December Birthdays 
SilverFlash wrote:
synchro wrote:
What an amazing thread!
I really appreciate how you have tied it all together. The Surf Music phenomenon didn’t come about in a vacuum; it happened in the context of musical and social trends.
Without the P-Bass and the Telecaster, music would have probably developed quite differently. The guitar sound of Surf Music owes a debt to these developments, not to mention many other developments in amplification and effects.
Well, that’s just one tiny facet of the picture, but it serves to illustrate just how many moving pieces are involved in the story. I really appreciate the perspective I have gained by reading this thread.
Thank you, synchro! I'm glad you grok my intention with this thread. (If anyone is not science fiction inclined, grok means "to understand profoundly and intuitively", from Robert A. Heinlein's 1961 science fiction novel Stranger in a Strange Land. For more on the connection between Sci-Fi and surf music, check out the thread: What is the connection between Surf music and retro-futurism/sci-fi/ and b-movies?)
You make the context of Surf Music obvious for all to see. Surf didn’t have one moment of origin, whether it be the Jazzmaster, the Dual Showman the 6G15, Duane Eddy or what have you. Surf happened because of any number of influences which gelled at one point and gave rise to the phenomenon. Had these influences been different, or even had the timing of these influences been different, the results could well have been very different.
For example, had The Beach Boys had hits that sang about surfing, it’s possible that the nation’s attention would never have been focused on surfing and the Surf element of the music would have never been known outside of the LA area. What we call Surf Music may have just been an instrumental outgrowth of the Twist craze and never really have taken off as a genre. Had the 6G15 not come along when it did, we might never have had the mental connection between the crashing of waves and the sound of cranked up reverb.
I have been watching that Sci Fi thread with interest. To my mind, Surf, Spy and Space Age music have a great deal in common.
—The artist formerly known as: Synchro
When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.
