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Last edited: Sep 23, 2009 21:02:54

SRV revived blues.

Sonichris
I also like to think that all early 60's fender equipment is happy to be playing surf music again. After all, its the music it was meant to play.

I posted this once before, but here's a letter I sent Bill Flannigan, former head of MTV and a frequent music correspondant on CBS Sunday Morning. Feel free to copy it, modify it, and send it on to as many music review journalists you know of. Perhaps a grass roots movement from SG101 will help raise awareness.

Mr. Bill Flanagan
Music Reviewer
CBS Sunday Morning
51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019

_Dear Bill,

A quick letter to let you know how much I enjoy your music reviews on CBS Sunday Morning. As a result I’ve been able to find some great music that otherwise would have slipped under my radar. On that note, I wanted to offer a suggestion for a future music segment – namely a review of contemporary instrumental surf music. Popularized in the 60’s by such legends as Dick Dale, The Bel Airs and Duane Eddy, instrumental surf music is alive and well, just not well known.

I was reintroduced to the genre several years ago when a friend of mine convinced me to start an instrumental surf band. Although skeptical I did it just for fun, but after playing our first gig and seeing the positive reaction of the crowd I was hooked on both the music and the whole vibe.

In an effort to promote our band I started to research things, thinking we may have accidentally stumbled upon an untapped music niche. But to my surprise I was amazed to see how deep contemporary surf music roots run and how wide the appeal is globally. In fact, I suspect there is probably more self-produced original music within localized instrumental surf bands around the world than in any other genre.

If you’re interested in researching this further, a few websites to check out would be www.surfmusic.com , www.surfguitar101.com , www.zptduda.com/cowabunga/ , and those will lead you around the world to rediscover the current sounds of surf. You will also rediscover many first wave artists, such as Eddie Bertram and Paul Johnson, are still out there alive and well and working on new projects.

Along the way if perchance you also get hooked on the new surf music vibe, perhaps you can help get the word out on a future music segment. Like so many other musical gems you’ve placed in the spotlight, I bet your CBS audience would love to hear about the musical goldmine that lays undiscovered in today’s instrumental surf music.

Warm regards,

Frank Ferraro
Left Guitarist
Cutback Surfband
www.cutbacksurfband.com
frank@cutbacksurfband.com_

CUTBACK

big_papu
I use to talk a lot by PMs with Zak about this, and I take the conclusion that is more a band thing than a genre thing......like all the other genres, there are infinite ways to do it, I know metal cover bands that play in bars for fun and metal bands that plays in stadiums.......but there is a general rule : more that you work, more positive things you got, and there are a lot of places for surf music like there are for any other kind of music..............it´s just MUSIC, and just depends in if is it good or bad.........if you got a good band, you got more chances to get some success........only depends on how hard your work is

Papu, I think you've got the right idea here...and Bach says "Right Freakin' On!"...

ooohh.........JSB, great guy

I have an arrangement of a surf-instro version of "jesus, joy of man desire".........I guess that there is a nice relationship between surf and classical music, just take a look on the cougars version of "saturday night at the duck pond", satan pillgrims "Hungarian Dance No. 5 " or some takeshi stuff like this

El Papu & los Fantasticos Reverberantes

Last edited: Nov 10, 2008 10:23:39

zak
Better ask yourself what are you doing to increase the popularity of this kind of music?

Best and most important question of the thread. Also one that makes me squirm a bit.

Ralph
The Storm Surfers

Be at one with the universe. If you can't do that, at least be at one with your guitar.

I also think that garage music organ players have a lot of JS Bach influence...........just hear the end of fuzztones version of "strichnine"

El Papu & los Fantasticos Reverberantes

Kman1
SRV revived blues.

.. which gave us Jeff Healey and Robert Cray. thanks for proving my point!

Rules to live by #314:
"When in Italy, if the menu says something's grilled, don't assume it is."

https://www.facebook.com/The-Malbehavers-286429584796173/

I guess people come to surf music from different persectives and interests. In my case, I was born in 1956-- I didn't have older brothers & sisters, but from cousins, neighbours and so on, I vaguely remember some pre-British Invasion rock'n'roll, and have a vague recollection of some Ventures tunes, but that's about it, as far as the first wave is concerned.

For the most part, my initiation to surf came in the mid to late '70s, as part of the punk/new wave thing and the rediscovery of rockabilly, surf and rock'n'roll from the 50s & 60s generally. Johnny Thunders' Pipeline made me seek out the original, and next thing you know, I'm discovering all sorts of old music that is really cool, gripping rock'n'roll that scared the parents of a previous generation.

So, to me, what makes it cool or interesting is the energy and relative simplicity & primitive nature of the music (simple drum beat, loud guitars etc). My impression is that it wasn't terribly "mainstream" the first time around, and it's not really a nostalgia thing for me to play surf. It's a matter of capturing the energy, cleverness and other delights of the music.

I have a 13 year old son who is learning guitar. He likes the White Stripes and so on, but one day, he comes up to me and asks if I've heard of Booker T and the MGs... turns out he heard Green Onions on some video game (Guitar Hero, maybe) and really liked it... so I give him some Booker T, but I also say, hey, if you like stuff like the White Stripes, you might like this, and I give him a Link Wray compilation. He comes back the next day, and he's had a life-altering experience, and next thing you know, he's figured out Rumble.

Anyway, I think surf music can speak to people of all sorts of different ages and backgrounds and musical interests, and I think it's influence on modern rock music is profound, but I also think it's always going to be a niche interest. Interest may ebb & flow, it'll never go away, but it's never going to sweep the nation, either.

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=lf#!/rockinrio.delrosa

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=lf#!/TheHighTides

http://www.facebook.com/?sk=lf#!/pages/The-Blue-Demons

youngsters love surf music if you show it to them

this is my 12 year old nephew, following the surf guitar steps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uD9SF2asJPU

El Papu & los Fantasticos Reverberantes