Posted on May 15 2023 02:08 PM
Jojobaplant wrote:
Thanks guys. I think as well that there would have been a surf music scene without Dick Dale at the helm, but it would be very different in character. As some ppl have said, surf was also very influenced by Duane Eddy and other, more conventional instrumental acts.
I am leaving the Beach Boys deliberately out of the equation here as they were and are a versatile group that imo stands in its own right, apart from being a surf act or not. In other words: they would have developed and emerged with or without the presence of Dick Dale.
Somebody mentioned the Belairs. Indeed they started out about the same time Dick Dale did. They sounded a bit like the Ventures. I think without mr Richard Monsour on the scene, that's the type of music that would be regarded as instrumental surf music. Paul Johnson of the Belairs didn't like reverb as I understand it, and the Fender Reverb Unit may not have come to the fruition it did with the help of Dick Dale. So in short, I think surf instrumentals would sound either like a mix of Belairs/Ventures whilst other parts of the bands would sound like Duane Eddy or more conventional rock and roll instrumental acts. I also think it would have taken longer to develop absent the boost Dick Dale gave the genre and perhaps not as well known as it is today because the British invasion would have come in the way before it would've been fully developed. That's a major credit to Dick Dale. Thanks to him things developed rapidly and came to a full bloom in the relatively short period it was alive and well.
But then again, even without the boost of Dick Dale, there will always come a point in time that somebody discovers that a lot of reverb sounds really well in instrumentals and they'd be credited as "inventor" of the surf sound, although it may not have been called surf-sound but something else-sound. Everything in life after all is a collection of lucky coincidences after all.
It’s impossible to know just how things would have turned out, if some historical event didn’t happen. In most things, not much would change, because most of us, as individuals, are not that influential, but other events change world history. When a popular young president dies, that will definitely change a lot of events, for years to come, but when it comes to music, it’s a bit harder to say.
If Jan Berry hadn’t been injured in an accident, would the popularity of Jan & Dean changed the mix? It wouldn’t surprise me, but perhaps their influence wouldn’t have been that great. It’s impossible to know.
Spring reverb was coming, with or without Dick Dale. He may have sped the process. To the best of my knowledge, The 1961 Ampeg Reverberocket was the first amp with built in reverb, and reverb simply amounted to adapting the Hammond Organ system to the guitar. Fender’s 6G15 set the bar high, and Dick Dale may have influenced the design decisions, which made the 6G15 so powerful, and gave us that wonderful drip. But either way, I can’t imagine that Fender would have ignored reverb, altogether.
Whether Surf had happened or not, I think that reverb becoming available as a consumer product had major influence, not only on on the world of Rock n’ Roll, but also upon Country and, to some extent, Blues. In the sixties, and into the seventies, a Fender amp with Reverb was the sound of Country.
With the above in mind, I would opine that Dick Dale’s influence on Surf Music was, and remains, very great, but he wasn’t a sole factor. Without Dick Dale, and without the environment of the Rendevous Ballroom, Surf may have been more like The Ventures, and over-the-top reverb may not have been as prominent.
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The artist formerly known as: Synchro
When Surf Guitar is outlawed only outlaws will play Surf Guitar.
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