What
Is
Surf?



What Is Surf
Part I: Historical Perspective

There's an event held in Santa Cruz called Woodies On The Wharf. It a classic car show put on by Santa Cruz Woodies and the City Of Santa Cruz. Their theme is Surf 'n Woodies. There is some bad fifties and surf pop vocal DJ music and tons of cool cars to look at. This year, there was a booth playing Beach Boys and Jan & Dean, but they also had the wisdom to book an actual surf band.

The Eliminators played two magnificent sets. You might think that The contrast between The Eliminators & the Beach Boys is the point of this little tail, but its not. Eliminators' Rhythm guitarist Preston Wilson related a priceless tale during the second set that really clarifies The depth of the discrepancy between reality and perception. "...we had this guy here earlier, ...uh...he's sitting over here (pointed) in the front saying...uh...'you guys gonna sing a song today?'. I kept saying 'we're an instrumental surf band.' He says '...well, who's your lead singer?' so I held up my guitar and told him 'Leo Fender was (made) the lead singer.' ...and I was over here (points to their Merchandise table) standing and he says 'um...what time does this Leo guy show up to play? " The question of what is surf music is a one of considerable debate among collectors, musicians, surfers, critics, musicologists, paleomuses, the general public, wayfaring urchins, and Cowabunga web surfers. Opinions range from The definitive purist to the ignorant absurd. Expecting agreement on the definition, or better yet, that the public would have a clue about this, is like not realizing that the trouble with democracy is that the people in line ahead of you at McDonald's vote! In order to address such a heady subject, some background is needed.

Roots

In the 50s, during rock's infancy, rock was a dance / pop love song oriented genre. A generic song was a two-to-three minute AABA number with a sax carrying The B part. This was despite the progenitors Bo Diddley & Chuck Berry's focus on the guitar. The Texas swing mongers like Bill Haley defined the mainstream sound. Rock instrumental music in the mainstream arena was likewise was sax based. There were a few notable exceptions, of course. The exceptions to this tended to be the early Rockabilly artists, who did not use a sax very often, substituting guitar for the B parts.

Link Wray probably understood sustain and ominous tones better than anyone. He used Bo Diddley's trick of slitting the speaker cones with his pocket knife to get a ragged-edged distortion. He wrote for the guitar, and created that all too familiar growl we've all grown to love. His tunes were simple, and relied on minor changes to hold interest, like The gradual increase in vibrato toward the end of Jack The Ripper. Link didn't use a sax, but rather arranged all parts for guitar.

Duane Eddy's basic string-of-single-notes melodies focused on the guitar in a voice developed mostly by Al Casey. Duane reversed the standard rock AABA (GGSG) arrangement, using his lead guitar in the A parts, with Steve Douglas' sax lines relegated to the B parts.

The Fireballs were a 2 guitar-bass-drums unit recorded by the legendary Norman Petty at his Clovis, New Mexico studio. Their carefully balanced lead-rhythm interplay would clear the way for many to follow, most notably Paul Johnson's Bel Airs.

The Gamblers were a studio amalgam of Derry Weaver, Sandy Nelson, Leon Russell, and other LA studio musos who issued an influential single called Moondawg c/w LSD 25. Moondawg was re-recorded a million times over the years, even by Paul Revere & The Raiders, attesting to it's power.

The Ventures also paved the hiway with a 2 guitar-bass-drums lineup. Their versions of other peoples songs & hits were a staple in the surf band diet, not as a part of the genre, but as a foundation. During their "surf" period, they did not even play the musically correct instruments for the surf sound, still using their Mosrite guitars and reverbs. The shallowness of their surf stuff is due in part to this omission of authenticity, and to their generally laid back playing style. They contributed accidentally after Nokie Edwards joined with several strong tunes like Sputnik which became Surf Rider when the Lively Ones covered it, and later with the surf-arranged Diamond Head, filtered through their "me too" surf approach.

Link Wray, Duane Eddy, Derry Weaver, Nokie Edwards, Chet Atkins, Les Paul, And Fireball George Tomsco were early models for many a surf guitar player.

There were some startlingly wonderful guitar dominated releases coming out of normally sax or keyboard based bands.

Johnny & The Hurricanes used cheap organ or sax leads mostly (Johnny Paris was the sax player & leader), but on wonderful occasions focused more on Dave Yorko's grand guitar lines, such as in the magnificent Sheba or Sandstorm. The sense of melody rather than simple progressions was really well developed here.

