizarvexius)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543/27 "2005-05-20T20:51:16Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Since we’re talkin’ 'bout_The Music Man_ try this > > Lida Rose, I’m home again, Rose > To get the sun back in the sky. > Lida Rose, I’m home again, Rose > About a thousand kisses shy. I used to sing that one to my daughter as a lullaby. In fact, I just got my DVD copy of _The Music Man_ last month and my daughter (who is now 6, going on 13) adores it. She goes around singing: _Pick a little Talk a little Pick a little Talk a little Cheep, cheep, cheep Talk a lot Pick a little more…_ Ad infinitem. I have successfully corrupted another generation! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543/28 "2005-05-20T21:10:13Z")
What’s the origin of the term “shipoopi” for “the girl that’s hard to get”? Was it current in the time portrayed, or coined for the musical? ---
**Author:** ![Governor\_Quinn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/d26b3c/32.png) [@Governor\_Quinn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Governor_Quinn)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2005, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543/29 "2005-05-20T23:36:15Z")
> [@F. U. Shakespeare](#): > > But Handy was a classically-trained concert coronetist before he started collecting and publishing blues songs. He may have simply been one of the aforementioned ‘110’. Maybe, maybe. I managed to get some research done as to the size of concert bands of the period, and my source identified the Sousa band of around 1900 as having 61 members, including 4 trombonists and 4 cornetists. In addition, there were more woodwinds than brass by around a two-to-one ratio. With those two figures in hand, we can guess that there were around 1,500 members of the band (1,000 “reeds” and 500 brass), with instrumentation between 19 and 27-and-a-half times normal. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2005, 12:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543/30 "2005-05-21T00:00:50Z")
So what is the actual list of instruments in the “big band”? Remember, we can’t post the full lyrics, but a simple list of what’s supposed to be marching should be OK. ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2005, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543/31 "2005-05-21T00:58:36Z")
In light of a 2000% exaggeration, maybe we can conclude that Prof. Hill’s claim of ‘76 Trombones’ is (as suggested by **AskNott** ) simply another example of the flim-flammery he was pulling on an unsophisticated small-town population? Sort of the equivalent of someone claiming he once led a country band with twenty steel guitar players. > [@Governor Quinn](#): > > Maybe, maybe. > > I managed to get some research done as to the size of concert bands of the period, and my source identified the Sousa band of around 1900 as having 61 members, including 4 trombonists and 4 cornetists. In addition, there were more woodwinds than brass by around a two-to-one ratio. > > With those two figures in hand, we can guess that there were around 1,500 members of the band (1,000 “reeds” and 500 brass), with instrumentation between 19 and 27-and-a-half times normal. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2005, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543/32 "2005-05-21T01:09:35Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > So what is the actual list of instruments in the “big band”? Remember, we can’t post the full lyrics, but a simple list of what’s supposed to be marching should be OK. Based on [http://www.stlyrics.com/t/themusicman.htm:](http://www.stlyrics.com/t/themusicman.htm:) 76 trombones 110 cornets more than a thousand reeds copper bottom tympani in horse platoons double bell euphoniums big bassoons 50 mounted cannon in the battery clarinets trumpeters ---
**Author:** ![NoCoolUserName](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5fc32e/32.png) [@NoCoolUserName](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NoCoolUserName)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2005, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543/33 "2005-05-21T02:53:06Z")
Brass/horn players (who, sure as shooting are reading this thread) have you ever improvised “a full octave higher than the score”?\* \*I have not, he said flatly. ---
**Author:** ![Call\_me\_Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Call\_me\_Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Call_me_Frank)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2005, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543/34 "2005-05-21T03:24:36Z")
> [@pool](#): > > My friend had a cd where they performed 76 trombones with you guessed it 76 trombones…it was really good and they covered some cool songs I’ll ask him who they were if your interested. The CD is “The London Trombone Sound” and it’s principly made up of 16 trombones from seven of London’s orchestras, but they did round up 60 others to do “76 Trombones”. ---
**Author:** ![GinaBeana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/ecd19e/32.png) [@GinaBeana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GinaBeana)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543/35 "2014-07-13T18:50:44Z")
These are all jokes from Wilson. “Professor” Hill is a con man. He is a B.S. artist. The point of all of these exaggerations and incorrect information is to represent to the audience that Hill is a liar and really doesn’t know anything at all about music. He’s making it up as he goes along and figures that no one will know the difference. Meredith Wilson wasn’t making mistakes in his writing here. He very intentionally wrote the character like this. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543/36 "2014-07-13T23:53:56Z")
Ah, “The Music Man.” My two oldest children have names that begin with T and P. So of course, for years, I’d sing, “We’'ve got trouble (oh, we’ve got trouble!) - trouble with a capital T, and that rhymes with P, and that stands for (their names)!” They didn’t get it, of course, but they thought it was hilarious. Then we finally saw “The Music Man” with them and they were like, “HEY!” ---
**Author:** ![C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecd19e/32.png) [@C.Montgomery\_Burns](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C.Montgomery_Burns)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543/37 "2014-07-15T01:45:29Z")
He’s a music man, and he sells clarinets to the kids in the town with the big trombones and the rat-a-tat drums, big brass bass, big brass bass, and the piccolo, the piccolo with uniforms too, with a shiny gold braid on the coat and a big red stripe runnin’ . . . ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543/38 "2014-07-15T01:56:49Z")
We-e-e-ell, I don’t know much about music, but I do know you can’t make a livin’ selling big trombones and rat-a-tat drums. Mandolin picks, perhaps, and here and there a jew’s harp . . . ---
**Author:** ![F.U.Shakespeare](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/aca169/32.png) [@F.U.Shakespeare](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/F.U.Shakespeare)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543/39 "2014-07-15T01:59:39Z")
_But you’ve got to know the territory!_ ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2014, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543/40 "2014-07-15T02:02:10Z")
\*I flinch, I shy, when the lass with the delicate air goes by I smile, I grin, when the gal with a touch of sin walks in. I hope, and I pray, for a Hester to win just one more “A” The sadder-but-wiser girl’s the girl for me. The sadder-but-wiser girl for me. \* I love Merideth Wilson. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/music-man/304543.md?page=3)