Velociworld

Independence Day

I wasn't going to post anything today, because my opinions lean to the caustic, and frivolous, and I did not want to denigrate the moment.

And yet all day my mind kept being drawn to Sousa, and the genius he was. For anyone who has wielded a weapon, or marched in a junior high school band, or attended a United States academy, he is the guy you know, toting that M1 Garand, or that sousaphone, or that piccolo.

Sousa's marches didn't make us a belligerent nation, they merely spoke to our willingness to go that extra mile to ensure liberty was ensured. In that regard I would say they are as important as any of Beethoven's works.

What a mensch. He possessed perfect pitch, like Beethoven. He is best known for Stars and Stripes Forever, and Semper Fidelis. My personal favorite, while my former hippie ass was being pelted with beer bottles by the next week's hippies, was The Thunderer:

It just has a little bounce to it. I dig that. God Bless the United States of America, and John Philip Sousa.