 | Ron Wilson had this dream... and the young Surfaris wanted to record it. They went of Paul Buff at Pal and made a deal for 100 records and an hour of time for 50 bucks. With only minutes left, Buff reminded them that singles usually had a song on both sides. They quickly dashed out a melody and rhythm based on Preston Epps' "Bongo Rock" over the top of a variation on a cadence Ron was using in his high school marching band. They called it "Stiletto," then quickly changed it to "Wipe Out" when they couldn't come up with a cool sound effect for a switchblade opening, but could get a great sound of a surfboard breaking by recording the breaking of a shingle from the outside wall of the studio, then slowing it down and echoing it. This is one of those serendipity stories... a few minutes "because they had to" yielded a multimillion selling single that defined a drummers acid test for eternity. The version of "Wipe Out" licensed to by Dot is an edit, as is the A-side, which is missing two verses. |