Show Start / Bogus Pomp Explained - Live At Royce Hall, 9/18/1975

Well, hello folks
Hello, hello
Can you bring this up any?
Okay, just calm down there now
Alright
Here's the deal
For those of you... Turn this sucker up
Hello
Alright

For those of you who might be wondering, it's not a rock and roll concert
It's one of those other kinds of concerts
And if you were here last night, by some stretch of the imagination
You might think, you might think that you know what's going to happen tonight
But you don't know what's going to happen tonight

Because in keeping with that great tradition of our organization
We will deviate tonight from the patterns established yesterday in certain very important areas
However, the show will begin in much the same way that it did last night, with these sterling differences
One, folks, remember, we're recording this one live, so I want you to have a good time
And two

I'm going to, I'm going to take the liberty of narrating the plot line to this piece that we're going to do here
Now, the first tune is called "Bogus Pomp"
And this is a melancholy little extravaganza
Actually, it says "Short sort of ballet or choreographed orch. number
For twelve winds, eleven brass, four amplified strings, one amplified harp, three keyboard players, four percussion, one electric bass and one drumset"
That's 37 folks

Now, it opens up with this archetypally corny sort of fake classical music intro, that goes...
I'm going to hum it to you now, you'll really like this part, it goes
"Dunt, runt-ta-da-da-dunt, tada-dant, tunt tunt, tunt"
And then the oboes come in and they go
"Wat-wat-wat, wat-wat-wat"
So right off, right off the bat you know how deep this sucker is, so...
A little bit later on though, it starts getting real weird
There's a deluxe piano solo, which will be played for you by Doctor Lang, and uh...
Mike Lang, you know Mike Lang
And uh, there is also some synthesizer stuff in it

But the main thing that's happening that's fun in this piece
Because, folks, fun is the keyword to everything
There is a fun part in this where there's a war in the string section over here, now
I want you to, I want you to watch very, very carefully in this one part
Where they just mildly begin to cavort and suddenly, as if by some sort of mysterious inspiration
The viola player cuts loose with a wah-wah pedal solo, which causes...

This solo causes consternation among the other legitimate members of the quartet
Also because she's a girl and she gets the first solo
So that's pissing them off right from the beginning
This coupled with the fact that the solo is being played on a viola
Not one of your popular instruments
Is going to really make them want to gang up on her later, which they do
Later in the piece, one by one, the other members of the string quartet prepare to take their revenge on the viola player

So, then a little bit later after all that has happened
The melody, if there be such in this piece
Atomizes itself, why it just sort of blows itself to little pieces
And then in the end you'll hear it being sprinkled all over the orchestra
With harp notes, celesta notes and high piano notes
Just like they do in the movies when it's going to go "Wooh"
And then you'll hear the wind machine
And then at the end there's a special visual surprise
That we have gotten permission from the Hall to do

Before I, before I introduce to you the gentleman who is going to conduct this monstrosity
And do one heck of a job at it, I might add
'Cause we recorded it this afternoon
Without an audience and it sounded pretty good then, but maybe this will be hot one
Before I bring, before I bring out the conductor
I wanna tell you that one of the problems in doing this kind of a concert
Is the fact that without amplification even 37 people are not loud enough for rock and roll standards

So in order to make it balanced and I hope it does balance
I'm going to jump off here and go down and sit at the mixing console
And try and keep the sections together and keep the feedback from happening
Of course if I chump it, you'll just have to realize that it's my fault
They're doing it okay
If it sounds wrong, blame it on me
And now, I'd like to introduce to you
Michael Zearott, who is going to conduct it

Ta-dah