THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED

The Harvard Band. Their recruiting posters say they blow. We at Dartboard heard they suck. But based on their performance during The Game, we have to say the jury is still out.

We suppose the group of students sportily clad in crimson blazers and carrying trombones, tubas, clarinets and coronets were members of the Harvard band. After all, they drank a lot of champagne and signaled each other with flash cards.

But we might be confused. We had heard that bands actually play music, but this motley crew tongued virtually nary a note.

Say what you will about Yale--their musicians never missed a beat, pounding out anything from Pink Floyd to the theme from "Mission: Impossible" to "Louie, Louie." It got to the point that Crimson fans were cheering for the Yale band and cursing their own.

Harvard might take a cue from the New Haven musicians and think about expanding its repertoire beyond the usual half-hearted renditions of "10,000 Men." But we aren't so presumptuous as to tell the band what to play. Instead, we side with the exasperated fans we saw shouting, "Play something! Play anything!"

Kudos to the Harvard-Radcliffe cheerleading squad for firing up the stands without any help from the ostensible musicians in their midst. Ditto for the thousands of innovative fans in Section 34 who started chanting fight songs sans Crimson accompaniment.

We're sorry they had to groove to the beat of Yale's drum. And we wonder: Was Saturday the day the music died?