The Penetrators wrote the trilogy as the soundtrack to an imagined short spaghetti western film.

A brief synopsis as I remember it:

In "Stolen from the Sand" a gunfighter's love is taken from a beach by bandits.

"40 Miles to Vengence" is the protagonist's journey to rescue/showdown.

"High Plains Surfer" is the climatic showdown.

Definitely inspired by Morricone.

They had planned to release a High Plains Surfer EP with the trilogy and a few other tracks. Unfortunately tragedy has sidelined these plans.

Hope that helps.

Jet Powers
038

BTW Morricone was not the composer for High Plains Drifter. He did the "Man With No Name/Dollars" trilogy. High Plains Drifter was a later, American film.

The Volcanos

Was "Guns Don't Argue" from the "For a Few Guitars More" compilation intended to be on this EP?

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Also, when we were putting together Locked & Loaded there was talk of having the High Plains Surfer songs tacked on to the end of the CD. Since the band didn't complete the songs as desired, with strings and horns, they were left off.

Sean
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Surf CD's / Vinyl / Fanzines / DVD's
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Continental Magazine - Issue #39 With Compilation CD

I believe High Plains Surfer Theme is still up on the immortal Penetrators MySpace site. If only the Penetrators were as immortal in the flesh. You can listen, but not download, of course. I love that song. I suppose partly it's the title, which resonates with those of us out on the western plains, but I believe I would also love it if it were called "A Beer, A Plate of Spaghetti, and Thou Beside Me in the Wilderness." (I guess that would never fit on an EP.)

You can find it in the wreckage of the following MySpace playlist:

http://music.myspace.com/Modules/MusicV2/Pages/PopUpPlayer.aspx?songid=&artid=&profid=74306017&plid=496797

I would like to sign up now for any release including this song or even just the Penetrators tuning their guitars and scratching their butts. Heck, make the movie. I can think of some people who could do it. I'm not sure if it makes any sense, but making sense is not necessarily why people make movies like that.

There is easily enough stuff out there for another gunsmoke special compilation or two, or BTD surf broadcast, however you figure it.

I would love to see this released in the future. Horns and strings would be nice. I worked with good horns and string players recently and if the rest of the band want to have it there is a possibility to do additional recording here. I can try to find someone who can do arrangement and I can also organize session and produce additional tracks. Just something to think about....

It's funny this has come up now, since Sticks and i were talking about this project on Saturday night. I know at least he (don't know about Trace) is very interested in seeing it finished. I emailed him a link to this thread, hopefully he'll pipe up soon....

And Dalibor, that is quite an offer! That would be AMAZING!

Ivan
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The first version of The High Plains Surfer trilogy was released on the now out of stock cassette-only release "Have Reverb, Will Travel." The trilogy portion was recorded at Brock Music in Nashville.

As I look at my cassette copy, the original titles were different:
"Duel in the Surf"
"Trail of Beers"
"High Plains Surfer Theme"

Later versions were recorded at Bakos Amp works in Atlanta.

At some point, Spanky compiled a cdr of rarities (including all of "Have Reverb, Will Travel"), 7"s, and alternate takes that included a couple of versions of the trilogy. I'm not sure if The Penetrators were looking to formally release something like that or not.

I can't speak definitively for Sticks and Trace, but I think there are plans to eventually release something.

Jet Powers
038

Count me in on buying it! Sounds great! If you really want to see them tuning their guitars you may be in luck! Rocking Robert had a tape of them doing a set on the Rockin' & Surfin' Show. The studio was so small that they could barely move! I can try to dig it up! I also have lots of footage of them from several Clarkston Surf Fests.
Thanks
Guy

Sorry to all you surf guitar dudes that I never get on 101...may be because of that G word (ha just kidding). This post is awesome and is putting a fire under my lazy arse for sure. After seeing Ivan this week and talking about the possibilities of putting this out I am really really ready! I need to talk to Luger and Veronica (Spanky's wife) about it and see what we can do. Luger is constantly writing new stuff for it and has had new pieces and parts that we need to finalize. We have always wanted full horns and orchestra and all that goodness too. It's been in the back of my mind to complete for years and would love to get a rarities ep out as well or re release our first cassette we put out on CD. I think Sean is on the right track for sure and we need to talk more about getting this out for both Rip and Spanky but do it right and do it well. Thank you all for the interest in this and keeping us going. I don't want to stop releasing stuff ever and I have a ton of stuff that I could post from videos to music that not many have seen or heard so Stick (har) with me and Luger and I will see what we can do with Double-Crown and talk about cost to do orchestra/horns and a butt load of cool percussion. Anyone want to loan me some timpani drums...I've always wanted some of those. Too darn big though.