Friday, July 3, 2009

"The Bug" That Made History

A little challenge: look at this record label and guess what this song is about before you listen to it. "The Bug" That Made History (1977):

"The Bug"

Now listen to the song and see if you were right:



(If you want to know what I thought it was going to be about, look in the Comments!)


This 45 appears to be the work of an ambitious husband-wife team:

Featured singer: Mary Ann Walker
Record label: The Walker
Songwriter: Myran Walker
Publisher: Myann Walker

I hope they didn't blame each other when this failed to become a hit! Maybe it was just for fun - sounds like they had a good time recording it. The family that records novelty songs together, STAYS TOGETHER.
Check out those analog synth squiggles that are supposed to represent "The Bug".

8 comments:

  1. I thought this was going to be about some type of venereal disease that "made history" by exposing a chain of adulterous partners in a small town.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I thought it was gonna be about the lightning bug - that's what the drawing looks like...

    ReplyDelete
  3. I also thought it was going to be about a lightning bug. I wasn't sure why it was going to make history though.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great find Andy. The creepy crawly subject matter and the novelty sound effects in addition to the key change step-up with each verse reminds me a little of Tony Burrello's "There's a New Sound (The Sound of Worms)". Funny stuff.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5-U0jMgtW8

    ReplyDelete
  5. I think Mary Ann and Myran are THE SAME PERSON!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I DON'T NEED NO WATERGATE / JUST GIVE ME SOME BUGS AND I'LL BE STRAIGHT

    ReplyDelete
  7. One particular manifestation of psychosis associated with amphetamine use is delusional parasitosis or Ekbom's syndrome, where a person falsely believes themselves to be infested with parasites.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I suck at history, so someone help me out: What was going on in 1977 that might spurred this record? It's way past Watergate, way past The Conversation, way past The Anderson Tapes. How and why was this record getting made in '77?

    And I got it wrong, too. I saw the globe-ish "IRDA" logo and thought the title might be some reference to the "union bugs," those little labels that they put on things to mark them as products of union labor. I thought this record was gonna be some boosterish thing about the societal impact of unions or something. Only too late did it occur to me 1)that IRDA probably has something to do with Record Distribution and 2) that this record is from Tennessee and that the South fucking hates unions. No pie for me.

    ReplyDelete