Post by baylink on Jun 8, 2012 8:19:51 GMT -5
I actually didn't see a thread about this, so...
I'm the sort of pervert who buys production music libraries because I like to listen to production music, so of course I would pay more attention than the average bear to the bumpers and theme music on the show.
Thanks to a couple of websites that have collected clips of airchecks (one of which is defunct and I had to yank the clips out of the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine; all hail Brewster Kahle), I've heard, I think, the large majority of the music used on the 70s and 80s shows, and my personal favorites are (of course) Shuckatoom, but it's in a close tie with what I call the "dark disco" theme (and I gather some other people call the "Casey's Coast to Coast" theme, for the stinger that introduces it) that followed it, and their associated bumpers, which did not all start at the same time.
The shuckatoom->dark disco transition was happening in late 79; my October 6 show is Shuckatoom, and my November 10 the disco theme, but the bumpers are pretty much the same, and they're in use well up into 1982.
The very early bumpers sound like they were produced in-house (though I gather they weren't), and as someone said in another thread, as the years went on, the bumpers and themes started trying to hard to keep up with the times... perhaps it's just Teenage Music Effect* that makes me think the 78-82 package was the best... but I wasn't actually listening to AT40 them. :-)
I have clean copies of the original synth theme and Shuckatoom, as does, I think, anyone who cares about this stuff; does anyone know if there's a clean copy of Dark Disco or any of that era's bumpers laying around anywhere?
[ *Teenage Music Effect: the conviction that the music that was popular when you were between about ages 15 and 22 is the best music ever made, which almost nothing can shake. :-) ] [ Why do I call it "dark disco"? Well, dark for the minor key, which only resolves in the outro, and disco for the drum track, violin triplets and syncopation. ]
[ Two further notes: I also call this the "Formation Break to a Landing" theme, which anyone who knows the theme and anything about aerobatics will understand... and I note that by December 82, this theme had grown a (rather offbeat) bridge in the middle, that, musically, had nothing to do with the rest of the piece... ]
I'm the sort of pervert who buys production music libraries because I like to listen to production music, so of course I would pay more attention than the average bear to the bumpers and theme music on the show.
Thanks to a couple of websites that have collected clips of airchecks (one of which is defunct and I had to yank the clips out of the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine; all hail Brewster Kahle), I've heard, I think, the large majority of the music used on the 70s and 80s shows, and my personal favorites are (of course) Shuckatoom, but it's in a close tie with what I call the "dark disco" theme (and I gather some other people call the "Casey's Coast to Coast" theme, for the stinger that introduces it) that followed it, and their associated bumpers, which did not all start at the same time.
The shuckatoom->dark disco transition was happening in late 79; my October 6 show is Shuckatoom, and my November 10 the disco theme, but the bumpers are pretty much the same, and they're in use well up into 1982.
The very early bumpers sound like they were produced in-house (though I gather they weren't), and as someone said in another thread, as the years went on, the bumpers and themes started trying to hard to keep up with the times... perhaps it's just Teenage Music Effect* that makes me think the 78-82 package was the best... but I wasn't actually listening to AT40 them. :-)
I have clean copies of the original synth theme and Shuckatoom, as does, I think, anyone who cares about this stuff; does anyone know if there's a clean copy of Dark Disco or any of that era's bumpers laying around anywhere?
[ *Teenage Music Effect: the conviction that the music that was popular when you were between about ages 15 and 22 is the best music ever made, which almost nothing can shake. :-) ] [ Why do I call it "dark disco"? Well, dark for the minor key, which only resolves in the outro, and disco for the drum track, violin triplets and syncopation. ]
[ Two further notes: I also call this the "Formation Break to a Landing" theme, which anyone who knows the theme and anything about aerobatics will understand... and I note that by December 82, this theme had grown a (rather offbeat) bridge in the middle, that, musically, had nothing to do with the rest of the piece... ]
