They called it surf: 40 years after its peak, genre still rides wave of popularity
By: GARY WARTH - Staff Writer
The shoppers paid little attention as the two men, well into middle age, plugged in their Fender guitars. In their understated Hawaiian shirts and casual slacks, Paul Johnson and Gil Orr were not going to be confused with any of today's rock stars, especially when their gig was to play next to the escalator in the Nordstrom at the Westfield mall in Escondido.
And then they started to play. A cascade of descending notes ended with a familiar bass rhythm that underlined an unmistakable melody. "Pipeline," the 1963 hit by the Chantays, still stopped people in their tracks, even while they were shopping for blouses or sports coats.
"'Mr. Moto?'" Johnson said to Orr as the song wrapped up to light applause. Orr nodded back, and the Duo Tones launched into another song, which was followed by an essential repertoire for any surf band: "Endless Summer," "Surf Rider," "The Wedge" and "Apache."
A customer who had paused to listen bought one of their CDs.
"You gentlemen have a rich culture," he told them.
He and other shoppers probably did not realize the contribution the graying guitarists have made to that culture. For the last 40 years, Orr has been the guitarist for the Chantays, and Johnson, a Carlsbad resident for 20 years, wrote "Mr. Moto," a 1961 hit by the Bel-Airs, the first song ever released in a genre called surf guitar.
Birth of a sound
There's a debate, though, about what the first official surf record is: "Mr. Moto" or "Let's Go Trippin'" by Dick Dale.
"'Mr. Moto' was recorded and released before 'Let's Go Trippin'' was even recorded," said Johnson, "but 'Mr. Moto' just sat there for months before it got on the radio."
Dick Dale's song charted before Johnson's, forever blurring the distinction of which can be called the first in the surf genre, known for its heavy reverb and melodic guitar lines.
Johnson, 58, was 14 when he wrote "Mr. Moto," named after a fictional detective made famous by actor Peter Lorre, and also the name of a popular 1950s L.A.-area wrestler. The young musician from L.A.'s South Bay had been playing less than a year when he worked out the tune while studying a guitar exercise.
"I stole the entire chorus from a guitar solo from 'Hot Rod Lincoln,'" he admits about the two-minute, nine-second instrumental.
Johnson's catchy song stood out among the tunes his band, the Bel Airs, played at country clubs and UCLA frat parties. The Bel Airs finally recorded it and four other tunes in an hourlong recording session that cost $32 in 1961. They then spent months knocking on doors before signing with Arvee Records, where a then-unknown Sonny Bono remixed it before its release.
The timing was right for a new type of music in the wake of the repressive 1950s, but before the escalation of the Vietnam War. Buddy Holly was dead, and Percy Faith's "Theme From a Summer Place" was the Grammy Record of the Year. Southern Californian youths had discovered surfing, but had little to do to burn off their energy at night except dance at sock hops that played the same old records.
Frustrated with their label's lack of promotion, the Bel Airs took matters into their own hands.
"We passed out fliers around the beach area, and all the surfers showed up," Johnson said. "They just took to it immediately. By the end of the summer, it exploded."
About 300 people showed up for the Bel Airs' first dance at a Knights of Columbus hall. The band then booked the bigger Eagle Hall in Redondo Beach, and more teens showed up. By summer's end, they were booking the Hermosa Biltmore Hotel, where they played to 1,500 fans.
Meanwhile, about 40 miles south at the Rendezvous Room in the Balboa Peninsula, guitarist Dick Dale was playing a rapid-fire staccato style that also was attracting crowds. Johnson's South Bay style and Dale's Orange County style came to be recognized as distinct sounds, but fans began to call their music by one name. Johnson remembers the night an excited surfer approached him between sets at the Knights of Columbus hall.
"Your music sounds just like it feels out there on a wave," he told Johnson. "You ought to call it surf music!"
Soundtrack of a culture
Johnson never surfed and didn't find the Bel Airs much different from a string of other instrumental bands that had come before them, but that didn't matter. No other live bands were playing in the area, and area youths connected with a band composed of local teens. By default, The Bel Airs had created the music of a region, and accidentally became the soundtrack of a culture.
"I don't remember that ever making me a big hero around the high school, but the kids who came up to us at the dances did regard us as stars, I guess," Johnson said.
The next summer, the group even had its own place to play, the Bel Air Club in Redondo Beach. Surf bands started cropping up, including in landlocked states like Colorado, where The Astronauts scored a hit with "Baja."
"There were thousands of instrumental surf bands in virtually every city in the U.S. between '62 and '65," said San Francisco radio host Phil Dirt, who hosts a program called "Surf's Up!" online at KFJC.org. "A thousand or two single releases testify to the spread of the reverb gospel."
