OT...Surf Music, how and where did it evolve

[Robman2]

Does anyone have an opinion?

 

I'm loading the thread, will chime in later.

 

Rob

[shniggens]

I just saw "Riding Giants" last night. Great movie!! They talked a little about some surf music and timeline.

[songrytr]

http://www.dickdale.com/

[Robman2]

I have a compilation set CD from Rhino, but the kicker is an early word processor book from a guy who interviewd the players who were around during the era.

 

I'll add that in after and if anyone else puts their two cents in.

 

Speaking of cool, the documentary about the street boarders, was fairly cool as well.

 

Rob

[Robman2]

I have a shot of me and Dick from NAMM.

 

Dick who was watching Johnny Hiland in our Zaolla booth section, gave me his card and his sons.

 

Les, I'll see on the 11th, headed into NYC a day early for Rep/Hosa/Zaolla business, just to make sure I catch his late show.

 

He, Niki and Lou were all using Zaolla last time I was there, we'll see if they still are.

 

Now Dick, declared himself King of the Surf Guitar back when, however, there was another player or two, who had it not been for the PR machine, would possibly have been called that before Dick got inspired to claim the title.

 

Dick learned to surf, from kids going to the dances and he was playing covers at that time, not instrumentals...one led to another for him.

 

He helped style the genre, but was not it's originator.

 

R

[Jeff Klopmeyer]

"And youll never hear surf music again." - Jimi

 

From what I understand, in the late 50s there was a band explosion here in SoCal, and for some reason a lot of them were instrumental acts. Most of them were part of the surf culture in places like my hometown here. But I don't know anything about the development of the sound.

 

About 10 years ago, I saw a Tom Petty concert where Mike Campbell (in lieu of a solo), did a RAGING surf guitar number, using a Danelectro with a Bigsby-like tremolo and a crapload of reverb. Sweet!

 

- Jeff

[theblue1]

Two words:

 

Duane Eddy.

 

 

He wasn't really associated with the surf scene (although he had a '63 album called "Surfin'") but his influence starting with his first release in '58 was obviously huge.

 

Also, guitar instrumentals like the Peter Gunn Theme were part of the feed culture.

 

_____________________

 

PS... I liked surf guitar instrumentals but I really hated when the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean became what most folks thought of as "surf music." (It's okay, I like the BB's classic stuff, now, of course. )

[Jeff Klopmeyer]

Originally posted by theblue1:

I really hated when the Beach Boys and Jan and Dean became what most folks thought of as "surf music."

Real surf music was more like punk was in the late '70s, from a social perspective. Like any other cool genre, it gets watered down and retooled for mass consumption. But the original surf bands were bad-asses.

 

- Jeff

[Mark Zeger]

Funniest Moment in Surf Music History:

 

In a short SNL film, Belushi and Ackroyd are dressed as CHPs and go to Brian Wilson's house. They drag him out of bed, take him to the beach and make him surf because he never did when writing the Beach Boys surfing hits.

[Dak Lander]

Originally posted by Robman2:

Dick ...., gave me his card and his sons.

R

What ya gonna do with Dick's sons?

[Kendrix]

While the Ventures were not exactly a dead -center surf band I think their influence is a big part of the story of how surf music evolved.

[Kendrix]

Also, surf music and Fender gear (both guitars and amps) feed off each other.

No les Pauls need apply.

 

The bright, twangy guitar tones are best gotten off the single coil pickups of the classic fender guitars and the crisp reverb drenched tone is all about fender amps.

 

Plug a standard strat into a twin revferb or bandmaster amp and you've got the basic tone at your fingertips.

[Robman2]

OK,

 

My ringer is a book by a guy named Robert J. Dalley.

 

It's a magazine sized, paperback, ISBN 0-913944-0-4, LOC # 88-90929.

 

Surfin' Guitars, Instrumental Surf Bands of the Sixties

 

I bought in at a repair shop on Eckhoff street, near Angel Stadium, eons ago.

 

Not uncoincidental that I had grown up, a block away, when there were only vacent fields and orange groves where his shop stood then...and...cut my teeth on Surf Music...and yes, hung around Newport Beach all summers etc...

 

To paraphrase his introduction in the book...

 

Surf Music must contain:

 

It must be instrumental

 

The lead guitar must be played reverb laden and wet.

 

Band must have: Lead, one or two rhythm, bass, plus a sax and keyborad, drms.

 

While the 50's were stock in trade, Elvis, Haley, Berry, Richard etc, there was also Les Paul, Bill Mure..all of this led to instrumental hits like, Walk Don't Run, Honky Tonk, Tequila, Wild Weekend etc....this distilled into, The Ventures, Duane Eddy, The Virtues, Link Wray, The Fireballs, The Champs etc.

 

The genre developed via the lead guitar garage bands, assuming the task of lead vocalists.

 

He said many vocalists became bass players overnight.

 

This occured because as Dalley asserts, the icons of the 50's, Haley, Valens, Holly, Bopper were dead, Elvis was in the Army, Penniman dropped out and Berry was black balled.

 

The door was open for black soul and Spectors wall of soundish vocal groups.

 

This music was almost impossible for combo bands to replicate onstage vocally so the beginner bands started picking out top 40 tunes, insetad of singing them.

