I was browsing through the November '85 Guitar Player, which has lengthy interviews with Paul Johnson and the Raybeats (separately), as well as a George Gruhn article on Jags and JMs (which he claims were greatly underpriced in the vintage guitar market at the time). There's several other things in that issue, including an interview with guitarist Steve Khan, whose work I don't know, but he sounds like a fusion guy. However, his first musical experience was drumming for the Chantays in their end days!! Here's a quote by him that I thought was pretty neat:
GP: What is it about early-'60s instrumental rock, such as surf, that has made a lasting impression on you?
SK: At the time, it was interesting guitar music. I wish the Chantays had recorded a lot of stuff they did when I was with them. The most impressive thing was that the songs were instrumentals. They weren't on the most sophisticated level, but they had solos and humor, and it was serious and fun at the same time. A lot of current pop stuff sounds like surf. For instance, the Police's "Driven to Tears" has that kind of feel, although Stewart Copeland may never have heard a surfing beat in his life.
Here's a bonus, from the Raybeats interview:
Jody Harris: When I first came to New York , I met Robert Quine, and he's got an incredible record collection. I spent three or four years over at his house listening to his records all the time... Quine and I got into this thing about the Shadows, and I started learning dozens of Shadows songs and became fascinated with that simple, melodic approach. That was really hard for me to do, too. I was incredibly inept at it at first.
GP: Were Danny Amis' compositions a bit too straight-ahead surf for the Raybeats?
Pat Irwin: Oh, without a doubt.
Jody Harris: He does write great little surf tunes. And he was the only guy in the band who could do that slide in "Pipeline".
PI: When we would do that in our gigs before Danny joined, it would be this pathetic little deal. Luckily, people would say "the stuttering guitar style."
Ivan
—Ivan
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