Surf music's emerged on the scene around 1961. Almost without exception, it was introduced by musicians who had no physical contact with the ocean, themselves. Although this would change quickly in the early 1960s, Southern California surfers, as a group, were quick to adopt the musical sound as their own. The adoption would spread throughout the surfing world, but mostly on the Mainland. The musical genre was an extension of Rockabilly and 1950s Rhythm and Blues compositions. Beginning with instrumental compositions, surf music later incorporated vocal harmonies. As the definition of surf music illustrates, surf music, today, is known as much for its vocals as its instrumentation. Purists, however, who well remember how the genre began, will disagree strongly with any emphasis on vocal harmonies as defining the surf sound.
During rock 'n roll music's infancy in the 1950s, "a basic song was a two-to-three minute AABA number, with a saxophone carrying the B part," wrote Phil Dirt, a surf music DJ who was around in the golden days of surf music and still continues to do a weekly program of surf music. Despite such artists as Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry's accent on the guitar, most rock 'n roll tunes were sax based, including instrumentals. Texas swing musician Bill Haley defined the mainstream sound. The only exceptions to the basic sound, besides Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry's work, were those of the early Rockabilly artists who substituted guitar in the B parts.
Link Wray, an early Rockabilly musician, used Bo Diddley's trick of slitting speaker cones with a knife to get a ragged-edge distortion. He wrote for the guitar and developed a sound with a distinctive growl. His compositions "were simple and relied on minor changes to hold interest," Phil Dirt told me, "like the gradual increase in vibrato toward the end of his piece 'Jack The Ripper'."
"Duane Eddy's basic string-of-single-notes melodies focused on the guitar in a voice developed mostly by Al Casey," wrote Phil Dirt. "Duane reversed the standard AABA (GGSG) arrangement, using his lead guitar in the A parts, with Steve Douglas' sax lines relegated to the B parts."
Early guitarists who provided inspiration to surf music's beginnings included Link Wray, Duane Eddy, Derry Weaver, Nokie Edwards, Chet Atkins, Les Paul and Fireball George Tomsco. Bill Dogget was also influential.
Early groups that influenced the initial surf music strain include:
The Fireballs. They were a two guitar-bass-drums unit recorded by Norman Petty, in Clovis, New Mexico. Their carefully balanced lead-rhythm interplay particularly influenced Paul Johnson of the surf band The Bel Airs.
The Gamblers were "a studio amalgam" of Derry Weaver, Sandy Nelson, Leon Russell and other Los Angeles studio musicians. The Gamblers issued an influential single called "Moondawg" (c/w "LSD 25"). "Moondawg" was re-recorded by many artists, including Paul Revere & The Raiders.
Johnny & The Hurricanes. They used cheap organ or sax leads for the most part. Johnny Paris was the saxophone player and leader. Occasionally, the group let dominante guitarist Dave Yorko's rifts like those illustrated in "Sheba" and "Sandstorm". The sense of melody rather than simple progressions were further developed by Johnny & The Hurricanes.
The Storms were heavily oriented around guitarist Jody Reynolds. Their piece "Thunder" was an Al Casey/Duane Eddy styled instrumental that was a direct inspiration to early surf bands.
The Ventures had a two guitar-bass-drums lineup and were the most mainstream of all the bands that influenced the early surf sound. The Ventures versions of other people's songs became a staple in the surf band diet, not as a part of the genre, but more like a foundation. Their popularity amongst surf musicians was despite the fact that during their 'surf' period, the Ventures didn't even play the right instruments for an authentic surf sound. They preferred to use Mosrite guitars and reverbs. The Ventures contributed a surf music classic, "Sputnik", after Nokie Edwards joined the group. "Sputnik" later became "Surf Rider" when the surf band The Lively Ones covered it. The Ventures' "Diamond Head" became another famous surf tune.
The rockabilly and garage band music between 1956 and 1960 generated thousands of independent 45rpm singles. Most of them are best forgotten by time. However, there were also some great exceptions like "Ghost Train" by The Millionaires, "Underwater" by The Frogmen, and "Typhoid" by The Northern Lights. "Typhoid" was recorded in 1960; a "staccato double picked rant" that was later reissued as "Bust Out" by The Busters. This tune is arguably the first surf style tune recorded. It's main shortfall is a lack of reverb and a surf title, but then again, some of surf music's most notable early tunes both lacked reverb and surf titles (i.e. "Let's Go Trippin'" by Dick Dale and "Mr. Moto" by The Bel Airs).
Surf Music "was greatly influenced by the then quickly changing moods of rockabilly and rhythm and blues," wrote Leonard Lueras in Surfing, The Ultimate Pleasure . "Transition artists such as Chuck Berry, Duane Eddy and the inventive oldtimer, Les Paul, had long been experimenting with tremolos, echolettes and other such techno music toys, but these gimmicks were usually utlized for the odd temporary effect. Not until [Dick] Dale began promoting himself as a surf guitarist and calling such sustained electro riffs 'surf music,' was this pecular sound given a popular or proper generic name."
Lunarian 57 years old Washington United States Last Login: 12/02/07