 

There were tew distinct flavors, the first was out of the Southbay of L. A.

 

The group was called the Bel Air's and the star was lead guitarist Paul Johnson, they as well as others began playing sets live against the backdrop of surf films, being narrated live by the film maker.

 

That led to the instrumental tracks being added to later films.

 

Dick Dale was further south, in Newport beach, he was doing R & R vocal tunes, until he became interested in surfing which increased his popularity.

 

He evnetually recorded an instrumental called Let's Go Trippin, which was a precursor to the genre.

 

He played loud and fast, was blowing up Leo's amps regularly while they were still under factory warranty and Leo decided to re-engineer, ending up with the Showman and history was set in stone.

 

More power, less blow ups and JBL speakers, Dick Was part of this loop because Leo, was tired of replacing amps and speakers which Dick had blown up playing loud.

 

The Bel Airs actually released Mr. Moto before Dick and LGT, but Dick was popularly followed by media, and rose to more prominance otherwise Paul Johnson might be considered the King of the Surf Guitar and not Dick.

 

The followers copped the sound of either Dick or Johnson....

 

The book is 416 pages deep, tons of cool pictures and yes, some old friends of mind from high school are here and there...

 

FWIW

 

Rob

[Robman2]

Dick's son, attends with his Dad almost every trade show etc...and when yao get Senior's card, the Junior's arrives immediatly after.

 

FWIW

[Jeff Klopmeyer]

So... I was right. Thank you, I rule.

 

Of course, growing up here in the South Bay, I'd have to be humiliated to not know the origins of surf music (although it predated my existence by 15 years or so).

 

South Bay and OC beaches have more in common with each other than we do with the rest of LA proper, the Valley and so on... but you knew that.

 

- Jeff

[Robman2]

I actually have been to the Rendevous Ballroom, back in the day.

 

I agree, as does the autor that Nokie Edwards and the Ventures, did help spur on the Surfies...

 

It was Dale however, who we might consider as the advent of all that followed, regarding distortion and Rock & Roll loud nuance, and I mean, hendrix et al...on down.

 

A much overlooked player as influence to that end.

 

R

[theblue1]

Originally posted by Kendrix:

While the Ventures were not exactly a dead -center surf band I think their influence is a big part of the story of how surf music evolved.

The Ventures are classicists, perfecting earlier innovations. They were also, at their peak, canny pop craftsmen with a good ear for a hook.

 

I never appreciated the Ventures until the other guitarist in one of my old punk bands gave me a copy of one of their albums. I thought it was a joke gift but it turned out he was serious. It took me quite a while to get on the right wavelength but some of those tracks are really infectious.

[Robman2]

There is a compilation CD box set, Instrumental Hits of the 50's, 60's and 70's.

 

In it there is a single CD just for Surf music.

 

I have it at home, I'll try and remember the CD code numbers if I can, well, remember...

 

R

[Is there bass in the caR-R]

I also enjoyed the original version of "Pipeline" by the Surfaris... I think the Ventures emulated this in their version, but the percussive bass line was simply dripping with spring reverb, and the lead guitar was clean. I, too, rediscovered the original "surf" music in the early 80's...

[phaeton]

Fwiw surf music was the first stuff i learned on the guitar, in the late 1980s. Those were the days when I was playing a $20 beat up Norma guitar through my dad's stereo system after school, and before anyone else got home.

 

[Robman2]

AS an early teen I was running the melody line for Pipeline on a ten dollar guitar, a Marco Polo my parents had bought for my brother, it was so F'd up, a real beater... but I learned melody from my Grandmother, who taught me Harbor Lights on a piano when I was 8, also I played harmonica (upside down)...so by then Surf is all about melody.

 

I used chord books for the vocal stuff when and after the Beach Boys hit...Byrds etc...

 

I never hung with other playing players and was mystified about lead bending until the mid-70's when I bought a book from the Bowan Brothers shop at Hollywood and Vine with stop motion 35mm pics of lead guitar bends, there were only about 10 or 12 of the basic ones...

 

After that, with all of those years of rhytmn playing under my belt, I became a menace.

 

One of my reps jams every Friday at his place up North, on one visit he handed me a bass, after one song he yanked it away and gave me his LP, muttering something about typical ...trying to play lead guitar on a bass....

 

That's why we blame Duane Eddy and Surf music....

[boosh]

Duane Eddy?

[Robman2]

The advent of Surf was Duane Eddy, his stylings played a roll in So Cal.

 

I had his singles, and guys like Dick Dale etc, started playing instrumentals because the chops on the latest soul and wall of sound, duo's etc, were too hard to cop onstage...

 

The players started doing instrumentals.

 

"While the 50's were stock in trade, Elvis, Haley, Berry, Richard etc, there was also Les Paul, Bill Mure..all of this led to instrumental hits like, Walk Don't Run, Honky Tonk, Tequila, Wild Weekend etc....this distilled into The Ventures, Duane Eddy, The Virtues, Link Wray, The Fireballs, The Champs etc."

 

I have actually told Duayne and Nokie that were it not for they, I may not have been inspired to learn guitar. Not that they haven't heard that a million times before...

 

I think the mystique was that an instrmental evokes creative nuance, soloing etc, within a three minute framework, and is to a player who is learning...as critical as is a well managed vocal styling....