Jody Reynolds' stuff was strongly guitar oriented. His band The Storms were very good on their own. Their instrumental Thunder was an Al Casey - Duane Eddy styled instro commonly credited as an inspiration by early surf bands.

The rockabilly and garage band source bed was loaded with riff oriented guitar indie singles. Thousands of them issued between 1956 and 1960. Most were just progressions with nowhere to go, but some notable exceptions were brilliant. Typhoid by the Northern Lights, a 1960 staccato double picked rant later reissued as Bust Out by the Busters to capitalize on the surf sound, could arguably be the first surf styled tune recorded, much closer to the eventual defined genre than Dick Dale's Let's Go Trippin' or the Belairs' Mr. Moto, and a year earlier in release. It's main shortfall is its lack of reverb and a surf title, but, neither Let's Go Trippin' or Mr. Moto had reverb or a surf title for that matter. Ghost Train by the Millionaires is another really cool instro. TheFrogmen's Underwater also falls into this pre-surf instrumental bag that often gets confused with The genre. It was, after all, pre-Belairs & Dick Dale.

Surf Music Invented

Paul Johnson and Eddie Bertrand met in 1960 on the school bus in their childhood Southern California community. After discovering a mutual interest in instrumentals and guitars, they formed what would be The nucleus the Belairs. They idolized the Storms, Duane Eddy, Link Wray, The Fireballs, The Ventures, and Johnny & The Hurricanes. They soon had a band with Richard Delvy on drums, Chas Stuart on sax, and Jim Roberts on piano sometimes. In May of 1961, They recorded Mr. Moto, a mutual composition of Paul Johnson and Richard Delvy, along with several other tunes. They hawked them around LA until Arvee Records agreed to release a single that summer. Paul also wrote many surf classics like Squad Car, Scouse, and Chifflado. Paul's sound became known as the South Bay Sound, spawning and inspiring many other bands in the region like the Challengers & Thom Starr & The Galaxies.

Dick Dale idolized Hank Williams and that sad country music. He was a left handed player with a right handed guitar, upside down without re-stringing. He played at local country bars where he met 400 pound DJ T. Texas Tiny, who dubbed him Dick Dale, a good name for a country singer. Art Laboe booked him with Johnny Otis and Sonny Knight at the El Monte Legion Stadium. His first releases were on his father's Deltone label, and were all vocal pop songs. In early '61, Dick & his cousin & future Del-Tone Ray Samra sat in with Nick O'Malley, who played folk songs at The Rinky Dink coffee house in Balboa. Future Del-Tone Billy Barber came by and jammed too. Dick's style was still very country, but the surf kids liked him. Nick showed Dick how to set tone switch in between positions, which gave him an element of his big sound. Dick opened Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa on July 1st, 1961 to a handful of surfers. Leo Fender used Dick as a test player because of his harsh playing style. Dick blew up 40 Showman amps before the bugs were worked out. Leo also developed The JBL Speaker because of Dick's playing those 60 gage E strings in that staccato style. Let's Go Trippin' was written because some kid said something like "why do you do only vocals, can you play any instrumentals?" Dick set at the time was mostly rhythm & blues standards (Buster Brown, Bo Diddley, etc.). Let's Go Trippin' went unnamed for some weeks until he said to his audience that he didn't know what to call it, and they yelled back "Let's Go Trippin'" (shut up & play, we wanna dance - ed.). It was recorded in August 1961, but then re-cut for release in September 1961 on Deltone 5017 Let's Go Trippin' c/w Deltone Rock (both primarily rockabilly instrumentals), followed by Deltone 5018 Jungle Fever c/W Shake & Stomp in March '62. In April of 1962, he released Surfers Choice from live tapes made by his father at the Rendezvous. Dick's sound would become known as the Orange County Sound. Jungle Fever was the music bed for Bo Diddley's Hush Your Mouth. Dick even left some of the lyrics in on the album when he called it Surfin' Drums. It is unfortunate that Dick still takes writing credit for this song.

In the beginning, surf music was not about surfing, it was simply the adoption by surfers of instrumentals. Anything instrumental was surf music in their minds. That may or may not give surfers the right to redefine it at their convenience. More about that later. The definition narrowed quickly to include only the Orange County Sound and the South Bay Sound, and in hindsight, primarily the Orange County Sound.

