A fellow alum corrected me about the Corps Song at the reunion, giving me the "correct" wording. See below. Comments?

Corps Song

Hail to Mar-oo-oo-oon
Hail to the Gold
Hail to our Drum Corps
We will never fold!

We love no other
So let our motto be,
Victorious Norwood Park
Hail to thee!

What did you do in the Corps? Percussion 1958-63; instructor 1964-70

What years were you a Corps member? 1958-63

more about the (Norwood) Imperials Corps Song and one other .. from the 1950s, from Alumnus Tom Cushing

I don't know if you got a response to the question; as to the origin of a couple of the songs we (the Norwood Park Imperials) used to sing. So here goes...

University of Illinois’:
Hail to the Orange
Hail to the Orange,
Hail to the Blue,
Hail Alma Mater,
Ever so true!
We love no other
So let our motto be
Victory, Illinois! Varsity!

Norwood Park’s:
Hail to Maroon & Gold
Hail to Maroon,
Hail to the Gold,
Hail to our Drum Corps
We will never fold
We Love no other,
so let our motto be
Victorious Norwood Park
Hail to Thee!

"Raven & the Highway" comes from the Coast Guard Hymn "Semper Paratus".

Oh, Raven & Highway is our home,
From there we'll never roam,
We'll ring the bell and run like hell,
We're Norwood, we're out for blood!

At least that's the way I remember 'em. Corrections and comments welcome. Tom

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What did you do in the Corps? drummer

What years were you a Corps member? 1958-63

Interesting! I had never heard the second one, but find it strange that it's based on the Coast Guard hymn - which is also the Cavaliers' corps song!

That should keep Dave up for a few nights...

What did you do in the Corps? Snare; Drum Major; Drum Instructor/Arranger

What years were you a Corps member? 1970-73; 78-79

Thankfully, I never heard the second song. Note that "Raven and the Highway (Northwest Highway) was where the corps met the busses for trips. It is in Norwood Park, not far from the Norwood Park fieldhouse.

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What did you do in the Corps? drummer

What years were you a Corps member? 1958-63

The first baritones in 1962 (Sam Tessitore, Bill Gallagher, Roman Blenski and Larry Nelson) used to sing a variation of Raven and the Highway (Semper Paradis) called "We are the Big Four."

Assume Sam was the lyricist. Also suspect he had something to do with Raven and the Highway as well.

I do recollect the older guys like Ssm and Bill Gallagher singing songs on the bus. The stuff was pretty tame compared to the songs originated by the 1964 and 1965 guys on the first bus.

I only remember the songs that decorum dictates that I don't repeat them here. However, they were funny and entertained us.

There was another song called "Zoom Zoom" I think that was the title. Don't recollect the lyics but seem to member that it was sometimes sung while marching. As I recollect there wasn't much singing of corps songs after most of the members who'd been around since the 1950s aged out in 1963. "Hail to Maroon" was still ung before major shows usually after Rick Maass had finished a pep talk and he was usually the one who initiated it.

There was singing on the bus but usually stuff with lyrics that can't be repeated here. Usually songs that were song to the tune of some song another corps played.

Some readers seem to be confused here..

there were CORPS songs ... the official CORPS song .. and some similar related corps stuff.

Then there were songs "from the bus" ...

In the 1950's these "bus songs" were often songs based on popular tunes or from classics. Later, these bus songs took on a "new flavor", with lyrics of a different nature.

Some of these songs were very embarassing to hear .. when sung in public .... but some corps members didn't care about that.


In 1965, that came to haunt the corps.