The Buster Mungus Diaries
18 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 2 years ago -The Buster Mungus Diaries Podcast drives to the heart of the music regardless of genre, examining the people, places and parallels in modern sound. Each episode takes you into the music you love, but with a viewpoint that sometimes differs from the mainstream. Connect to the music by knowing more about the people, places and events that helped create modern music.
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Episodes
The History of the 2 Minute Pop Song
November 24, 2021 02:00 - 1 hour - 33 MBSend us a Text Message. 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.
The Peter Gunn Theme From Start to Finish
August 01, 2021 15:00 - 1 hour - 106 MBSend us a Text Message. 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 c...
Montreal Disco
October 22, 2020 21:00 - 1 hour - 99.2 MBSend us a Text Message. 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 re...
Every Sample from the Beastie Boys "Hey Ladies"
September 09, 2020 19:00 - 1 hour - 149 MBSend us a Text Message. 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, ...
The myth of the first Rock & Roll song part 2 of 4
August 22, 2020 20:00 - 1 hour - 100 MBSend us a Text Message. 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.
4 Spectacular Live Albums!
July 30, 2020 17:00 - 1 hour - 125 MBSend us a Text Message. 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 ...
Misirlou from Start to Finish
July 06, 2020 15:00 - 1 hour - 107 MBSend us a Text Message. 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.
Bubblegum Cover Versions
June 06, 2020 16:00 - 1 hour - 89.3 MBSend us a Text Message. 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.
Do Musical Genres Really Exist?
March 20, 2020 17:00 - 53 minutes - 73.7 MBSend us a Text Message. So, if genre boundaries are evaporating, and presuming post-genre music doesn’t become a genre and cancel itself out, will anything replace them? 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 Pl...
The Cramps (Demos, Bootlegs and Originals)
February 18, 2020 21:00 - 1 hour - 110 MBSend us a Text Message. We take a look at those camp kings the Cramps and their early music illustrating their success by playing the original songs by the original artists, the Cramps demos and live bootlegs and then finally contrast those efforts with the final album version. Listen to the growth and evolution of Cramps classics from their first EP such as Human Fly, The Way I Walk and Domino or the ULTRA RARE Red Headed Woman from the same sessions. Then blast head first into the firs...
(Ghost) Riders in the Sky from Start to Finish
January 31, 2020 02:00 - 1 hour - 104 MBSend us a Text Message. In this episode we take a look at the history of one of the most widely post WWII "Covered" popular songs in the ASCAP database. From its humble beginnings as a European folk song to its re-appearance during the American Civil War as a melody for a drinking song, to its eventual use as the basis for a song about a cautionary tale warning a cowboy that if he doesn't change his ways, he will one day join the damned cowboys doomed to try to “catch the Devil”s herd acro...
The Rock & Roll Myth part 4 of 4
December 21, 2019 23:00 - 1 hour - 93 MBAfter examining the developments and evolution of American popular music from the turn of the century from the 1920's, through the 1930's & the 1940's, we examine the culmination of styles and circumstances that evolved during the 1950s. Did Rock & Roll appear before Elvis or Chuck Berry? Could it have been under our noses this whole time, or could yet be discovered in the music we'll play in this episode.
The myth of the first Rock & Roll song part 4 of 4
December 21, 2019 23:00 - 1 hour - 93 MBSend us a Text Message. After examining the developments and evolution of American popular music from the turn of the century from the 1920's, through the 1930's & the 1940's, we examine the culmination of styles and circumstances that evolved during the 1950s. Did Rock & Roll appear before Elvis or Chuck Berry? Could it have been under our noses this whole time, or could yet be discovered in the music we'll play in this episode.
The myth of the first Rock & Roll song part 3 of 4
December 04, 2019 16:00 - 1 hour - 118 MBSend us a Text Message. Examining the lead up to the 1950s, there were many forms of popular music that laid the foundation for the definition of Rock & Roll that we know today. Rhythm and Blues, Swing, and Hillbilly music all come together during the 1940s to illustrate hints of Rock & Roll around every turn. Maybe this episode contains the first Rock & Roll song ever recorded . . .
The Rock & Roll Myth part 3 of 4
December 04, 2019 16:00 - 1 hour - 118 MBIn S1E2 we looked at song form and its effects on modernization of popular music. More importantly, what we discovered is How does song form relate to the story of Rock & Roll?The word “GENRE” is often used to describe particular “musics”. Although we throw the terms like blues, jazz, classical around freely, what do they actually mean? Are they always accurate terms? What about the form or style of a song? Can they be defined purely within a musical context?
The Rock & Roll myth part 2 of 4
November 24, 2019 01:00 - 1 hour - 101 MBDuring the 1920s and 1930s, composers and lyricists fused earlier song structures to produce a verse-refrain form which, in the hands of more inventive composers, allowed for all sorts of interesting variations. How does a song’s form affect its style or musical interpretation? What is a Song Form Simply . . . Song Form arranges the structure of songs into an easy to understand framework. Song structure is important because it organizes how songs are written while aiding in how they are re...
The Rock & Roll myth part 1 of 4
November 23, 2019 23:00 - 1 hour - 45.9 MBNick Tosches says it best | ”It is impossible to discern the first modern rock record, just as it is impossible to discern where blue becomes indigo in the spectrum." So why so many think that Jackie Brenston made the first rock ‘n’ roll record? Well for a start, Sam Phillips was fond of telling people that it was. Bringing you into the folds of the shows purpose, is to better understand where modern forms of popular music are evolving from and how their history has become entrenched in o...
The myth of the first Rock & Roll song part 1 of 4
November 23, 2019 23:00 - 1 hour - 43.9 MBSend us a Text Message. Nick Tosches says it best | ”It is impossible to discern the first modern rock record, just as it is impossible to discern where blue becomes indigo in the spectrum." So why so many think that Jackie Brenston made the first rock ‘n’ roll record? Well for a start, Sam Phillips was fond of telling people that it was. Bringing you into the folds of the shows purpose, is to better understand where modern forms of popular music are evolving from and how their history h...