Very quickly, it became apparent that the best players & writers were not surfers, many not living anywhere near a coast. Thom Starr's remembrance is that Dick Dale was barely able to get up for the photo on the cover of Surfer's Choice, and the shot on the cover of King Of The Surf Guitar is rumored to be in a pool. Surf Music became a sound, and appealed to non-surfers more than surfers. The only exception to this was Southern California and Hawaii, but even there, though many of the surfers won't think so, the best stuff often came from the non-surfers. Bands like Eddie & The Showmen, The Trashmen, The Surfaris, The Original Surfaris, The Belairs, The Sentinals, and the Astronauts were all primarily non-surfing bands playing and creating killer surf instrumental music loved by millions of non-surfing fans. Hell, the Astronauts were from Boulder Colorado, and the Trashmen were from Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the Royal Flairs were from Council Bluffs, Iowa!

The spoiler came with the Beach Boys, and the entire mass market pop vocal thing they spawned. Doo-Wop styled syrupy harmonized songs with sappy lyrics about surfing bearing little or no resemblance instrumentally to actual surf music. This was mostly what the national scene heard and came to know as surf music. It is more correctly labeled California Sound or Surf Pop. This was both an embarrassment to the genre, as well as the very reason that the British Invasion could so easily kill it.

Had the BBs not softened the genre with the vocal thing, or had they provided The raw midwest vocal approach, the raw power of surf music would have been able to hold its own against the roughness of the British R&B of the formative Rolling Stones, Animals & Pretty Things, and even against the pop sensibilities of the Beatles & their ilk. Among the reasons I believe this to be true is the number of surf guitarist that evolved into really gutsy garage punk & psychedelic players later, like the incredible Randy Holden and Dave Myers, and the fact that the only band the Rolling Stones ever had to be subservient to on the bill in the U. S. was Minneapolis surf legends the Trashmen!

With an average genre lasting 8 to 10 years, 2 to be born, another couple to coalesce, 2 for adolescence and break out of the narrowness of the birth channel definition, and then 4 or 5 to explode multi-directionally until new seeds are sown and other new genre are born. This familiar pattern is ever-present in music. Surf was cut down in it's infancy by its own childish sappy vocals and the raw edge of the British Invasion.

The Surf Revival of the 80s (actually started in 79) was primarily a nostalgia thing, with some updating via 80s energy. It wasn't until the last couple of years that bands started challenging the limits, some successfully, some not. On the verge of its experimental explosion, the envelope is being pushed to its limits by artists like the Mermen who have evolved steadily over 5 or 6 years from raging covers of surf classics and obscuros to a heady blend of surf & Hawkwind influenced space to incredibly artful image evoking works.


What Is Surf
Part II: Surf It Up!


Does a surf band doing a surf cover of a non-surf song constitute surf music, and does that make the song a surf song?

At its most basic, this question goes to the heart of the matter. Duane Eddy never recorded any surf music, but many surf bands recorded his hit material, such as Forty Miles Of Bad Road, Ramrod, and Movin' & Groovin'. Some classic surf instrumentals like Baja, El Aguila, and the Hearse are from the pen of Al Casey & Lee Hazelwood, who also wrote for Duane. So, if an instrumental surf band pays homage to their influences by rearranging a non-surf tune into the surf genre, does it then become a surf tune?

Generally, I think the answer to this question is that the recording is a surf recording, but the tune remains not a surf tune. There's nothing surf about the Munsters television show, but Theme From The Munsters has been "surfed up" by many modern bands, including the Woodies & the Shockwaves. Is Exodus a surf film because both The Lively Ones and the Halibuts have surfed its theme?

It would be a considerable stretch of the imagination to envision country writer Stan Jones as having been a surf meister, yet the Chantays and Dick Dale (plus a dozen others) have run roughshod over (Ghost) Riders In The Sky. Jerry Lordan's hauntingly Indian influenced Apache was recorded & became a hit by the Shadows in Europe, Jorgen Ingman in the US, and even put to words by Sonny James.

