The Buster Mungus Diaries

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The length of the typical pop song has averaged around the 3 minute mark since the beginning of recorded music. In this episode we examine how the length of a pop song is shrinking and moving closer to the 2 minute mark despite all the technological advances over the past 100+ years. 

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We walk through the history of the Peter Gunn TV theme from its origin in 1958 to its influence on the surf music scene to a massive resurgence in the 1980s. We travel through time with Henri Mancini, Sara Vaughn, Duane Eddy, Jeff Beck, Jimi Hendrix and many more as we look at how each artist changed or added to the concept of the coolest TV theme to ever grace the boob tube. 

Music from Peter Gunn became the number one album in the country on Billboard magazine's charts and stayed there for 10 weeks, remaining charted for 117 weeks in all. 

Its status as a standard in any upstarts' repertoire carried it through the rehearsal holes of the world. Somebody somewhere would always don its instant cool, no matter whether honest or bootleg.

Check out http://www.bustermungus.com/ for television episodes of "Peter Gunn", music videos and companion material relating to this episode.

To shop for Buster Mungus "Merch" and "Swag" head on over to  https://the-buster-mungus-shop.myspreadshop.ca/

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Perhaps the most telling statistic I’ve come across about disco and more specifically about the Montreal disco scene was that the police reported in 1970 that 80% of Montreal’s missing young people could be found in discothèques.

During the 70s, for some people, disco was all empty glitz and glamour, smoke and mirrored balls and the pinnacle of 70s exhibitionism. Montreal exemplified those qualities during a time when the the city’s greatness was dissolving after reaching its high watermark during Expo 67. Moreover, disco’s origins were far grittier than the slick veneer of the well know Studio 54. Before your mom was doing the YMCA at weddings, disco was the beating heart of the Montreal underground. It was the music of liberation, inclusiveness and empowerment with a four-on-the-floor bassline as its rallying cry.

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We examine all 17 samples from the Beastie Boys "Hey Ladies" and then play the full length versions of each sample so you can get a feel for where the samples lived prior to being used by the Beastie Boys. While most cuts are readily available digitally, several took some deep diving at the used record stores in my area in order to get copies that could be digitized for the show.

If you’re like me, you expected the Beastie Boys second album, 1989’s Paul’s Boutique, to be filled with the same misogynistic lyrics and odes to frat boy parties as their freshman output Licensed to Ill. Surprisingly, their departure from Def Jam records and Rick Rubin’ s production influence, may just have been their saving grace.

While Rubin’s influence extends to nearly every aspect of Licensed to Ill, it was still the perfect musical foil for the Bestie Boys. Problems arose however, when critics started referring to the band in the same context as the 1960’s TV show band the Monkeys. Could they really play any instruments? Were they just a culmination of studio production talent? Moreover, many a critic likened their cultural appropriation and plundering of black music to that of the Blues Brothers and the money train which followed them through the 1980s.

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Discussing the 1930s musical evolution as it pertains to tracking down the first Rock & Roll recording. Includes music from Count Basie, Benny Goodman, Bob Wills & Texas Playboys and Big Joe Turner to name a few.

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In this episode we take a look at 4 of my favourite live recordings of all-time. I grew up during the decade of the live album. You were nobody until you had a live album in those days. It announced your triumphs over the previous album releases and marked your  maturity, usually with a multi gate fold, poster sometimes included, double LP. 

The albums are fabulous in their own right, but they do provide a glimpse at musicians/bands when the material is paired with great engineering and a fantastic performance. Consider the variety and range of performances by the likes of, Jerry Lee Lewis, The MC5, Deep Purple and the Allman brothers Band.

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In this episode we take a look at the history of one of the most recognized and widely covered surf songs -- Misirlou.

We trace the song from its origin as a middle eastern folk song in the 1920's through to its re-invention as a modern day surf classic from Dick Dale, to its impact on cinema goers as the theme song for Quentin Tarantino's 1994 film Pulp Fiction.

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In this episode we look at classic Bubblegum music and those artists influenced by it. The cover version is the highest compliment an artists can make to honour the music that influenced their own musical journey. Each nugget is cleverly paired with a cover version illustrating the relationship that a good song has to its performer.

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What we’ve seen in the past 20 years is that consumption methods have broadened attitudes, music has changed to reflect that, and attitudes have then changed even further.

We examine the evolution of musical genres and delve into what makes a classification system work.
 
For show notes, links, videos, and show related Playlists, head over to www.bustermungus.com.