The Smiley Smile Message Board

So I've been listening to "Let's Go Trippin" by Dick Dale a lot recently, and it's now my favorite surf tune.

What is your favorite surf tune? Can be Beach Boys, non-Beach Boys, instrumental, lyrical whatever.

By the way, who does the sax on "Let's Go Trippin", is it Steve Douglas? or did Dick Dale have his own sax player for his own records?

Don't know who does the sax.  I have the original Dick Dale Vinyl Lp, so maybe I can find it on there and get back to you.

I like Pipeline a lot.  Have you heard the live version with Dick Dale and Stevie Ray Vaughn?

I'd appreciate you looking that up man. I've heard "Pipeline" from Bruce Johnston's "Going Public" I believe? I enjoy it, I haven't heard Dick Dale's version though.

Pipeline is an old Surf instrumental by the Chantays.  I have a vinyl of  Going Public but I confess I haven't picked it up in years.  Proof that Bruce NEEDED the Beach Boys (or Barry Manilow) to flesh out his tunes. I don't recall Bruce covering Pipeline on the album.

I've got the Dick Dale up on a wall in one of those album frames.  I'll get it down and look this evening if I can remember.

My favorite is also Pipeline by the Chantays.  = Magic

Anything by The Chantays, Link Wray or The Lively Ones is good in my book.  And all of the surf music that Tarantino's used in his movies is great.

And also the soundtrack to "The Endless Summer" by the Sandals is awesome.  Especially the theme.

miserlou

Hey guys - I know I've plugged my own website on here before, but any queries about surf & hot-rod stuff (including Dick Dale's sax players) check out www.pipeline.moonfruit.com. It's what the summer was made for !
 8)

Pipeline rules ! My fav surf-song.
Great site Malc btw

I am going Surf City on this one Jan and Dean with a twist of Brian Wilson

Let's Go Trippin' by Dick Dale
Perfidia, Walk Don't Run, Batman theme, Green Hornet theme, Hawaii 5-0 theme by the Ventures
Stoked by the Beach Boys

Outside of the Beach Boys
with vocals:
"Secret Surfing Spot" by Dick Dale
"Ride The Wild Surf" by Jan and Dean
"Gremmie Out Of Control" (cover of Gary Usher, Chuck Girard,  Dick Burns as the Silly Surfers ) by Pearl Jam  (I have never heard the original Silly Surfers version)

Hm, but Jan&Dean weren't really surf-music.... It was like much of the Beach Boys(though they had a little of that surfing sound) just music with lyrics about surfing. Like Brian said, Beat music....

Oh!  SURF music.....o.k.....then definitely Miserlou :)

Well then, what is your definition of surf music?  An instrumental number with a lot of reverb on the guitar?   

For example. Dick Dale is surf-music. And Jan&Dean didn't do anything in that direction except for "Wipe out". The other stuff is pop- or beatmusic.

BTW here's a nice article: http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=67073

As you can imagine, I don't agree with all of it, but it's a nice one I think.

If anyone is in the Northern California area this June 23,  Dick Dale is going to be the opening act for the Beach Boys at the Konocti Harbor theater in Kelseyville (Clear Lake).  It's just the one gig, not a tour.  I mean, if you're going to see Mike's Beach Boys, you might as well get some extra value for your money.  Dick does an excellent show, at least he did when I saw him several years ago.

Summer Means Fun or Ride The Wild Surf

Dick Dale opening for the Beach Boys?

How the tables have turned.

Note for attending a Dick Dale concert...Bring earplugs.  He plays fucking loud!!!  I guess he can't hear that well anymore.   :-[  It was an indoor venue in a small club though, so that probably didn't help much.  But man can he play.

OK  but again my question is what is your definition of surf music?   
 

My ears were ringing for two or three days after seeing Dick Dale..

This was this really elderly woman (in her 60s or 70s) standing right in front of the stage, directly inbetween two speaks, the entire time. Dick Dale even said to her, "Darling, I hope you brought earplugs."

Dick Dale's "Miserlou" is great, but there's something cool about the sound of The Beach Boys' version of that song also...

The lack of production on The Beach Boys' version sounds way more garage and real than the production quality on Dale's.  Also the fact that the Dale version has been played so much between "Pulp Fiction" and TV commercials, that the BB version will always seem more fresh.

I don't think my engish is good enough to give you a satisfying answer to that question. But to me surf-music is stuff like Dick Dale. Jan&Dean (and lots, but not all, Beach Boys) is beat or rock-music with surfing-lyrics. Brian himself stated this.

OK then if Dick Dale's music is "Surf Music" and most of the Beach Boys or Jan and Dean's music is not,  how does Dick Dale's "Secret Surfing Spot"  qualify as surf music where "Surfin Safari" "Ride The Wild Surf", or "Catch A Wave"   do not? 
Not you think that this or that artist was (or was not) "Surf Music"  but what musical traits characterize surf music?     

I think what Rocker might be trying to say is that even though Jan & Dean/Beach Boys type songs are considered Surf music, they're in a different genre than the surf instrumental/guitar stuff that this thread's about.  When I make a compilation of Surf instrumental type music I always keep the Jan & Dean/Beach Boys off, save for the instrumental stuff the BB did on Surfin' USA.  In fact the only surf song I would consider to be in-between these two genre's is "Surfer Joe" by the Surfaris, simply because the instrumentation and vocals are so primitive and the song is by a group who mostly did instrumentals. 