Flamenco genius Ernesto Lecuona's Maleguena was surfed up by Minneapolis legends the Trashmen, and Jim Messina & The Jesters reverbed out his the Breeze & I. While there is certainly a ton of Spanish influence in surf, and even some Flamenco, there's little evidence to support The notion that Cuban guitarista Lecuona headed up his own surf band or wrote surf music. TheSurfaris surf recording of Similau is based on a Cuban song about the ghosts in the cane fields, but that doesn't make calypso a surf sub-genre.

Did Vince Guaraldi play piano in a surf band in Palo Alto because JFA surfed up his Linus & Lucy? Conversely, is Penetration really a jazz fusion song because Steve Khan recorded it arranged that way, or worse yet, is Pipeline an octogenarian two-step because Lawrence Welk recorded it?

Even farther out on the limb, Spies Who Surf did a surfified version of Hocus Pocus, so we might conclude that Focus was a surf band. Even more bizarre is the happening reverb version of the Swedish Rhapsody by the Neon Spores. Then there's the time the Shockwaves rolled into a couple of bars of Led Zeppelin's Whole Lotta Surf! I've heard Dick Dale doing a few bars of Louie Louie, but Richard Berry never rode a board or played with a surf band, though, coincidentally, he did share the Rillera brothers with the Del-tones.

Speaking of Dick Dale, his classic surf archetype Miserlou is a middle eastern classic folk / pop standard from long before his time. And, don't forget Hava Nagila! Only the surf arrangements are surf songs, not the tune itself.

I know I'll tread on thin ice here with some of you, but there are many who include the Ventures in the list of surf bands, as well as their songs. Not only did they predate surf, but they were never a surf band. They did record a few albums of surf-sound-alikes, even renamed some of their tunes to try to catch the wave, but they never developed the feel or the power of the surf genre. It was the Lively Ones who took The Ventures' lame version of Sputnik and made it into the surf classic Surf Rider.

OK, there's another piece of the definition that doesn't work.


What Is Surf
Part III: Name That Tune


Is a song with a surf title a surf tune? Can a song without a surf title be a surf tune?

What's in a name, anyway. Both sides of this argument are seriously flawed. On the one hand, there are the surf titled tunes hoping to cash in on a trend, or named out of some misguided personal definition of the genre. On the other, there are great surf tunes with titles that have little or nothing to do with surfing.

Who would argue that Creed Taylor stable-mates Kai Winding & Kenny Burrell were a surf act, yet their More (Theme From Mondo Cane) album contains only "More", often mistakenly identified as a surf song, but a really bad & badly named surf tune called "Surf Bird", plus one of the lamest versions of "Pipeline" anywhere. Would you vote for England's The Damned for surf band of the year because they released a single b-side instrumental called "Wiped Out", even though it's no surf song?

Even farther afield is the inclusion of any title with aquatic leanings. Are the Shadows a surf band because they issued an album in the U. S. titled "Surfing With The Shadows" which contained hard-core surf titles like "Kon Tiki"? Would Henry Mancini's "Banzai Pipeline" have been thought of as a surf song if The Astronauts hadn't covered it? Have you ever heard Henry's version?

On the opposite side of the street are wonderful surf tunes like The Exports' "Car Hop" covered by Nashville not quite surf but great anyway ex-Overtones & Ray Beats guitar master Danny Amis' current band Los Straitjackets on their new CD. And, what about the Losers' "Snake Eyes"? In both cases, neither the band name or the title imply surf.

Perhaps best of all, there's Dave & The Customs' lost masterwork "Ali Baba". This band and tune raises the ugly head of The Hot Rod vs. Surf argument. From my perspective, only the labels are different. I think these examples demonstrate that the definition of surf is the sound & feel, not the names.

OK, another piece of the usual definition that doesn't really work.


What Is Surf
Part IV: Do Surfers Play Surf Music?


What is the involvement of surfers in Surf Music? When a surfer plays a song, does that make it Surf Music? Is a song a surf song if a surfer likes it? If it makes you wanna surf, is it a surf song?

At the annual Santa Cruz long board soiree back in '88, the Phantom Surfers were the guest band...dry dock surfers all. During an interlude, I was kibitzing with all around great guy & longboarder Dan Young, when I mentioned my surf show. His eyes lit up and he boasted "I have a surf band!". Excitedly, I asked what the name was, and he said "the Square Roots". He sent me a demo, on which I discovered that they were a Reggae/Ska band populated by surfers. This story repeated itself numerous times over the past decade, with bands like Bug (Web Fingers of San Francisco commercial alternative radio Live 105) and DI, both Punky bands manned by surfers.

