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SurfGuitar101 Forums » Surf Music General Discussion »

Permalink New Book: "Southern California Surf Music, 1960-1966"

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John wrote:

H-m-m-m, I see $16.66 at Amazon.com. Cover price of the book is $21.99. Looks like a bargain to me (at least in US dollars). Maybe try the US Amazon? OR, you could order the book directly from me at www.johnblair.us (although you'll have to cover postage). As far as I'm aware there is no shortage of these books now. The publisher only sold out of the pre-orders. I'm pretty sure all pre-orders have been fulfilled. So, order with confidence. They are available at many other online retailers as well as brick and mortar stores.

John

I am such a dummy! I thought I read on here that the book was completely sold out. I should have done some research before posting. Thanks for the reply. Smile

MooreLoud.com - A tribute to Dick Dale. New Single “Finish Line” on Bandcamp and website.

I just ordered from amazon.
congratulations john and many thanks for your efforts. Smile

Mine just arrived!

https://striciizozadja.bandcamp.com/

I got one from the HB surf museum.
They will ship if you can't find one online.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Had you see the Gibson SG on stage with Eddie & The Showmen?

When you have to shoot ... shoot! Don't talk.
"Los Grainders" www.facebook.com/losgrainders
"Planeta Reverb" www.facebook.com/planetareverb

Emilien03 wrote:

Had you see the Gibson SG on stage with Eddie & The Showmen?

Emilien03 - check out this thread! http://surfguitar101.com/forums/topic/18849/

lots of great pictures and sounds and info about that day.

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

Emilien03 wrote:

Had you see the Gibson SG on stage with Eddie & The Showmen?

There is also a photo of the Conrad & the Hurricane Strings in the book with one of the guitarists playing a white SG - did you see that? It's this photo:

image

Here it is in color, though much smaller: image

There was also a very cool British instro band the Phantoms (who spent most of their music career in Sweden, actually) whose lead guitarist (I think) used an SG:

image

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

Received my copy from the UK. Great read and pictures! Correction for a next edition: the North Sea Surf Festival does not take place in Belgium but in the Netherlands.

Instromania on Bandcamp

Last edited: Apr 26, 2015 15:44:18

Received my copy. Love the format of the book... big pictures with detailed captions. Great to pick up and open to a random page.

-Pierre
The Obsidians! (Ottawa surf)
The Obsidians debut EP

I finished reading this book about 10 days ago, and thought I'd finally write a bit about it.

Who else but John Blair could have done this book?? NOBODY! The man is truly THEE surf music historian, and simply a fount of knowledge about our beloved genre! And what a treasure-trove of photos and posters - the result of a lifetime of collecting all this stuff - and now it's all in one place! How incredible is that?? How fortunate are we that we finally have access to all this material in one highly-professional book?? If anybody ever asks you again, what do I read to learn more about surf music, the answer is now very easy - this book is simply the perfect introduction to surf music. What I like the best about it is that John was able to capture the romance of surf music, which I suspect is the biggest part of what drew most of us to it. Through photos and short but highly effective descriptions, band histories, chapter introductions, etc., John captured the FEEL of that era. There's just that short period, '61-'64 really, where the music and the lifestyle, all in one of the most perfect settings imaginable, came together. To be a teenager in SoCal in those three years, to drive your hotrod or hearse or woodie to the beach and surf during the day and then go to a surf music show at night (at least in the summer and the weekends), well, does it get better than that? I think not. That's the romance of this genre, what hooks most of us, I believe.

And then we start listening to the music - and you realize, holy crap, this stuff was GOOD! Inspired by this book, I've been listening to a ton of 1st wave surf the last couple of weeks. After not having very much of it on my iPod for a couple of years (having gotten burned out on it a few years ago after listening to it way too much), I put nearly 200 tracks on there and have had those on shuffle lately. What struck me AGAIN - as it has many times before - is how incredibly creative and individual so much of this music really was! There was clearly a unifying sound and approach, but I listen to what all the different bands did with those elements, and my mind is simply blown. These bands were constantly pushing the envelope, trying to do something different, something more - and they in general DID. And they did it despite all basically using the same tools - and mostly LOOKING the same! The uniformity of the band images was certainly not translated into uniformity of sounds, which I personally find fascinating and deeply attractive. Here are the fairly limited tools - use them to unleash your imagination and creativity, with the only restrictions being these instruments and what you are able to do with them. Turns out that these restrictions are not really very, well, restrictive. And that is absolutely remarkable.

