HISTORY OF SURF MUSIC

studiotwosession · Post by **studiotwosession** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 12:36 pm

Indeed. But what band that stays together doesn't? They were a hit in the states pre-Beatles and still had some fine releases years after the fabs chucked in the towel. That's a long run for sure.

kenposurf · Post by **kenposurf** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 12:39 pm

This opens up an interesting line....growing up in SOCAL as a surfer (still am)..it was popular with many in my crowd to dis the BB's because they were not "true" surfers like Dick Dale. Now if you were to look at the same guys LP collection, more often than not you would see all the Beach Boys Lp's. Musicians have always jumped on bandwagons of current faves...the Bo Diddley Goes Surfin' Lp case in point..The Stones doing Disco etc. Many feel that true surf music is instrumental only....much of the best was and is..but remember Dick Dale did some ok and some not so ok vocals on his Lp's some of which all of a sudden showed him sitting in a formula racer instead of on a longboard. I consider Dick Dale to be one of my main mentors for this style, but if I may be so bold..the Beach Boys instrumental surf tunes...Moondawg, Stoked etc were better than Dicks vocal tunes..by a longshot..still can't touch him on guitar. For Calif and the rest of the country, the Beach Boys represented the much admired California lifestyle of sand, surf, beach bunnies and sunshine. John Blair (the premier surf guitarist of Jon and the Nightriders) dedicated his famous book (try and find a copy) The Illustrated Discography Of Surf Music to "Dick Dale without whom the music would have never existed and to Brian Wilson who gave the music heart".

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 1:37 pm

Youse guys are selling the BBs a bit short. I agree with Dale that they were not cutting edge, and my last post addresses that briefly.

Smiley Smile was NOT a "closet classic", as some webbies would have us believe. It was mostly junk, and was spun off of the aborted "Smile" project, lately re-realized by Brian working solo...SS was a contract piece.

"Sunflower" is an underrated gem. "Surf's Up" is a bit overrated (there's some junk on it written by Love like "Student Demonstration Time", and a lot of early lip service to the environmental causes lately so dear to us all...) but production-wise quite good.

Creatively, after "Sunflower" (my own idea of their high water mark), they moved in separate directions, punctuated since by false starts like the 1976 "Brian is back" campaign. But Dennis stayed quite true to his muse and released 1977's "Pacific Ocean Blue", an incredible solo effort which gave a glimpse into his raw and savage, rage-filled genius.

Brian is finally back, in a manner of speaking, at probably 80% of his previous self, marred somewhat by drugs and old age. He seems to have gotten his range and falsetto back lo these last five years, and his work on Van Dyke Park's "Orange Crate Art" and the "Smile" re-creation is excellent.

Too bad the family fell apart; I blame this all on the paranoia of Brian and the cutthroat and mercenary attitude of Mr. Love, whose name itself is a great tragedy. Fortunately he found TM, and stuck with it, and while it is largely a bogus foundation for a life's work, it at least kept him from becoming the serial wife beater he was headed towards becoming.

The surf music that gets me fired up is the instrumental stuff, no question. The words always seemed an accessory to the melody here; an afterthought. Compare ten of the best surf instrumentals with ten of the best vocals and you see that words were not necessary and often derailed or confused things.

kenposurf · Post by **kenposurf** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 2:13 pm

My Top 10 Instrumental surf tunes (at the moment)
Miserlou, Surfbeat, Pipeline, Baja, La'tina, Wipeout, Walk Don't Run, Squad Car, Mr Moto, The Wedge. Top 10 surf related vocals: The Lonely Sea, The Warmth Of The Sun, Surfin USA, Catch A Wave, California Girls, Surfer Girl, Do It Again (there is a surf/beach reference in this one), Surf's Up, Surfer Joe, Ride The Wild Surf, Surf City. The first seven tracks are The Beach Boys..in terms of musical composition the Beach Boy songs are way above anything on either list here...in terms of grab you by the $@#! and shake you till ya fall down the best of the instrumental stuff rules..that is why the 1st surf music wave was also the first punk wave.

studiotwosession · Post by **studiotwosession** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 2:20 pm

Like I said, I like Sunflower a lot.

I think a fair amount of Brian's troubles were from having Murray (the many moods of indeed!) as not only Dad but manager.

At least Mike helped write some songs and whatnot and the fact that he didn't kill Dennis shows that he had some restraint (wasn't Dennis sleeping with Mike's daughter?)

Far as rock 'n roll genre snobbery goes, I used to hang with some hard core rockabilly bands in Chgo and it was fashionable for them to dis the Stray Cats.

sloop_john_b · Post by **sloop_john_b** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 2:39 pm

But Paul, I like Smiley Smile because it had some things from Smile on it. No, it wasn't the way they were meant to be released, but I still dig the tunes. I have not listened to Sunflower but certainly will give it a listen.

I agree with you Paul in that the SMiLE recreation was wonderful. Brian's voice isn't quite as angelic as it was in '66, but regardless, it was nice that the project finally saw the light of day.

BTW, i'm going to see Brian at the Beacon Theater tomorrow. Are you going, Glenn?

kenposurf · Post by **kenposurf** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 2:45 pm

Rockabilly..another topic?!..doh!

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 2:50 pm

Dennis was MARRIED to Mike's daughter from one of Mike's many liaisons...

No question that the psychodrama of Murray and his grandiosity infused the band's early years. He made the bosy suffer needlessly.Later, when he sold Sea of Tunes out from under Brian, I'd say that pretty well nailed it. Brian did not attend his father's funeral.

studiotwosession · Post by **studiotwosession** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 3:32 pm

Inded, and had a kid with her?