There's the notion that songs about surfing are Surf Music, and this is harder to argue against, unless the purist instro definition is applied. Think about the wacky & wonderful Surf Punks. Here, you have a bunch of surf rats playing keyboard oriented modern ugly dance drum machine-esq music about surfing and the life style. Totally killer stuff, but is it surf? Farther afield, are bands like the Surf M.C.'s (a studio/label concoction) and Thermo (ex-Half Church) who played incredibly great Surf Rap and were surfers all, or at least skate punks. Is it surf? Well...

On the lighter side of the aisle, the Closet Surfers play a cool post-Oingo Boingo brand of neo-new age music that certainly appeals to surfers and calls of the sea. They use surf videos in their shows, and they are very entertaining. They are surfers. Their 2 CDs are very good. I enjoy listening to them. I play their stuff occasionally on Surf's Up! But, is it surf?

Long time surf legend and well like surfer Corky Carroll has been recording for what seems like a millennium. I first heard Corky's "Skateboard Bill" and wondered why a surfer would play country about skateboardin' kids? Corky's music is enjoyable, and I'd guess he's entertaining to see. His latest CD is getting closer with more instros including a peaceful Hawaiian guitar track that is hypnotic and beautiful. Still, where's the surf.

Longboard ace Denny Aaberg records "Surf Music" (translates blues), and has even sat in with the Eliminators at events in front of friends (surfers). His brand of the blues is good, but calling it Surf Music is one gigantic leap of illogic unless you believe in the if-surfers-play-it dogma.

The notion that surfers making music is Surf Music is a bit like saying anything Al Capone tinkled out on his grand piano was Punk Rock 'cuz he was a punk, Bill Clinton's sax drones are Progressive Rock because he is a progressive socialist, or undertakers play Death Rock. The reverse would then also have to hold true, such as all punk bands are bootleggers, or all progressive socialist politicians play Prog Rock, etc. Even worse, if you link such unrelated segments, what do you do with siblings....Darryl Dragon (Captain & Tennielle) and Dennis Dragon (Surf Punks) are both either surf punk beach bums or sappy MOR pop singers. Well, maybe that's a bad example, but you get the drift. All blacks don't vote democrat any more than all surfers who play in bands are in surf bands. It's a ludicrous argument on it's face.

The connection between Surf Music, surfing and surfers is tenuous at best. Historically, Surf Music was not about surfing, it was simply the adoption by surfers of instrumentals. Anything instrumental was Surf Music in their minds. In the minds of the musicians, the definition narrowed quickly to exclude all but the Orange County Sound and the South Bay Sound, and in hindsight, primarily the Orange County Sound. According to Tom Starr's CD liner notes and despite what he says, Dick Dale was not a surfer. He spent hours with the photographer to get up enough to shoot the picture on the cover of "Surfer's Choice". In response to the question "Do you still surf?", he told me in an interview in 1986 that he "hadn't been out for 20 years" and that "the only thing I use a surf board for now is to carrying my guitar". Surf was not a creation of surfers. Paul Johnson never had anything to do with surfing.


What Is Surf
Part V: Pushing The Envelope


Does a surf foundation mean it's surf music, and when does a band leave the envelope?

Pushing the envelope simply means taking the premise of surf, and evolving, mutating, or redefining it by combining it with other elements. It can be as simple as surf with the John Barry spy ethic, or as far off base as Steve Khan's full jazz fusion excursion over "Penetration". Examples of surf bands routinely pushing the envelope include Jim Waller & the Deltas, the Nocturnes, the Mermen, the Thrusters, G. T. Stringer, the Galaxy Trio, Vibrasonic, and more. But is it still surf?

The Nocturnes were a surf band from the heartland of surf, Orange County. They took the Ventures' "Journey To The Stars" concept and forged a whole sound around it, merging the surf guitars with space sounds & early use of feedback. It was not too far from the center of the envelope, but merely a slight deviation in the direction the whole industry was going. Even so, it was an early effort to evolve beyond the variations on a theme. So it's pretty safe to call surf, right? Depends on where you draw the line.