Reading John's book brought back all these aspects of why I fell in love with surf music in the first place. As I mentioned above, it's easy to become jaded after doing this for many years - I've been deeply into surf music for 21 years now. That's a long time, and I do on occasion lose sight of what makes this genre special. Thank you, John, for rekindling those feelings inside me.

The fact that this book was made possible because the publishers contacted Brian through SG101 who in turn put them in touch with John, only makes it even more special. Everything came together to make this book the perfect document of the first wave of surf music. It's a true gift!!

PS My favorite quote (which I had seen before but forgot about) came from Murray Wilson, the father of the Wilson brothers from the Beach Boys as well as the manager of the band, describing the sound of surf music on page 61: "The basis of surfing music is rock and roll bass beat figuration, coupled with a raunchy-type weird-sounding lead guitar... Surfing music has to sound untrained with a certain rough flavor to appeal to the teenagers." LMAO

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

Last edited: Apr 29, 2015 11:49:28

Great review Ivan.
I just got my copy recently, been flipping thru it little by little.
But really need to dive into it. Your review has inspired me to.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

Big Grin Just placed my order!

Thanks for the review, Ivan! Good stuff!

I have a stack of books by my bed. This book is next! I cant wait!

I need to read this book :-)!

El Twitter
El Ray
El Ray on Bandcamp
El Twang on YouTube

Last edited: Apr 29, 2015 13:37:56

IVAN thats a great review can you put that on amazon.com for a review of the book please?
is thier gonna be a movie on this subject.?

Last edited: May 01, 2015 02:35:52

yes! the one I'm talking about is on page 19.
It's not that obvious but you can see also a white SG ...
same guitar?

IvanP wrote:

Emilien03 wrote:

Had you see the Gibson SG on stage with Eddie & The Showmen?

There is also a photo of the Conrad & the Hurricane Strings in the book with one of the guitarists playing a white SG - did you see that? It's this photo:

image

Here it is in color, though much smaller: image

There was also a very cool British instro band the Phantoms (who spent most of their music career in Sweden, actually) whose lead guitarist (I think) used an SG:

image

When you have to shoot ... shoot! Don't talk.
"Los Grainders" www.facebook.com/losgrainders
"Planeta Reverb" www.facebook.com/planetareverb

Thanks for the reminder about this thread.

Sonichris wrote:

Emilien03 wrote:

Had you see the Gibson SG on stage with Eddie & The Showmen?

Emilien03 - check out this thread! http://surfguitar101.com/forums/topic/18849/

lots of great pictures and sounds and info about that day.

When you have to shoot ... shoot! Don't talk.
"Los Grainders" www.facebook.com/losgrainders
"Planeta Reverb" www.facebook.com/planetareverb

Seems that yes ... the one playing a white Gibson SG at those times was Brett Brady of Eddie & The Showmen ... interesting!
Why not a Fender like all the oner guys? ...

image

When you have to shoot ... shoot! Don't talk.
"Los Grainders" www.facebook.com/losgrainders
"Planeta Reverb" www.facebook.com/planetareverb

palo wrote:

IVAN thats a great review can you put that on amazon.com for a review of the book please?

Hey palo, that was my intention, but I need to rewrite it a bit first, can't post it just like this, this one was written for the forum audience. But I'll rewrite it soon and post it there for sure.

John told me that he'll doing a short presentation and a book signing at the L.A. Public Library tomorrow (Saturday), the first one of what should be a few over the coming weeks. Hope some SG101ers can go provide some moral support, and spread the word with the newbies in the audience. Wish I could be there!

Ivan
Lords of Atlantis on Facebook
The Madeira Official Website
The Madeira on Facebook
The Blair-Pongracic Band on Facebook
The Space Cossacks on Facebook
The Madeira Channel on YouTube

GET THOSE FILTHY NASTY NO GOOD DIRTY GIBSONS OFF OF THIS FORUM!!!!

Stir the Pot Big Grin Big Razz

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