Dennis had some liaisons as well, no, with the Manson girls for a start, maybe Mike was a part of that as well.

Despite the fact that the show is but half a block away, I will not be attending, John. Should be good, though. I believe Scott Bennet is the leader of Brian's touring band.

He is a few years younger than me but we went to the same grade school and I have friends made through rock bands in those days who knew him well. Small world.

dale_fortune · Post by **dale_fortune** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 4:00 pm

Brian's 1st Surf song he wrote was Little Surfer Girl. Lying in his bedroom dreaming what it would be like...

leftybass · Post by **leftybass** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 4:15 pm

I've really enjoyed reading all of this, guys. Thanks for the great posts.

I just saw Brian Wilson on Saturday night in D.C., a stop on a very small 'Pet Sounds' 40th anniversary tour. What is really cool is that Al Jardine is with him on these 5 or 6 shows he's doing.

David McL (Combo850 here on the Forum) was there with me and thought that Brian sang on a noticably higher level than in 2001, year of the first 'Pet Sounds' tour with The Wondermints...though didn't play much, if at all.

Glenn, I thought Jeff Foskett was Brian's bandleader, but I may be wrong on this...Jeff did introduce the guys and Brian on Sat. night....

Al Jardine looked and sounded great, his voice still has his 60's Beach Boys-era timbre. He really sounded awesome.

sloop_john_b · Post by **sloop_john_b** » Mon Nov 20, 2006 7:07 pm

Just checked out a setlist from his Boston show on the 17th - nothing from SMiLE. Kinda bummed.

studiotwosession · Post by **studiotwosession** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 4:14 am

I thought the first surf song B.W. wrote was Surfin.

Perhaps Mr. Bennett is not a part of the current tour. I walked past the road cases as they were waiting to be loaded into the theater this morning and they have "Brian Wilson Pet Sounds" stickers on them.

Last week it was Cheap Trick, the week before, the Stones. It's been quite a classic rock flashback walking past there of late.

A friend of mine saw Macca at his Carnegie Hall show a week or so back. I wonder if he stayed in town to see Brian.

Anyone going to the Beacon tonight might care to hear the rock story one of my neighbors told me about the place. In the early 70s she was doing makeup for the Sgt. Pepper's show, which was going on there. John and Yoko were there that night, only they were separated at the time. My neighbor was one of the people asked to help keep it that way throughout the evening.

kenposurf · Post by **kenposurf** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 5:02 am

Many of the 60's surf bands felt they needed to add a vocal or two to their set list. The Surfaris of course did Surfer Joe..sang by their drummer Ron Wilson who vacated his throne while singing. Another surf drummer who left his seat to sing was the drummer for the Lively Ones..his song was Ahab The Arab...somewhat politically incorrect but did a good rendition. Either The Lively Ones or The Surfaris played almost every week in my town...when Wipe Out hit the charts...with a bullet I think it blindsided the Lively Ones who musically were a better band. I know in particular their lead guitarist was not thrilled when the crowd shouted for Wipeout.

jingle_jangle · Post by **jingle_jangle** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 5:30 am

Ah, surf bands. I became a real Beach Boys fan on my 16th birthday, when my cousin gave me a copy of "Shut Down Volume 2". This was them at their peak, before Brian went off the rails. The writing, musicianship, arrangements and production were top-notch for the day. I think this was the first album that Brian took completely out of Capitol's studios and into mostly Western. They were amazingly prolific in '64, releasing this album in mid-March and then "All Summer Long" four months later to the day...

I had had a summer filled with "All Summer Long", played at my buddy Gus' house as we worked on a boomerang-shaped, scratchbuilt model that I designed for the Revell National Model Car Contest. (Ironically, we missed the deadline because the paint--a burst, incidentally--didn't dry in time! Danged Pactra 'Namel..should have used AMT lacquers.)

By late '65 I had acquired every BB album released up till that date, many in horrid "Duphonic"...I still have them at my studio in Brasil...I decided I wanted to form a vocal/instrumental group, and within a few months the Surfbards were ready to gig. I did the vocal arranging; all five of us sang and played simultaneously (something the BBs were hit and miss at, but we picked the easier songs at first, although we did work up to "Warmth of the Sun" eventually.

Our drum head carried our name, which was a hand painted graphic copied from the BBs "Surfin' USA" album cover: a big blue North Shore wave breaking over a miniscule surfer, with "The SURFBARDS" in the same typeface as the album, and the same light yellow color, too.

Most people would mis-read it on first glance. I can't tell you how many times I was asked why we had a "dumb name like the Surfboards".

We lasted about 15 months, and went our separate ways. I went on to college, as did one other guy--the drummer, who is now head of Geriatric Medicine at Chicago's second-largest hospital. The other guys scattered; I reconnected recently with our bass player, who still gigs as an "oldies" DJ.

We have a Yahoo! group with about 20 members at:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/1966surfbards

There are a few pictures on board and 3 Mp3s in the "Files" section. One is an original song I wrote in March of '66 called "The Summer Sun", performed by the five of us live, no overdubs. When Glenn, the bass player, unearthed, tweaked, and posted this last winter, I had a major "goosebumps" experience hearing myself singing 40 years ago.

To say we were not appreciated back then would be an understatement. Nobody surfs in Chicago! There were far more "Kingsmen" fans than BB fans. We eventually acquired a small following, though.

Now it's "North of Malibu"

http://www.myspace.com/northofmalibu

And though were 95% instrumental, the guys are game to try some vocals, so it'll happen soon and it'll be "deja vu all over again"!