Jim Waller & the Deltas were from Fresno. Jim's early jazz leanings were anything but subtle. Their work was a blending of the trad surf tunes like "Latiña" and "Exotic", and Jimmy Smith influenced organ & Latino or Mariachi horns, with Latin & R&B rhythms. There was a whole "Bal Beat" or "Pachuko Soul" or "Surf n' Soul" thing that bubbled under the surf scene. Between the Rhythm Kings at one end of the spectrum and Dave Myers at the other, lay Jim Waller & the Deltas. It feels like surf, but it sure doesn't sound like it, so is it surf?

There are less distant examples too, like Santa Cruz guitarist Soave Loco's (Douglas Eaton) incredible surf band the Thrusters, a direct lineal descendant of the Surf Pistols, who played full tilt versions of "Pipeline" and "Bombora" next to "Pretty Vacant" and "God Save The Queen". Soave wrote great surf instros and modern surf vocals with a solid surf foundation, and mixed in killer surf instro obscuros like "Bombora", and great rearrangements of standards like "Church Key" and "Surf Beat", as well as early modern surf instros like The Overtones' "Calhoun Surf". The vocals were timely tales of surfin' in Beirut (Beirut Surf), bein' bummed by The No Alcohol signs on the beach (Soul Surf Stomp), etc. The often misunderstood ultimate threat "May you never hear surf music again" that Jimi Hendrix delivered in "Third Stone From The Sun" (and if you don't think Jimi held surf in a reverent spot, listen to "Peter Gunn Catastrophe", and remember that he studied Dick Dale's style). Soave delivered on the promise. Check out "the Landing" on "What Surf III". This band really push the envelope. So, is it surf?

In the land down under, where the surf rolls like thunder, G. T. Stringer took their longboards and jazz band and came up with truly surf feeling originals that shout surf & jazz & employ howling feedback. There are plenty of words elsewhere on my page about these guys, so I won't expand on them here. If little more than the feel of surf is there, is it still surf?

The Galaxy Trio might not immediately come to mind when discussing this subject, but they have taken true garage sounds and played true surf structures, resulting in something just new enough to set them apart, while retaining the recognizability, so I guess it;'s safe to call it surf. But would you call it surf if they had gone as far afield as Agent Orange, into the punk arena? And even further into hard-core speed & stylings are the Torpedoes, who are so fast they smoke. Is it still surf?

In another direct, there's a natural bridge that probably would have happened if surf had survived the British Invasion. It's the place half way between what the Nocturnes were doing and Pink Floyd. That lost bridge is explored by UK band Vibrasonic, who frequently do whole surf sets or psych sets, or a blend of the two. There's no mistaking the surf when you listen, and there's no mistaking the psych either. So, is it still surf? When will they leave the envelope, or do they skate bake and forth across it?

The Mermen are the most controversial example at the moment. It doesn't take long watching the email on Cowabunga for catch some reference to them, pro or con, relative to their being a surf band or not. This is a band who still do great surf tunes in their own way out of the envelope style, songs like "Casbah" and "Unknown" and "Quiet Surf", and also do 12 minute excursions into huge howling feedback sea scapes. There's no mistaking the water and the surf basis, but there is also no mistaking the great distance from trad. If any band has left The envelope, it is them, and yet there is no way I can really say that. Their material reeks of surf, and it shouts tomorrow.

What about surf inspired completely non-genre music by surfers? Well, the Closet Surfers play keyboard oriented melodyscapes about the surf. It has so little to do with trad, that it's hard even think about a connection, yet there is a feel within it. So, is that enough?

So, when does a band leave the envelope, and how do you know if they were never in it?


What Is Surf
Part VI: On The Outskirts Of Surf


What about The Ventures, the Fireballs and The Shadows, and Laika & the Cosmonauts & Los Straitjackets. When you don't sing, and you sorta have a bit of that sound, are you a surf band?

Suppose you have this little four piece combo with a few friends. Two of you play guitar, one plays bass, and one plays drums, and some of you sing. Pretty standard fair. Most bands start out like this. Your band is different, though. Not by intent, but by limitation. Your vocal performances are met with winces & calls to "shut up" 'cus the gods of serendipity have granted your entire entourage a complete and utter lack of singing talent. Undaunted, you continue your performance, but without singing, thus avoiding a lynching. You've reinvented the rock instrumental, or maybe you are the Ventures.

