Aloha, surf guitarists. I've something of a mystery here regarding a piece of music I'd heard some years back and I just heard again while watching a Monumental Mysteries series episode on Netflix that featured the segment titled "Superhero Surfer" about Duke Kahanamoku. I would like to know the name and artist(s) who performed the instrumental surf guitar based used as bed music in it. I first heard it about five years ago on YouTube in a video titled "The Gyro-Wheel" (see below video), but there wasn't any info on the song listed. So I've been searching ever since, have posted hither and yon, and emailed various people and sites, including the folks who put together The Gyro-Wheel video, asking about the song, to no avail. As a fan of surf type guitar work (being a bit of a guitarist myself) I immediately loved it. At first I thought it was from a band called The Mermen as it sounds a lot like their work. But that was a dead end. So every once in a while when I hear it on somewhere, usually as bed music to someone's video work, I try to see if they know the name and the artist as I figure in some cases some financial remuneration is being given to someone for use the song. I've never been able to discover the name of the tune or the artist(s). I'd love to know who did this track and check out other tracks from whomever performed it. If anyone's got any information on this tune please let me know, I'd be immensely grateful. And as I'm not the only one who's asked about this song, as posts to the "Gyro-Wheel" video and elsewhere show, I could then pass the info along. Thank you.

Last edited: Oct 12, 2015 15:07:37

Sounds more Shadows-y than surf. The Falcons also come to mind.

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Brian wrote:

Sounds more Shadows-y than surf. The Falcons also come to mind.

Hm, The Shadows or Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet? I've got the Shadowy Men's Sport Fishin' CD and it's not on that one. I'd run through their others and not heard it on any of them. But you may be onto something with The Shadows, some obscure piece from them. I'll check through their stuff. Really, there's so many possibilities since the overall genre began.

As for the use of the term "surf" I've just always used that as an umbrella term based upon 1)the liquid-y sound of the guitar, 2) almost exclusively instrumental, 3) and usually that's where the industry categorizes such bands as the The Mermen, Shadowy Men, etc, etc, people who record in that vein.

It's kinda like when talking about electronic music these days. Given electronic music's been around since at least Les Paul's basic inventing of the equipment there's a whole universe of sounds and styles through the decades. There's electronica, ambient, dance, house, dun step, etc, to many to name. And trying to discuss it all my son and I have a hard time trying to narrowing things down to talk about and search out artists we're not familiar with. I mean, we've finally come to use the phrase "DJ Music" for all the varied DJ/Turntable music that's out there, such as house, dub step, etc, where once we called it all "electronica" (but electronica means something different to those who're into the music). And even there because those making the music will come up with new terms for what they're creating... Well, gets a bit much, so trying to keep things as simple as possible we just call some things by an overall umbrella term.

Anyway, I appreciate the reply. I'm gonna check through The Shadows catalog to see if that track is theirs. I am fairly familiar with their wok, but ya never know. Gotta be hundreds of bands and solo artists since those early days of the genre who've recorded things. Hopefully at some point something will come up.

Thanks again.

I don't think it is actually the Shadows, but it sounds Shadows-inspired to me. It's the echo-y lead guitar and acoustic rhythm guitar that puts it in the Shadows camp for me.

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
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"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

Last edited: Oct 12, 2015 21:26:36

It could even be some Finnish rautalanka type band too.

Site dude - S3 Agent #202
Need help with the site? SG101 FAQ - Send me a private message - Email me

"It starts... when it begins" -- Ralf Kilauea

All,
The tune is "Surfer Girl" by Chris Blackwell. It was a forum post here on SG101 a few years back. How soon we forget.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lwn-ChgrN8

Hope this helps..
J Mo'

Years ago I use to check a webpage by a northern European guitarist that had tabbed out most of the Shadows songs. He was an excellent player and nailed Hank's tone and style. Perhaps he created the music.

Happy Sunsets!

Last edited: Oct 13, 2015 12:44:50

Darn I didn't see Johnny Mosrite's answer above!

Last edited: Oct 27, 2015 20:09:29

JohnnyMosrite wrote:

All,
The tune is "Surfer Girl" by Chris Blackwell. It was a forum post here on SG101 a few years back. How soon we forget.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lwn-ChgrN8

Hope this helps..
J Mo'

Cool!
I didn`t remembered...

No Shadows. I also thought about The Falcons or something (like Brian)... Or The Violents... swedish, finnish, UK,...

Twang cheers!

Ralf Kilauea

www.kilaueas.de

https://kilaueas.bandcamp.com/album/touch-my-alien

Welp. Now another mystery. I went to YouTube and typed in Chris Blackwell Surfer Girl and the first video, featuring some Collie's romping about a beach, said the song came from an album titled "Surf Guitar". So far, Google isn't yielding a thing under that title. Nor does it list a Chris Blackwell Surf Guitar on such sites as Amazon or Discogs.com.

I did come up with this: http://us.audionetwork.com/browse/m/album/surf-guitar_1187 among some other audio track purchase sites likely for use as bed music. And outside of the legendary Island Records founder Chris Blackwell I did find a drummer in England and contacted a younger Chris Blackwell who appears to play guitar and seems to have some rep in the guitar world. Left a message via the latter's Facebook inquiring if he is indeed the fellow who wrote and played Surfer Girl. I can't tell anything yet as to what year the song was recorded.

Anyone have any thought on these things, like have you ever heard of the album "Surf Guitar" featuring a Chris Blackwell and that song? I'm wondering if it's a long out of print, obscure compilation album. But even then, Google should have turned up something. Hm, well, maybe another case for the Surf Guitar Irregulars.

Thanks again for solving the main questions though. That was really cool.