Hi all. I'm fairly new to Surf. And I'm nearly 50. In my previous guitar-owning-and-playing life I would sit and noodle out some blues to while away the time. Now I make sure the trem is at hand and whack the reverb onto full with some tremolo and delay too! It's just so... pleasing! I used to play a lot of Shadows too and enjoy playing their songs, and I suppose their greats are "kind of" similar in style (not wanting to start any wars) so I guess it's safe to say I enjoy playing 60's instrumental pop/rock. I blame YouTube in part for bringing me here. Somehow a few months they suggested that I watch a video by a band called The Surfrajettes.... (and suddenly I owned a Squier VM Surf Strat and became obsessed with offset guitars in pastel colours....) And now I'm hooked!
I love surf music, as well. Here on Squier-Talk, member PangPang has posted videos of he and his daughter playing various surf songs. Pretty great stuff. And, at least one of their videos features a Squier VM Surf Strat.
So ther Surfrejetters eh? You won't believe this. A similar thing happened. I saw them too and they ignited the fire that was in my heart for over 4 decades again!!!!
I grew up with surf long before I became a musician -- first on drums, then on bass and piano. Guitar was something I just "messed around with" and then , when I treated myself to a Squier CV strat, I decided to retrace my roots and record an album of my fave surf tunes from childhood. I was right around your age. This is the first song I attempted. (Ignore the promo stuff).
Just a bit of trivia, the Beach Boys didn't know how to surf, except for Dennis. He was the only one.
Shoot. My troll failed. Yes, they did sing about surfing, and did a great job of it, with the harmonies and all. I prefer to call it "Beach Pop". (Not that there's anything wrong with it.)
Man, I love surfing. Don’t get much opportunity in Arizona, but I still have 3 boards and a wetsuit. I really like surf music, too. I cast a big net on what I’d consider surf music to be. Grew up with Dad blasting the Ventures, and he taught me the lead and rythm parts for Walk, Don’t Run when I was 14 or so. I’ve never been a fast picker, or very even tempo’ed, so I never try any of that Dick Dale or Rockabilly stuff, even though I like it.
As to whether such music as made by the Beach Boys or, say, Jan and Dean, is "surf music" has become an issue of some importance to people today. I'll just point out that it wasn't so back then to those of us who played it. I became aware of this current dichotomy only after I enraged the good folks over at the Surf 101 website by penning this: The Top 10 Surf Songs of the Sixties. "Heresy!" some shouted to my amusement. And to which i meekly answered "Yes. To those that were not there." I was. And yes, I did do some surfing. On Gilgo Beach. And saw absolutely no connection between that enjoyable daytime activity and what enabled me to have the free days to do it: My working regularly with a fairly successful (live and on radio) instrumental rock band at night, playing what only later came to be called "surf." Funny that. But I suspect that Mozart never thought at all about whether what he wrote was actually "classical." No, it would to him simply been current music. Yup! To me it's funny still. -don
I like your top 10 list! Back when those songs came out, I never gave a thought about whether lyrics or not made a song surf music. I just dreamed of California beaches while totally land locked in the midwest.