The Ventures set the model for instrumental bands for a long time to come, and several elements of their structure & styling were key elements of surf. But, surf did not exist yet. When it was "invented" (read "labeled"), some folks wanna go back & say "hey, this is surf too". But is it?

Maybe you're the Fireballs, and your doing the same basic thing the Ventures are doing, only earlier and in another part of the country. Maybe some 15 year old is listening an saying "Hey, I can do that, and call myself The Belairs". Does that make your music surf?

Suppose you're a back up band for sappy pop singers in Britain in the late fifties. Suppose when he shuts up you play instrumentals. Suppose you're The Shadows. Major influence, right? But, does that make it surf?

Jody Reynolds' band the Storms did killer instrumentals like "Thunder" in the Al Casey style used to such great effect by Duane Eddy, and this all happened before there was "surf". So when some snot-nosed 17 year old surf punk yelled out "Let There Be Surf", did that include Jody Reynolds?

In nature, evolution occurs through successful mutation. In technology, it is often the recombining of existing elements in a different way, or The introduction of a single new element. So it is with music. When Rock N' Roll slammed onto the scene, it was neither new or different than that which had been bubbling underground for a long time. When Grunge suddenly became the darling of the record business, it was not because it had just happened, but rather that they had just discovered that which was already there. Mid eighties Seattle bands like Green River were doin' it then in a mere micro step of evolution away from what had happened earlier in Minneapolis with bands like Husker Du, who were just a few steps away from...and so it goes. The question that evolution raises is one driven by various perspectives...where does surf start & rock instro end?

It's like this. A band later labelled "surf" learns tunes by their early influences the Ventures & the Fireballs, then write originals a mere micro step away. Once labelled "surf", does that move the envelope of what is surf back to include the influences? Think of it this way. If you are standing in a blacksmith shop & notice that the hot metal is giving of light, and you think "hey, maybe I could heat metal to illuminate the night, and could call it a light bulb", does that make blacksmithery part of the electric light genre? The answer is, of course not. But that's what we try to do with music. We confuse the roots of the genre with the genre. The genre can't pre-exist, but rather is just an envelope on the timeline of evolution, the boundaries of a Jurassic age.

Surf bands have been pushing the envelope of what is surf since the beginning. It's not unlike other genres. It began with a few disparate styles that had little more than a lack of lyrics in common. It got a name from it's audience, again a common theme. Over the year or so, the sound scope narrowed as the definition became clear. Styles included originally would have been rejected had they happened later. The whole South Bay sound would probably not be included in hind-sight had it developed after the Orange County sound.

This happens to all genre. Rockabilly began as little more than energetic electric country. If we apply what we have all come to think of as rockabilly to many of the early recordings, we simply identify them as country, not as rockabilly. That does not make it correct, but rather just exemplifies that narrowing that yields to the archetypal sound of any genre.

Then, as more time passes, the practitioners begin playing with sounds, just slightly, and just one day at a time, and begin introducing influences from various other genre. One day, its not that genre at all, but yet another new sound. That is the normal evolutionary cycle. Lots of new seeds, then a weeding out of the weakest, and finally a re-seeding to begin again, just like in nature.

In the sixties, examples of surf bands pushing the envelope include the latter-day Bel-Aires (Steve Lotto's line-up), the Fender IV, the Index, and Iron Butterfly.

The latter day Bel-Aires (their spelling, not mine) also did some expanding. From Paul Johnson's original South Bay sound, defined by the delicate balance between lead and rhythm, evolved a post-Johnson chunkiness, a grinding rhythmic sound in "Charley Chan" and a sparse stop/start kind of approach with a differently applied whammy bar in "Baggies". On it's own, it might not even be thought of as surf if it were not for the band's heritage.

Berkeley's Fender IV did two completely different things with their Orange County sound foundation. One was the introduction of a prominent Ska back beat, a trend not realized in surf fully until the Halibuts generous use of it in the eighties. One of the best examples from the Halibuts is their version of the Fender Four's "Malibu Run". The other was injecting the use of a really heavy droning lead that literally thunders along in their "Mar Gaya", a song now covered (worshipped) by many modern surf bands including the Trashwomen, The Treble Spankers, and the Firebirds. This heavy drone is just a stone's throw away from Blue Cheer's "Summertime Blues".

