I've probably posted on this topic before, but it was a while back.

I just re-watched the movie "Rough Riders" which was done as a two-hour movie (I think) on A&E in the late 90s. It is an awesome movie, particularly if you're a Teddy Roosevelt fan like me. (Or if you're a Jack Pershing fan, which I was not before the movie, but now am).

But what's cool is how much of the music has connections with the Aggie band. First of all, they frequently play the old bugle call for cavalry called "recall" which of course is the opening trumpet fanfare to the Aggie War Hymn.

Just as cool is that the Rough Riders adopted as their theme song the late 1890s hit, "Hot Time in the Old Town," which the Aggie Band later rewrote as "Hot Time in Austin." This is the part that the band plays every time that there's an aggie score or dramatic play, and which also comes at the end of the War Hymn.

Watching that movie, seeing the Rough Riders going into battle ready to kick some Spanish Ass singing an Aggie song just gets my blood pumping. Of course, they also play "When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again" multiple times throughout the movie.

Here's the original lyrics to "Hot Time" from 1896 (This is the version the Rough Riders sang:

quote:

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When you hear
Dem a bells go ding, ling ling,
All join 'round
And sweetly you must sing,
And when the verse am through,
In the chorus all join in,
There'll be a hot time
In the old town tonight.

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Then, a few years later, someone wrote a parody:

quote:

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Late last night
When we were all in bed,
Mrs. O'Leary
Left a lantern in the shed.
The cow kicked it over,
Then winked her eye and said
"There'll be a hot time
In the old town tonight!"

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Obviously the Aggie version was developed from this last one:

quote:

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Late one night,
When the teasips were in bed,
Old Sul Ross
Took a lantern in the shed.
The Aggie kicked it over,
He winked and then he said,
There’ll be a hot time in austin tonight.

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I will cross-post this on the football board.

I don't remember that movie, but I'm going to have to look in to it. I'm a big fan of the Rough Riders, Teddy Roosevelt, Black Jack, and good old-fashioned military music that gets you fired up and ready to march off to war. It sounds tailor-made for me.

EDIT: I just looked it up on IMDB.com. Sam Elliott's in it? I've GOT to watch this.

[This message has been edited by WestTxAg06 (edited 11/3/2006 5:59p).]

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which the Aggie Band later rewrote as "Hot Time in Austin.

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You do know the "hot time in Austin" is a recent invention? I never heard it until about 5 years ago.

And it's not "Hot Time" you hear after a score, it's called "Wildcat", and is just a fun little flourish that falls between "Saw Varsity's Horns off" and "Hot Time".

One of the best little stories I've ever seen about the War Hymn is at:

http://aggieband.com/story/warhymn.html

"Hot time in Austin", which I think is pretty cheesy, has been around at least since the early 90's.

We were singing it in the early 80s as well.

quote:

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And it's not "Hot Time" you hear after a score, it's called "Wildcat", and is just a fun little flourish that falls between "Saw Varsity's Horns off" and "Hot Time".

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Um, you sure about that? I'm dead positive that it is Hot Time we play when we score. We play Wildcat when we make a big play or a first down.

It's been a very long time since I've been in the Band, and I get to attend very few games in person (9 hour drive one way).

It is entirely possible that the Band plays "Hot Time" after a score these days. I think we did not, but traditions morph over time, and it may be the current tradition.

"Wildcat" is that odd little flourish that gets played after good things happen on the field (this is going to be painful to read)....it starts with the bass drum: bump..bump..de-bump, followed by the horns da-dat-da da-duh, da-dat-da da-duuuuhhhhhh.


It seems that we did play "Hot Time" occassionally, now that I think about it, but gosh the memory fades of stuff you thought you'd never forget....

I do recall that one year, we did a different thing in the stands when we played t.u....After a very good play against the horns, we would skip "Recall" and "Hulabaloo" and launch straight into the first phrase of the "War Hymn", and play

"Goodby to Texas University"

and then stop. There was stunned silence from the crowd at first, then laughter and whoops as everyone got the joke.

quote:

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"Wildcat" is that odd little flourish that gets played after good things happen on the field (this is going to be painful to read)....it starts with the bass drum: bump..bump..de-bump, followed by the horns da-dat-da da-duh, da-dat-da da-duuuuhhhhhh.

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I always wondered what the name of that little bit of music was.

we sang "hot time in asstin" in 89-93, yo

I'm going to guess that based on the above debate that this song may have vanished for a while, as some Aggie traditions have faded away only to be revived later.

