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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Surf Musician »

Permalink Songs all surf guitarists should know...

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Sonic_Blue wrote:

  1. Surf Rider

Also, I don’t want to learn the Ventures.

ooops! Too late! Big Grin

websurfer wrote:

Sonic_Blue wrote:

  1. Surf Rider

Also, I don’t want to learn the Ventures.

ooops! Too late! Big Grin

Lol! I didn’t know! I learned the Lively Ones version. Obviously I’m a big fan of the Pulp Fiction soundtrack!

Me too.

It's good to know the classics so you can get in on a jam, but if you're in a band playing on a bill with other bands, you all don't want to be doing the same songs.

I've always tried to dig a little deeper when choosing covers. Some of mine...

The Venture: Driving Guitars, Yellow Jacket
Dick Dale: Taco Wagon, The Wedge
The Shadows: The Stranger, Dance On, Geronimo
The Lively Ones: Crazy Surf, Rik-a-Tik
The Astronauts: The Pier
PJ & The Galaxies: Big Shot, Vamanos, Lanky Bones
The Challengers: Hopscotch/ aka Channel Nine
The Readymen: Disintegration
The Breakers: Jetstream
This is one I discovered on YouTube recently, surprised to never have heard it on a compilation. On my permanent list now!
Conrad & The Hurricane Strings: Hurricane
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eyvg57pcDQs

I think it's good to learn the classics:
- to get the tone
- to assimilate the style
- to become familiar with the techniques

I try to learn new songs every week, and not just classics or my own favorites. I look for material that will make me a better player. One of the guys from the Surf Trio lives around here and he suggested I work on 'Baja' which I didn't really care for at the time. I took his advice and... hey! "I like green eggs and ham!"... and 'Baja'.

As for particular songs, maybe they don't all need to be surf...
- Pipeline
- Hawaii Five-O
- Miserlu
- Mr Moto
- Surf Rider
- Rebel Rouser
- Walk Don't Run/Perfidia
- Penetration
- Surf Nouveau
- Dawn Patrol
- Magnificent Seven Theme

Basically everything everyone already said above, all those known classics you'd expect.

BUT...

Chuckeds wrote:

It's good to know the classics so you can get in on a jam, but if you're in a band playing on a bill with other bands, you all don't want to be doing the same songs.

Exactly. Which is why I'll add the following, which I don't see overdone (or, in the case of several of them, done period). Big Grin Some may not be technically blatant "surf", but they're from that era, they're instrumentals and sound great (and are fun to play).And none of them are hard or demanding (and the bass and rhythm parts are easy too, so the whole band can get their parts down without much trouble...in the case of "Scorpion", the rhythm guitar and bass literally play the same exact thing for 2:12; can't get much easier than that).

Last edited: Sep 19, 2020 21:18:37

Maybe "Honky Tonk" - Beach Boys (two toes on the nose lead guitars, Carl and David
and "The McCoy" - Ventures

This is all great. I especially like Chuckeds list.
I like to add some things to my set, not necessarily classic surf tunes but work well
Sleepwalk (I'm partial to Larry Carlton's version. Would love to get tab for Junior Brown's version used in Better Call Saul. I have a buddy who plays lap steel so maybe we can work on it together). It's slow tempo, some nice bends and harmonics.
Telstar (I like the Hank Marvin & the Shadows arrangement). Hey, it was #1 in 1962.
I found an arrangement of The Lonely Bull on Ultimate Guitar that sounds pretty nice. Change of pace and fantastic melody.

I'll put a setlist together with some slower tempo and some uptempo. (No longer play Misirlou in public... but) Mr Moto is always a hit.
I have a Boss RC300 looper and will put verse chords on track 1 and chorus chords on track 2, then play the melody, switching between as appropriate. Learning to use looper is really good for timing Smile

Artdecade - you mentioned Danny Amis in your original post. Calhoun Surf is a good one of his to learn.

I believe that the main thing is to find the tunes that will inspire you to write your own stuff. There are just no tunes a musician SHOULD know) I know great guitar players that play great surf music but cannot play Surf Rider or Walk Don’t Run even for the sake of their lives.

Waikiki Makaki surf-rock band from Ukraine

New Single is out!

https://waikikimakaki.bandcamp.com/album/rhino-blues-full-contact-surf-single

Waikiki Makaki

https://linktr.ee/waikikimakaki

Lost Diver

https://lostdiver.bandcamp.com
https://soundcloud.com/vitaly-yakushin

Davyd wrote:

This is all great. I especially like Chuckeds list.
I like to add some things to my set, not necessarily classic surf tunes but work well
Sleepwalk (I'm partial to Larry Carlton's version. Would love to get tab for Junior Brown's version used in Better Call Saul. I have a buddy who plays lap steel so maybe we can work on it together). It's slow tempo, some nice bends and harmonics.
Telstar (I like the Hank Marvin & the Shadows arrangement). Hey, it was #1 in 1962.
I found an arrangement of The Lonely Bull on Ultimate Guitar that sounds pretty nice. Change of pace and fantastic melody.

I'll put a setlist together with some slower tempo and some uptempo. (No longer play Misirlou in public... but) Mr Moto is always a hit.
I have a Boss RC300 looper and will put verse chords on track 1 and chorus chords on track 2, then play the melody, switching between as appropriate. Learning to use looper is really good for timing Smile

Great info Davyd.

