Up until a couple of days ago, I had never paid much attention to Out Of Limits. I had heard it many times, liked the tune, but never gave any thought to learning it, until I was checking out some backing tracks, and found that I had a commercially recorded version of Out Of Limits, and decided to give it a try.

To prepare myself, I decided to listen to a few versions of Out Of Limits to get the song into my head. Hearing over a half dozen different recordings, I was surprised by the variety I heard among these recordings. The recording by The Breakaways, from the album Time Surfin’ was a real surprise. The lead guitar had a gritty sound that sounded like something I would have heard in ‘70s Rock, but it really worked for this song. As a rule, I like cleanish guitar sounds, but in this recording it sounds great. IMO, this was very well played. As I listened to all of the different versions in my collection, I found myself coming back to the Breakaways.

Out Of Limits is an interesting song. It’s not hard to play, but the arrangement is unusual and an essential element in the song keeping its edge. It took a few play-throughs to capture where the fills end and the verse begins, but it’s a neat tune to have in one’s quiver.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

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

From what I understand, the Marketts were the first band to record it. Originally, it was called Outer Limits, but Rod Serling sued them, so the name was changed.

The Marketts was made up of some fairly experienced musicians, including the great Hal Blaine on drums. The playing was pretty good and their work was well produced. In a way, they contrasted with the norm for Surf bands, many of which were comprised of very young members.

One interesting thing about the song is the key change. I can’t recall ever hearing a song that placed a key change in the middle of the bridge, but it really works. I think that this helps to preserve the edginess of the song. This is a very clever piece.

I just learned this song, today, so I haven’t developed much in the way of style, to date. I may concentrate on the Breakaways recording and cop a few licks.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

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

stratdancer wrote:

We love playing this song and it is a crowd favorite. I play the main lead with the staccato riffs at the end of the run. Our other guitarist transposed a killer lead for the organ part with a heavy muted drip rhythm backing by myself. The song finishes in F then we whammy to E and let that hold while the bass player tunes to D. We then going into the intro to Mr Lou. (Thank you Space Rangers!).

Out of Limits says mid-60's hip like no other. What a groove!

It’s interesting how new genres develop. As I see it, Surf, like many sub-genres of Rock n’ Roll, many of the early artists were young, with immense quantities of talent, but young enough to be relatively inexperienced as musicians. My favorite example would be The Belairs, and their masterpiece, Mr. Moto.

But music is a business, as well as an art form, and experienced producers, such as Joe Saraceno applied their experience towards creating songs which fit popular sub-genres, striking while the iron is hot. A group of high-school aged musicians probably are not strong on music theory, but their raw talent and enthusiasm can create something wonderful, like Mr. Moto, while a group of experienced session pros are able to analyze an emerging genre and build compositions which tick off many of the same boxes.

As I see it, Out Of Limits somewhat spans both of these approaches. Michael Gordon, the composer, was young, but obviously a quick learner. The recording of Out Of Limits happened by the time that Surf had come to the attention of the industry pros, and the arrangement and personnel used reflect this. To the best of my understanding, Hal Blaine and Ray Pohlman were used on that recording, which means that there was some serious effort, and likely some serious money, put into that recording. Both Blaine and Pohlman were men in their thirties when this recording was made, and both were first call session players.

Of course, by October of 1963, the Surf Music heyday was almost over, as far as the first wave was concerned. Six months later, The Beatles had all but conquered the world, and Surf was no longer in the forefront. Somehow, the old joke; “remember that the Ark was built by amateurs and the Titanic was built by professionals”, come to mind. Both Mr Moto and Out Of Limits are masterpieces, but they serve as bookends to Surf’s first wave. Sirf didn’t die when The Beatles came along, but it was no longer on the leading edge.

Had “No Matter What Shape” been released in 1962, it probably would have been considered a Surf classic. No Matter What Shape is a perfect example of a hit created by absolute pros, who remained all but anonymous. In fact, this actually caused a bit of a problem, because No Matter What Shape became a #3 hit, and needed a touring band. Tommy Tedesco, Carol Kaye, Lyle Ritz, Julius Wechter and the other Wrecking Crew artists from that recording were not about to interrupt lucrative session careers, just to support a hit, not to mention that fact that a bunch of studio pros in their 30s were not likely to have been what the youth market would have expected to see on stage.

So the T-Bones came to life as a band, instead of a simple assemblage of session pros. Both Dan and Judd Hamilton along with Gene Pello, who had also been members of the Marketts, were included as members, so Out Of Limits and No Matter What Shape shared some interesting common ground. Both were brilliant studio productions, and carefully crafted examples of Instrumental Rock. Truly great stuff.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

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

ArtS wrote:

We do a take on the Ventures version, which has a nice line and a great guitar crash/missed note in it, that I find hard to recreate.

I have two different recordings of it, by The Ventures. One, from Ventures In Space, is 2:15 in length, and has a rawness to it that I like. The other, is 1:59 and a bit more polished. I like them both, but for different reasons. While the longer recording seems to be classic Ventures from the earlier days, the guitar is all but buried by the keyboards, in some passages.

The shorter version, IMO, is a better arrangement and the guitar is more out front. This is from a compilation album entitle The Ventures Play The Greatest Surfin’ Hits Of All Time, so I have no idea when it was recorded, except to say that it sounds like newer recording technology. The amp sound in this recording is much to my liking, as well.

The artist formerly known as: Synchro

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

Last edited: Dec 20, 2023 12:28:04

Thanks for the nice comments about our version of Out of Limits. We were fortunate enough at that time to have a member of the touring Marketts, Ed Riojas, in the band when we recorded it. After the studio guys came up with the hit, the record company put together a touring band to go out and play it live. His
Influence and our approach was to keep it original but add our Breakaways feel.

Craig Skelly

Little Kahuna
www.littlekahunamusic.com
The Breakaways
The Curl Riders

Last edited: Dec 28, 2023 00:59:05

Agent Orange's "Out of Limits" gives me the most pleasure

https://youtu.be/V-eODXiAOmU?si=Xz9B3ghl7amCHLWU

It's the version I enjoy hearing repeatedly. I usually prefer pristine lead tones, but this recording is a lesson in transistor distortion.

Insanitizers! http://www.insanitizers.com

I've always really liked to play this song. I think Tommy Tedesco played lead guitar on the original version. He said he tried to play like a 16 year old.

Here's my attempt to play like a 16 year old. Fairly mellow version.

And - a one off version of the band with my friends lead guitar Bob Cannistraro from Beloved Invaders and drummer Barry Newton from The Orang-u-tones. Moments of greatness followed by almost complete failure.

"You can't tell where you're going if you don't know where you've been"

Last edited: Dec 27, 2023 21:40:37