San Diego surf bands included the Royalites, who recorded "Wiggle Waddle," and Jimmy and the Illusions, who recorded "Undertow," according to Corona Del Mar resident John Blair, author of "The Illustrated Discography of Surf Music, 1961-1965."
"The surf scene was steadily growing, and each summer it multiplied," Johnson said. "By '63, there were dances everywhere and bands everywhere, and it just went nuts."
In 1962, "Telstar" by the Tornados reached No.1 on the national charts. In 1963, "Pipeline" by the Chantays had reached No. 4, and "Wipe Out" by the Surfaris was No. 2.
Then in 1964, a band called the Beatles arrived in the United States, and everything changed.
Wipe out
Dance halls emptied as teens followed the British Invasion bands. American bands began reinventing themselves or just breaking up. The Surfaris, probably the most successful surf band, called it quits in 1966. "Wipe Out" would be re-recorded and performed more than any other surf song, but the band had signed over the publishing rights for one dollar.
"Pipeline" was a national hit, but did not bring fortune to the Chantays. Gil Orr joined the band in 1965 after meeting "Pipeline" co-writer Bob Spikard at a car dealership where both worked.
The Bel Airs never followed up "Mr. Moto" and broke up in 1963. Johnson worked as a session musician, playing guitar behind Sonny and Cher's first single, "Baby Don't Go," and by 1966 he had grown his hair longer and formed a folk-rock band called the Everpresent Fullness. The band seemed on the verge of success when it was derailed by legal problems.
Disillusioned, Johnson moved to northern California and dropped out of the music scene. "I was becoming introspective and wondering what it all meant." He then joined a Christian ministry and earned his living in auto upholstery.
"All through the '60s and '70s, nobody even thought about surf music," he said. "It was passe, and I thought, that's that."
Rediscovered
A new appreciation for surf music began around 1980. Young audiences were rediscovering retro rock 'n' roll while New Wave became popular.
"The influence lived far beyond the '60s," Dirt said. "Many guitarists in American garage bands were influenced by surf guitarists, and surf guitar sounds and styles showed up in many odd places through the end of the '60s."
The genre got a shot in the arm in 1994 when the "Pulp Fiction" soundtrack included songs by Dick Dale, the Lively Ones, the Centurians, the Revels and the Tornados.
"The genre of surf music does sell very well," said Jamie Day, assistant manager at Lou's Records in Encinitas, which has a special section for surf music. "I would say with our location being what it is, it never fully went away."
Some bands such as Los Straitjackets can tour nationally playing surf music. Locally, bands such as Surf Report, the Deoras, Archie Thompson, and the RoyalTones keep it alive.
"The second I heard it, it just clicked,'' said Rich Knight, 44, guitarist of the Royal Tones and owner of the Richman Gallery in Encinitas, also known as Surf, Cars and Guitars. "All I wanted to do was play surf music."
Richman's gallery is a tribute to surf culture, including its music. Cool guitars hang on the wall, and CDs, including the Duo Tones and the Bel Airs, are for sale at the counter.
The RoyalTones are scheduled to play at the Rich Machado Surf Classic today in Encinitas, and every few months Richman arranges "surf jams" at the Leucadian tavern for local musicians.
His band plays four or five times a month, usually at corporate parties.
"These folks will come up to us afterwards and say, 'Boy, that just put me back to my childhood,'" he said.
'A very significant song'
In the 1980s, Johnson returned to performing surf music, and in 1990 he joined the Surfaris. He is scheduled to play with the band tonight at the Belly Up Tavern. On Saturday, he and Orr played as the Duo Tones at Artsplash in Carlsbad, and on Monday they play from 7 to 10 p.m. at the Calypso Cafe in Encinitas, where fans can expect to hear Johnson's signature song.
"'Mr. Moto' has grown to be a very significant song in the surf genre," Dirt said. "The single got significant airplay in Southern California at the time, and influenced many guitar players then and since. Paul was one of the handful of performers who had guys studying him at the foot of the stage. He's a great writer and player."
Johnson says that only lately has he come to appreciate his role in helping create a musical genre some 40-odd years ago.
"I never really was fully aware of the significance of the Bel Airs until 1980, when I got back into it and got a lot of feedback from people looking at it from a historical perspective," Johnson said. "I realized, hey, I guess we really did start something."
Ten essential surf guitar tunes
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Mr. Moto ---- The Bel Airs
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Let's Go Trippin' ---- Dick Dale
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Pipeline ---- The Chantays
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Surf Rider ---- The Lively Ones
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Miserlou ---- Dick Dale
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Wipe Out ---- The Surfaris
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Baja ---- The Astronaughts
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Latin 'ia ---- The Sentinals
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Squad Car ---- Eddie & the Showmen
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Theme from 'Endless Summer' ---- The Sandals
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Penetration ---- The Pyramids