Larry Carlton’s take on Sleepwalk is my absolute favorite version of the song. I base my version of the song on his, although I do things somewhat differently as the song develops.

I remember when Telstar was getting airplay, and my family had the Ventures album with Telstar on it. That sound at the beginning of Telstar, which was supposed to emulate the rocket launch, was actually a fire extinguisher. (My dad was very old school and loved older music, but he made an exception for the Ventures and Chet. He had great taste.) Growing up in the Midwest of the US, I knew that there was a band called The Shadows, but I knew virtually nothing about them until I was well into adulthood.

I’m poor at tremolo picking, so I’ve never done much with Miserlou, myself, but Mr. Moto is always a hit for me, as well. Paul Johnson was pretty young when it was written, but he sure knew what he was doing. It’s one of my favorite songs to play and works well in a trio setting, because the bass can really contribute, on that tune.

I have an RC-3, and have had some fun using it for laying down a backing track and then playing over it it real time. I haven’t done it live, on stage, as of yet, but one song I have worked on with the looper is Honky Tonk, which is perfect because the first verse is the Honky Tonk pattern, and everything else fits over it

While it isn’t a Surf tune, I would add Honky Tonk to the list of great instrumentals to learn on guitar. The audiences seem to love it, and it’s fun to play. The original Billy Butler version, on Bill Doggett’s recording is where I learned it, but Jeff Beck has been known to play Honky Tonk as well, and he does it superbly.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.

I’ve payed in bar bands, surf bands, rockabilly bands, and jazz combos for 35 years. I am currently playing in a tiki band, and we play a mix of vocal and instrumental exotica, surf, and island music. I have made this observation.

Based on audience tips, reaction, and comments, I find my average listener will only recognize about 6-7 instrumentals.
Wipe Out
Walk Don’t Run
Miserlou
Peter Gunn
Pipeline
Tequila
Sleep Walk

You might be able to add James Bond or another movie/tv theme, like Hawaii 5-0. Depends on the crowd for recognition.

Hey, I love playing others, don’t get me wrong. From the stage, I am always gauging audience reaction, and I find they just tune out on anything else. Telstar, Honky took, rumble, endless summer, Latin’a - all great tunes, but becoming lost on the collective consciousness. While we should keep doing them to keep them alive, there is an art to set list creation in order to hold audience attention.

just my $0.02. Ymmv

Jill Martini & The Shrunken Heads

Read through this and saw Jake's comments. Then I realized how old this thread is. Miss Jake!

The Kahuna Kings

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Kahuna-Kings/459752090818447

https://thekahunakings.bandcamp.com/releases

-

Last edited: Mar 03, 2022 02:24:52

Gilette wrote:

stratdancer wrote:

Read through this and saw Jake's comments. Then I realized how old this thread is. Miss Jake!

Same here. I wonder if he still plays that shell pink jaguar...

We can only hope so. I often wonder what happened to him. He definitely had strong opinions in so many discussions! Smile

The Kahuna Kings

https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Kahuna-Kings/459752090818447

https://thekahunakings.bandcamp.com/releases

Start simple:

Morpheus (Toads)
Heart Beat (Avenger VI)
Pipeline (Chantays)
Theme for young lovers (Shadows)
Rebel Rouser (Duane Eddy)

Then, if you want to get RSI real fast:

Margaya (Fender IV - have yet to hear the first cover of this one that comes actually close to the original feel of Randy Holden's playing - you prolly need to tune your strings into an open D, which NONE of the covers I heard so far actually do)
Misirlou (Richard A. Monsour)
Bombora (Original Surfaris)
Crash (Creations)

And finally, if you think you can actually play:

Everybody Up (Fender IV)
Ali Baba (Dave + Customs)
The Victor (Richard A. Monsour)
Cor Stein rides the wild (Apemen)
And basically anything Ivan Pongracic has had a hand in.

Albums:
"Introducing..." (8 September 2021), "Impala '59" (17 July 2022), "De Favorieten Expres!" (22 November 2022 - charity album)
EP's:
Mr. Magnatech is not afraid of you! (2020), Surfin' the Tolka! (2021), An Evening With Magnatech (2023)
7":
Lana Del Rey/Do You Believe In Surf? (2020), Bundoran/Sweet Surfin' Sabine (2021), Cymopoleia/ Surfin' Demon Twist (2021), Dr Mabuse/Zombie Love Theme (2022)
Compilers:
Surfin' Kitty Xmas Vol. 2 (2021), Surfin' Kitty Xmas Vol. 3 (2022)
Sea Sea Rider (2022)
Surfin' Britannica vol 3 (2022)
Triple Agent IV compilation (2023)
Continental Magazine compiler (2023)
_An Evening With Magnatech (June 2023)
"Herr Magnatech Bittet Zum Tanz" (October2023)
7" "Do the Swine"/"Suvla Bay" (December 2023)
_Surfin' Kitty vol 4 (compiler)

https://magnatech.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/magnatechmusic
https://www.magnatech-music.com
https://sharawaji.bandcamp.com
https://sharawaji.com

Last edited: Dec 07, 2022 17:58:42

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