There are exceptions, but for the most part J&D and BB music was really rock & roll capitalizing on a fad, while the stuff by Dick Dale et al WAS the fad.

I don't know, there is definitely some overlap.. check out the Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/surf_music

Yeah, this sums it up very nice. Thanks Ebb and Flow.
@mikee: Regarding "Secret surfing spot" (which I don't know), not everything Dick Dale has done has to be surf music. It's like not everything the Beach Boys have done is rock'n'roll (or rock).

Mikee - this one's for you ! Check out the updated audio pages at www.pipeline.moonfruit.com

I like the instrumental surf songs best like

Pipeline
Miserlou
and the Walk Don't Run '64 version the Ventures did. A re-recoding of the original with some Surf riffs added in. Really helps beef up the song.

Actually this thread is about all surf music – not just one sub-category of it that you and Rocker might want to limit it to.  There has been no limitation such as the one you are describing. The generally accepted and more encompassing definition would be like the one given in wikipedia: 

  It has three main streams or subgenres:
Instrumental dance music in which electric guitars with a distinctive sustained but undistorted sound predominate.
Surf pop music, including both surf ballads and dance music that includes a vocal line.
Surf rock, which overlaps both the other streams, sometimes even to the point of being used as a synonym for surf music generally.
Many notable surf bands have been equally noted for both surf instrumental and surf pop music, so surf music is generally considered as a single genre despite the variety of these styles.
*****

Many of the surf groups that recorded put out songs in the 2nd and 3rd streams as well as the first.  That is something that Dick Dale did.  One thing about Dale, he did surf (seemingly sun up to sun down for a time) and even lived, fittingly, in a home that overlooked the Wedge at the entrance to Newport Beach harbor. 

What this thread did start out with was comments about “Let’s Go Tripping”.  That is appropriate since it is generally considered the first surf rock song  (#4 on KFWB Los Angeles locally, and later #60 on the national charts). It was originally released in Sept. 1961.  Another thing about the song is that Dale recorded it (and his entire first album) without reverb. They may also be the last surf instrumental songs ever recorded without reverb. 

 

I don't think we want to limit anything. It's just our opinion.

I didn't mean to make any limitations...just trying to point out the differences between different styles and genres.  At least you agree with me on that.

Why cite Wikipedia for such a subjective argument?   ???

You see, I think the problem is, it's not subjective, just a misunderstanding. Some people assumed that it was only instrumental surf rock, while others did not.

There is only one surf instrumental that does anything at all for me, but Lordy is it a goodie.

"Pipeline".

'Course, the fact that originally it didn't have a surf-y title may have some bearing on this... otherwise, surf instrumentals are - to me, and I fully understand I'm in a definite minority here - at best repetetive, more often, tedious in the extreme. The blues are much the same to me, btw.

Actually, that's not true . . . Jan & Dean never did "Wipe Out" originally.

But Jan Berry did write some fantastic instrumentals in the Surf genre . . . and they did appear on J&D's original albums. Jan's instrumentals . . . played by Hollywood session musicians . . . are much more sophisticated than groups like the Chantays, etc.

Check out these awesome instrumentals written or co-written by Jan Berry (all from '64):

1. B Gas Rickshaw (Quasimoto) — (Jan Berry)

2. Old Ladies Seldom Power Shift — (Berry-Torrence)

3. Skateboarding (Parts 1 & 2) — (Berry-Gibson)

4. Walk on the Wet Side — (Berry-Gibson)


Jan was really into the instrumental scene . . . He followed it . . . and his tunes help bridge the much-talked about chasm between instrumental surf music and the vocal stuff. Jan wrote in both genres.

And remember . . . I have Jan's original hand-written music scores for this stuff. And I can tell you that these songs are a fascinating mix of note-for-note reproduction and embellishments from the musicians.

Examples:

"B Gas Rickshaw" — note-for-note reproduction from Jan's original score

"Skateboarding" — smoking guitar leads from studio cats, over Jan's written chord charts


M.

I hate to tell you but that is also what instrumental surf music is.  "Wipe Out" is, in reality, a cover of the Preston Epps hit "Bongo Rock".  It was retitled to exploit the surf craze and that's the "surf" of it.   The music was a continuation of instrumental rock, that had come from a diverse group of artists.  A few examples of the earlier songs are  Sandy Nelsons "Let There Be Drums",  Richie Valens "Fast Freight",  The Ventures "Walk Don't Run" Santo and Johnny's "Sleep Walk", and for that matter Ike Turner's "Prancing".                 

ok



but I still have a different opinion. I have to agree though that your posts makes sense

Bongo rock..;   That would seem a more fitting name for Wipeout.

Chalk up- Squad Car by Eddie & The Showmen, Baja by The Astronauts- probably 2 of my top 10 surf tunes.
Damn shame Eddie & The Showmen didn't have more than an album worth of material. Eddie Bertrand was far better than Dick Dale could ever be.