I heard this one in the early 90s too, and I learned the words (which they didn't teach us at fish camp) from my sister, who went there in the 80s.

But it's definately an old song. Maybe when Canyon was there they had stopped playing it.

As a BQ, I spent my time playing, not singing, but I still never heard anybody singing words to "Hot Time".

Haven't seen anybody from earlier than the 80s reference it.

Hot Time is played for scores.

Wildcat is for first downs and big plays.

I heard it for the first time during the Spirit Walk for the OU game. I now have 9 months to learn it for our 1st game. Thanks for the words.

Late one night,
When the teasips were in bed,
Old Sul Ross
Took a lantern in the shed.
The Aggie kicked it over,
He winked and then he said,
There’ll be a hot time in austin tonight.

They played Garry Owen in the movie as well. I wish the FTAB knew it.

Garry Owen
Let Bacchus' sons be not dismayed
But join with me, each jovial blade
Come, drink and sing and lend your aid
To help me with the chorus

Chorus: Instead of spa, we'll drink brown ale
And pay the reckoning on the nail;
No man for debt shall go to jail
From Garryowen in glory.

We'll beat the bailiffs out of fun,
We'll make the mayor and sheriffs run
We are the boys no man dares dun
If he regards a whole skin.
Chorus

Our hearts so stout have got no fame
For soon 'tis known from whence we came
Where'er we go they fear the name
Of Garryowen in glory.

Parsons reactivated the Cav in 1973. We played Gerry Owen as they "marched in" for a year or two, but at some point, "their" music was changed to "Yellow Rose of Texas".

Back then, BQs marched in through the north end zone tunnel. We marched to the south end zone on a drum cadence and countermarched as we were graded for march in. Then we halted and stood in the middle of Kyle (on that damn Astroturf) and played for the whole march-in. The Cav was always the last group around.

We'd then go sit in the stands and wait for the game. Seems like we had march-in about 2 hours before, so the teams could have the field when we were done.

We had to stay, but the CTs would go back to their dorms, often to change into Midnights.

[This message has been edited by CanyonAg77 (edited 11/30/2006 8:25p).]

Is wildcat/hot time available in audio format anywhere, or on any of the Band's CDs?

I guess you can go here, download the War Hymn, and edit the ending.

http://www.aggieband.org/visitors-multimedia.php

I also think there may be a snippet of "Wildcat" on the "Live from Kyle Field Album, circa 1975.

I still want to hear a rousing rendition of Garry Owen by the FTAB.

Thanks CanyonAg77

I want "Wildcat" to play every time I start my computer.

We played Gerry Owne in the 1983-1986 time period when the Cav rode into Kyle for review. We originally played it loudly, but after spooking the horses once, we had to tone it down.

In the early 50s the Army units in the Corps were divided into various branches including Infantry, Artillery, Ordnance, Engineers, Armor, etc. The Armor units had their genesis with the older Cavalry units and thus took on the nickname of "Jocks" (from the derisive term of jockeys.)

Garryowen was their favored marching song ... and with more than 200 members they could about drown out any other marchers except the FTAB.

Garryowen was also a marching song of the RVs when on a long trek in a parade with no drills or maneuvers taking place.

In those days with 5-7,000 in the Corps parades and marchins were accompanied with a lot of racket with every unit singing a favorite marching song or doing calls. There were a multitude of different "jodie" calls i.e., call and response.) (Many bordering on and R or X rating, some so darn funny they could crack up the units marching fore and aft the first time they heard it.)

We never knew that Hot Time had lyrics. Since then I have never heard any one sing them.

fossil,

I think there are a ton of current traditions that people seem to think are ancient and thus, somehow unassailable. Words to Hot Time, screaming uncover like an idiot, ring dunking, pennies at Sully's feet...

I don't mind folks developing new traditions, it just gets really tiresome to hear folks defend them as if they were sacred lore developed in 1876.

Well, you'd have thought someone woulda been smart enough to write this down at some point. Until this thread, I had always believed the words to Hot Time had always been sung, because that's what I was told when I came here. It's a strange little mentality effect, to say the least.

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because that's what I was told when I came here

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I blame Fish Camp and the MSC Visitor's Center.

I took a campus tour with my (then) high school age daughter. Almost everything the guide told us should have been prefaced with

"Once upon a time..."

It's just part of life, I suppose. Ever play that game "pass it back," where you start at one end of a line of people with a sentence, and then see what you get at the end of the line? I think that's pretty much why we have the arguments we have now. It gets confusing/frustrating in a hurry, especially for guys like me that try to figure out what Old Army actually did and didn't do!