The third & fourth examples are the late "post-surf" work from two bands with unique approaches to the same idea. It's really difficult to draw the line where surf ends and psych begins. Case in point is the Index, whose "Israeli Blues" uses surf guitars in a most unusual off-time way, and combined with feedback their "Shockwave" is neither psychedelic or surf, as you might guess from the title. Even farther afield is their use of surf guitars with a wonderful version of The Byrds' "Eight Miles High". If that's not strange enough for you, listen carefully to Iron Butterfly, a much maligned band whose best known for the dreadful "Inna Gadda Da Vida", but whose recordings are full of surf guitars and reverb kicks. Just listen to the end of "Iron Butterfly Theme" or most of "Filled With Fear". When did it stop being surf and begin being psych?

Vibrasonic represent what Pink Floyd would have been like had they come out of surf instead of the Blues & "Louie Louie". Great early Floydian organ and swirly psychedelic guitar playing the surfiest likes known to man...but if you didn't know what you were looking for, you might miss it. Their "the Surfin' Secret Agent A Go-Go", "Sea Of Stars", and "Tijuana Marijuana" are pure surf drowning in psychedelic swirls.

The Ventures can't really be considered as surf band, yet they did some surf tunes and used "the sound" during one of their many chameleonic transformations. They are often the first band that comes to mind for many. Why is that? They recorded precious little surf, probably less than 5% of their output. Their two guitar-bass & drums format & The use of the whammy bar were foundationally significant to the development of surf, but they came before it & never quite fit, so are they a surf band? They did give us surf band standards like "Walk, Don't Run", and "Diamond Head".

The Fireballs likewise were a Venture-esq band, but they did not change styles like dirty underwear. The same basic configuration, but more country. After all, they were from the South West, not Seattle/Tacoma. There's reverb, damped notes, and some of their tunes were recorded and played by many surf bands, most notably "Rik-A-Tik".

The Shadows provide a clearer distinction. They are the primary progenitors of the European guitar instrumental sound. I can find almost no surf influence in them or from them, yet there are those that include them without batting an eye. Where's the reverb, the glissandos & the double picking?

Laika & the Cosmonauts used to record some pretty surfy stuff, though they owed a lot to the Shadows. Now, they mostly do Euro guitar & spy themes. I'm not sure they ever really were a surf band, but rather that they just did some surf tunes. Still, I like 'em & play 'em on my show. So, why aren't they surf?

Los Straitjackets are tougher to differentiate. They ride a line between that Nashville cowboy twang and surf is clouded by their material which also ranges from classic surf to spy themes to Spaghetti Western. So, when the do the Exports' "Car Hop" or Danny Amis' first penned tune from his days with the Overtones, it's easy to say surf, but it gets a bit harder when they cough through "The Magnificent Seven" (Marlboro Man TV ad theme) or obscuro jaunt through the John Lennon / George Harrison penned "Cry For A Shadow", and nearly impossible when the do their rockabilly rants or Link Wray numbers.


What Is Surf
Part VII: The Answer Is Behind Door Number 7


So, where is the line you can't cross? What is surf? The Answer is...

So, we've walked through all the classic & not-so-classic definitions, and identified examples of bona fide surf songs that don't fit. We've looked at classic surf songs and compared them to the standard definitions, and found some that would not be classified as surf today if it were not for their history.

So, where is the line you can't cross? What is surf? The Answer is...it depends on where you stand. You'll find many classifications in my page you may disagree with, both in and out of surf. It's not that you are right and I am wrong, or vice versa, it's that we have different perspectives. I classify based on my taste and sensibility, just like you do. I base a lot of that on my historical knowledge & perspective, but even with that, and it personally goes back to '61 with surf & '55 with rock, I get called on it from time to time by no less than the likes of ace surf-historians John Blair & Bob Dalley. John was disturbed that I don't consider "Let's Go Trippin'" to be a surf instro. I don't consider ANY vocal to have anything at all to do with surf, no matter what The subject of the lyrics, because I see surf as a strictly instrumental art form. Surf is surf, and pop is pop, and never the twain shall meet!

This series was not about teaching you my agenda. It was about raising questions in hopes of aiding both you & I in our quest for the reverb. If Dolly Parton is surf to you 'cuz you see her obvious advantages of floatation while you're eating sand at Malibu, the for you she's surf. I'll defend you right to be wrong, 'cuz that's the American way!