Themes and beds

[baylink]

Well I'm back for a bit, after a messy 6 months. I have some trade list requests I'll get to this weekend (I have to stare at a server for 4 hours while an upgrade runs. :-)

The topic that's on my mind this week is production music, cause I geek that way.

Lots of people have voiced their various tastes and opinions about the AT40 imaging packages here in various threads, but I've spent a lot of time listening to this stuff semi-professionally, and for my tastes -- having listened to at least one show from 70, 72, 75, 78-82, 84, and 85 (which I think gets all the Casey packages) -- the 78-83 themes, bumpers and counters are my favorite.

There are several reasons for that.

First, I think they sound the most professional. The first package, pre-Shuckatoom, sounded like it was done on someone's Casio, with jingle singers who'd never heard of legato; it's just painful to listen to. ("American. [pregnant pause] Top. Forty.")

With the intro of Shuckatoom, and the bumpers and counters which accompanied it, the show started to sound like what *I* (at least) consider to be professional radio production. The arrangements are excellent, the singing is well done, and the composition... well, the thing I like best about Shuckatoom is that while it quotes "American Top 40" and "Casey[']s Coast To Coast" in the melody, *it doesn't lean on them*; there's other stuff in there to carry the music.

I wasn't all that fond of the "new theme music you can hear behind me" that launched in 84 (I have the show, but can't recall the date just now), either, for the same reason: it trots nearly entirely on those two themes, and they are *spice*, not meat. And I think I've heard at least one Ryan Seacrest package, and it was J-pop garbage to my ears.

In between the two extremes, though, introduced as segment/closing show music paired with Shuckatoom and, (I think) replacing Shuck as opening music late in the 82-83 timeframe somewhere, was a theme (unnamed as far as I know) which I refer to as Dark Disco, based on its chord choices, hi-hat runs and funk bass; it's the one that opens on a "Casey" fanfare, followed by 3 or 4 measures of hihat and then goes into a minor key electric guitar run. It ends on the Casey riff again, set against a minor key.

There appear to be 3 versions of that: 3 measures of hihat in front, one with 4, and one where there's an extended bridge near the end.

In my quest to collect the whole set, I'm pretty sure I can clip most of the counters cleanly out of the shows, and of course Shuck and the original theme are floating around on the net and easy to find. Dark Disco (preferably in all its versions) , and the Archive intro are the only things I can't find a way to pull out cleanly.

Does anyone know if those ever leaked out the door?

(If anyone whispers happy things in my mailbox, I promise not to burn a source. :-)

[mstgator]

Don't know where to find "Dark Disco" in the clear, but it debuted in late 1979 (it was the opening theme for several weeks before "Shuckatoom" was reinstated). The long version of that is probably my favorite AT40 theme ever, so if you ever do find it clean don't forget me.

[baylink]

So as it happens, I just listened to 12/4/82, which closes with the super-long extended, stretch-limo version of Dark Disco, with the bridge, and 5 (count em, 5) measures of hihat intro.

It also uses what I /think/ might be the upcoming 84 theme to open a couple hours under new station promos. it's not too bad for that... it just can't carry show-open/-close duties, IMHO.

[at40petebattistini]

baylink,
It appears you are very well versed when it comes to music. But I'm a liittle disappointed with your critical comment about the initial AT40 jingle package. I understand that the jingles lack a textured sound in comparison to later years. But in their day, the package was produced by a well-respected industry innovator of radio jingles. It's similar to comparing movie special effects from the 50s to today's standards. The concept had to evolve to make it better. By noting a listen to 1979's jingles, and then a comparison listen to 1971's, and then saying pre-Shuckatoom jingles "were done on someone's Casio" and "painful to listen to" is just unfair.

[baylink]

Well, it's hard to evaluate things by the standards of a day you weren't really in (I was 10 in 1975 :-), but I see your point. Nothing personal to the folks who did that work, certainly, but I've heard -- on, for example, those "60s DJ recreations albums" other examples of radio production done in that era, and it seemed to me that there was a lot of stuff out there that held up to what were current-day standards when I *was* paying attention (83-93ish, roughly), and even to todays stuff.

I am, specifically, criticizing the singing direction, moreso than the compositions; the composition work merely sounds low-budget to me. But *the whole point of the show was music*, which is a viewpoint that later packages seem to me to understand, while the original one didn't. Those bumpers (in particular) that I'm ragging on don't even live up to the *main title* theme, which sounds 70s; they sound *very* early 60s to me.

Painful may be too strong, but those bumpers and counters really do jar me when they play.

As for "Casio", I really have heard *demo music on a Casio* that sounds as good as or better than the original theme.

Again: this shouldn't be considered as a dig at the people who did the work (if any of them are listening :-}), it's just an objective appraisal from 40 years on...

[pamelajaye]

I know where you were in 1975 and, having helped insulate that wall you were on the other side of (I think we used pieces on styrofoam) , you should have been able to hear quite well (and I'm thankful I was the loud one). Every single Sunday morning from 10am. Unless you were downstairs.
I'll buy "I wasn't paying attention" or "I wasn't a production music geek at the time" though.

Bonus points for those few weeks you subbed in, writing in the notebook.

[pamelajaye]

So, tell me about these re-creations...
I have WRKO jingles (and the CKWW ones take me back) but no LPs

[vto66]

Jan 3, 2013 23:43:01 GMT -5 baylink said:

So as it happens, I just listened to 12/4/82, which closes with the super-long extended, stretch-limo version of Dark Disco, with the bridge, and 5 (count em, 5) measures of hihat intro.

It also uses what I /think/ might be the upcoming 84 theme to open a couple hours under new station promos. it's not too bad for that... it just can't carry show-open/-close duties, IMHO.

I remember that same extended version of the late 1979-84 end theme being used on at least one other regular show (10/25/1980). As far as the hour-opening theme, you might be thinking of the one that was introduced in the spring of 1982, although that one and the 1984 top-of-hour theme do sound somewhat similar.

[baylink]

Jan 5, 2013 22:25:33 GMT -5 vto66 said:

I remember that same extended version of the late 1979-84 end theme being used on at least one other regular show (10/25/1980). As far as the hour-opening theme, you might be thinking of the one that was introduced in the spring of 1982, although that one and the 1984 top-of-hour theme do sound somewhat similar.

Hmmm.

I'm going to have to listen more carefully. I know there's another theme quite similar to Dark Disco that starts hard, rather than in hihat run, but I thought it was just another mixout. Perhaps it's not.

I'm assembling my whole collection this weekend while I watch server drives spin; I'm planning to clip all the various items out and post them for comparison purposes.

And if anyone has original cue sheets for this stuff listing "real" names for the music other than Shuck, feel free to chime in in your Copious Free Time. :-)

[doofus67]

I love "Dark Disco," or, as it's called in other threads, "Coast to Coast Fanfare." Coming out of the #1 song, it still gives me chills. That's probably 'cuz the time period in which it was used the most (fall '79 to spring '82) was when I first got turned on to Casey.