As a companion-piece to this thread, who’s you favourite ‘surf band’?
I don’t really have a favourite, since that kind of music is a bit ‘before my time’. But there are two songs I remember from when I was very, very young. I think my parents or sister must have had the records, or else they were still popular enough to be played on the radio: Surfer Joe by The Surfaris, and Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport. (The latter isn’t a surf song, but it’s the other song I remember from ‘way back’.)
Right now I’m listening to a band from Bellingham called Clambake. It has kind of a ‘surfy’ sound. I have The Surfaris on deck for when this CD is over.
So how about it? Dick Dale? The Mermen? Jan & Dean? Santos & Johnny? The Beach Boys? Who do you like?
My fav “original surf” bands are Dick dale and the Ventures, for modern surf I like the Looney Tunes and Lost Straightjackets. There is also a local band named Big Ray and the Futuras that I used to go see a lot.
I’ve never seen the ocean or a surfboard. But I own everything The Beach Boys have released (and everything that they haven’t released). I can only listen to the period after Brian sent the group on the road and hired The Wrecking Crew to be his band. For drummers, I’ll take Hal Blaine over Dennis Wilson anyday. I like some of Jan & Dean, too.
Were Santo & Johnny considered a surf group? Sleep Walk is beautiful, but I never thought of it as surf music.
You live in a state with water on three sides, and you’ve never seen the ocean? (I understand surfing isn’t great in Floridarrrrr. Sorry, Pirate accent.)
I only know Sleep Walk by Santo & Johnny, but it sounds ‘surfy’ to me.
The first 39 years of my life were spent far, far from an ocean. I’ve seen the Atlantic from Jacksonville. No surfin’ there! There isn’t much wave action on the Gulf. What I meant was the real ocean, where people surf as a way of life.
Heh. I see The Mermen quite frequently. I saw them last Thursday, as a matter of fact. (Well, in the case of last Thursday it was the Shitones - Jim Thomas and Jennifer Burnes with a different drummer).
I do like Dick Dale and the Ventures and such, but I am also pretty young (relatively) and so like things like man or Astro-Man and Satan’s Pilgrims and a bunch out of Ghent called Fifty-Foot Combo. Oh, I heard a Pixies cover by a band called Luna Surf which sounded pretty sweet-- surf with a lot of distortion and synth machines.
Rhino Records put out an album about a decade ago that’s just about perfect.
Called simply Surfin’ Hits, it has the following songs on it:
Surfin’ Safari! / Beach Boys
Ride the Wild Surf / Jan & Dean
Wipe Out / Surfers
Pipeline / Chantays
Miserlou / Dick Dale & his Del-Tones
Surfin’ Bird / Trashmen
Out of Limits / Marketts
Surf City / Jan & Dean
Surfin’ USA / Beach Boys
Penetration / Pyramids
Let’s Go Trippin’ / Dick Dale & his Del-Tones
Surfer Joe / Surfaris
The Lonely Surfer / Jack Nitzsche
New York’s a Lonely Town / Trade Winds.
From a very good list, it’s hard to beat the wonderfulness of “Pipeline.” Cowabunga, Labdad.
I disagree. That comp may be OK for the casual listener (i.e., people that say “Is this, like, the music from, like, Pulp Fiction? That movie was, like, weird. I didn’t get it.”), but it has way too many vocal tracks and novelty records for a true surf music aficionado.
IMHO A true surf comp has all/mostly all instro cuts. OTOH, the Rhino 4 disc surf box is a good effort.
My favorite person in that ill-defined category is Link Wray. He wasn’t aligned with surf rock, though he did stuff like “run chicken run” and “harlem by the sea,” both of which would become perfunctory surf standards. He’s most famous for “rumble,” but his catalogue is just AMAZING to listen to. Totally insane, ridiculously heavy and twangy rocking about 10 years before Dick Dale or Duane Eddy or anyone else jumped onboard.
Also, he had a fucking lung removed and is STILL out there rocking today at almost 70 years old.
I love the twang of surf guitar! “Miserlou” by Dick Dale is one of the perfect songs of all time, but give me Link Wray, Duane Eddy, the Ventures, the Lively Ones, Los Straitjackets, Man Or Astroman, Laika and the Cosmonauts, the Volcanos (amazing little-known Michigan surf band), and especially the King of the Surf Guitar, Mr. Dale and his Del-Tones. Hell, let Brian Setzer and Portishead’s Adrian Utley sit in with them–they can certainly capture the sound. I can’t get enough of that surf/spy sound. For those who are into the garage rock but still love their surfy twang, check out the Raveonettes, a Danish duo who specialize in short, fast, fuzzy, trashy reverb-drenched rock ‘n’ roll.
For a modern, twisted surf band check out the Reventlos. The first CD, Essential Reventlo, is chock full of great surf instrumentals.If you live in the LA area, check out their live shows. They are fronted by two fabulous guitarists!
Not really. “Beach Music” was an east coast phenomenon - something I associate with Myrtle Beach, SC, but I guess it went all along the Atlantic seaboard. The Tams (“Be Young, Be Foolish”), the O’Kaysions ("I’m A Girl Watcher), the Swingin’ Medallions (“Double Shot of My Baby’s Love”), and General Johnson all are good examples of Beach Music.
Cowabunga right back atcha!
Incidentally, while it doesn’t give me the warm fuzzies that the Chantays version does, you should definitely check out King of the Surf Guitar: The Best of Dick Dale. That disc contains the best thing to come out of the 1987 Frankie Avalon/Annette Funicello reunion film “Back to the Beach.” The film was a piece of dreck, but the soundtrack featured “Pipeline” as performed by Dick Dale and Stevie Ray Vaughan!!! Listening to those two trade licks on my favorite surf tune definitely gives me shivers!
