Tagged just out of curiosity, since I think sometimes it's magic faerie dust.

Wes
SoCal ex-pat with a snow shovel

DISCLAIMER: The above is opinion/suggestion only & should not be used for mission planning/navigation, tweaking of instruments, beverage selection, or wardrobe choices.

Are there particular places you hang out?
Things to do?
Any verbal expressions, local slang?
Anything lend itself to a clever play on words?

I live in San Diego, and my old band named a few tunes based on our locality. ('P.B. Nights' P.B., short for Pacific Beach. 'Cruisin' The Strand', 'Sunset In Encinitas', etc.)

Could you play the song for some of your friends and ask them if it reminds them of anything?

Cheers, Clark

-Less Paul, more Reverb-

-Cheers, Clark-

-Less Paul, more Reverb-

I think that a title can inspire the creation of a song or a title will spring forth from a song. I would caution about songs or titles that would be too contrived...too intellectually created because it is proper, correct, genre-correct, whatever. I know nothing about actually surfing but I love ocean kayaking and tides and sealife...I can write about that if I wanted to remain close to a seashore-related theme.
Listen to The Mermen and then look at their titles...they are a surf band (moreso than a lot of 'em) and they have some pretty wild titles.
For instrumentals, your job is easier - not harder - to come up with titles. Don't try to impress anybody. After all, there are some pretty naff names for some of those classic, iconic surf songs.

Lorne
The Surf Shakers: https://www.facebook.com/TheSurfShakers
Vancouver BC Canada

ROM Spacenight was an awesome comic! Had to say that as it was one of my favourites back in the day. I digressed from the original post, now back to original thread.....

I am not obsolete, I am RETRO....

What we are talking about here, as Reverbenator wrote:

Are there particular places you hang out?
Things to do?
Any verbal expressions, local slang?
Anything lend itself to a clever play on words?

I live in San Diego, and my old band named a few tunes based on our locality. ('P.B. Nights' P.B., short for Pacific Beach. 'Cruisin' The Strand', 'Sunset In Encinitas', etc.)>

...is cultural titling. It was much easier for the teenagers who invented surf music to come up with such titles because they were culturally obsessed and immersed in active creation of social rituals centered on the cult of surfing.
It's conceptually harder for us to come up with anything like it because we aren't part of a burgeoning subculture and we aren't socially absorbed teens who have an intense need for inventing an in-group language.
Our experience of surf music is rather far removed from the SoCal coastal origins of idiom - it's highly imaginative, intellectual and personal for us, as opposed to experiential and social.
Maybe the best we can do is work within our respective combos to create a group mythos (as opposed to gimmick). We also have the yeoman work of surf impresarios like Jeff Hansen and this very forum's moderator to appreciate for fostering the group experience of sharing live music and verbal exchange.

Squink Out!

In songwriting I usually first decide what I will depict, then pick a title, then write the song. The upcoming Insanitizers "Guitar Fun" Album includes several originals whose titles should be easily matched to the songs on first hearing. These include:
Shootout
Rocket Pack
A Night in Vienna
A Day in Japan
A Week in Hawaii
Murder in Paradise
Love in Purgatory
Stunt Pilot
Waterboard Surf

The album has several other originals whose titles are less specific to the music, although they reflect the general feeling. One title (not listed above) was used because it is a good pun, insofar as a pun can be good.

Writing music corresponding to the title--or picking a title that fits the music--is part of the art of songwriting.

Insanitizers! http://www.insanitizers.com

As in every field, there are insights and progress to be made by reconsidering the basic concerns and questions. One way people learn is by studying examples.

The early Straitjacket albums contained songs whose titles had no apparent relation to the music. In contrast, the Ventures' originals used titles that did correspond. A newbie might benefit by examining these examples.

Insanitizers! http://www.insanitizers.com

Last edited: Aug 23, 2016 11:56:29

Further to my previous post, the only early Straitjackets songs I recognize by name are Tailspin and Wrong Planet, but I know the titles of the Ventures' originals.

Walk Don't Run itself is an interesting example that runs counter to the Ventures' own originals. Walk Don't Run does not seem to correspond to the Ventures' recording. As soon as I heard the recording by the writer Johnny Smith I understood the title. In Smith's version the main riff has a very strong flow at moderate speed, i.e., walk. Increasing the speed to a run conflicts with Smith's feel, so he instructs walk don't run. That was his art. Of course art does not mean commercial success. The Ventures changed the speed to a run, rendering the title enigmatic, but enjoying commercial success.

Insanitizers! http://www.insanitizers.com

Last edited: Aug 23, 2016 11:57:35