BROWNSTOWN
Classic songs from a popular movie soundtrack will be presented at halftime of Brownstown Central High School football games this season.
The Band of Braves open with the upbeat “Mr. Blue Sky” by Electric Light Orchestra and feature either “I Want You Back” by The Jackson 5, “Escape (The Piña Colada Song)” by Rupert Holmes or “Spirit in the Sky” by Norman Greenbaum as the drill team feature and then close with “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell.
Those are among the songs on the soundtrack for the movie “Guardians of the Galaxy.”
Band Director Richard Branaman said in choosing the theme each year, he asks the students what’s fun and interesting to them. This year, “Guardians of the Galaxy” was suggested.
He already had “Hooked on a Feeling” by Blue Swede and “I Want You Back” in his library, and he checked online for other songs from the movie and found “Spirit in the Sky,” which is a song that’s very special to him.
“A kid that I went to high school with loved rock and roll,” Branaman said. “He died way too young. He had just gotten out of college and he was teaching English at Medora with me, we just ended up at the same place, and he got cancer. They played it at his funeral and tore us up, but it was so much him. Even my wife, who didn’t know him very well, she was like, ‘That is so him.’ He was very strong in his faith.”
That song fits with the opener since they are both happy, upbeat songs, he said.
“I’m a big ELO fan, and I have been since I was a middle-schooler when you first started hearing their music,” Branaman said. “That song is just so infectious and happy. All of my boys liked that song. When it comes on, they all start singing. It was like, ‘Oh, this has got to be part of our show.'”
Since there are five home football games this season, an extra drill team feature was needed, so the song will be different each night.
In choosing the closer, he talked to drill team sponsor Angela Blann, and they both agreed on “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough.”
Even the song the band will play as it marches onto the field for pregame, “The Mandalorian” by Ludwig Göransson from the popular Disney Plus series, fits in with the theme.
This year’s drum majors, junior Madison Edwards and sophomore Quincy Weddell, are happy about the theme.
“It brings that classic rock theme back that you don’t usually hear anymore,” Weddell said.
“It’s older songs, so I’d sit in the car and my parents would play the radio and it’s like, ‘Those are the songs they always played,'” Edwards said. “I think they are cool to play because the other people in the stands will definitely recognize them. I think these are easier for everyone to recognize rather than just our generation.”
Both are first-year drum majors and attended a camp earlier this summer to help them be ready to lead the 23-member band.
“I was really hoping that the drum major camp would bring them together, bond them so they could be a strong, united leadership, and I think the two of them have become much stronger friends,” Branaman said. “They work at the pool together, too, they’ve had lots of time together, so they are fun to watch, good workers.”
The drum majors both said it has been an adjustment switching from playing an instrument to directing.
“It’s a big change from being a drummer, I’ll tell you that,” Weddell said, smiling. “As a bass drummer, I was quieter and I was just kind of in with people, and now that I’m marching alone and I only have (Edwards), it’s kind of strange not being in a formation with all of these other people.”
Edwards was expecting a senior to be a drum major this year, so she was surprised when she was tabbed for the role.
“It was definitely a big step up because I wasn’t expecting to have to do it all me this year,” she said. “But I’m really excited because last year, it was COVID, we all had the masks and stuff, and now, everyone can just go out there and have fun.”