Photo of the Day

London, UK - 'Rainbow Bridge' was a peculiar 1972 film featuring Jimi Hendrix (who had died two years before) and a cast of local eccentrics using Hendrix’s music and a whole slew of UFO sightings to explore their spirituality. 41 years later, musician and filmmaker Merrell Fankhauser revisits the film to explore its message more fully. The 'Rainbow Bridge Revisited' documentary was really Maui journalist Steve Omar's idea, and Merrell and Steve produced it together. The two had fun looking up and interviewing the original cast of the 1972 Jimi Hendrix movie 'Rainbow Bridge' that was filmed on Maui. It was interesting to hear what they had to say about hanging out with Hendrix making the movie. The one-hour DVD documentary also features some great surfing and music by Merrell Fankhauser, The Space Patrol and Omar and The Wavespies. The package includes a 12-song soundtrack.

Merrell explains, “As you know I lived on Maui for 14 years and I moved there in ‘73 just a year after the Jimi Hendrix 'Rainbow Bridge' film came out. And when I moved there I met a lot of people that were in the movie, and a lot of them were hippies, surfers and cosmic people that were seeing UFOs, and they said Jimi was really into the whole UFO thing, and that there were even some hovering about when they were shooting over there. So we contacted the ones that we still knew were on Maui and we went over and interviewed them and it was really interesting what some of them had to say about hanging out with Hendrix and everything. Then we went down to Southern California, because some of them lived down there, and we interviewed a few of those, so we’ve got some really interesting interviews with an insight into some of the things that were going on with that movie with Hendrix that didn’t come out. In the original 'Rainbow Bridge', it follows Pat Hartley the actress from the Sunset Strip over to O’ahu and then to Maui where she meets all these characters, and ultimately Jimi. And the message, because of all of her travels and the way it was put together, kind of got lost a little bit in the different scenes and things. I talked to one of the guys from Warner Brothers who was in on the editing and he said that when they brought the film over it was in all of these bags and there was sand in it and they were almost afraid to put it on their machine, and had to clean it all and they kept going through this stuff and it was just a lot of hippies talking about cosmic stuff and getting high on drugs, and everybody kept saying 'Where’s Jimi, where’s Jimi? Where’s the concert' You know they were afraid they weren’t going to have enough to make the movie really good, but finally they got to the 'Concert' footage. So what we did, we kind of condensed these interviews down and we segue into some really great surfing on big waves over there, because a lot of the people that were interviewed were surfers and we have old footage of them surfing, and then we cut to surfing footage from now. I have about ten of my newer instrumental surf songs in there with the surfing, and then it goes to a couple of band performances – there were two Maui bands featured on the soundtrack: Omar and The Wavespies and The Space Patrol – the lead singer, Les Potts, was in the original 'Rainbow Bridge' movie.”

There is more to this story, continue reading ...

Tags:

Top

Surf Music Legend Merrell Fankhauser Releases Definitive Collection 'The Best Of' Two-CD Set

Submitted by glassonyonpr on May 02, 2012

Surf Music Legend Merrell Fankhauser Releases Definitive Collection 'The Best Of' Two-CD Set

Featuring 32 tracks – over 90 minutes of music!

4/28/2012 - London, UK – Music collectors worldwide rejoice! Legendary singer/songwriter/guitarist Merrell Fankhauser, who has led one of the most diverse careers in music, has released for the first time a new compilation 'The Best Of' two-CD set on UK's Gonzo MultiMedia. Featuring vintage tracks, hard to find gems and unreleased material, Merrell Fankhauser's 'The Best Of' is sure to please the most avid fan. Merrell Fankhauser is considered one of the main innovators of surf music and psychedelic folk rock, and is widely known as the leader of the instrumental group The Impacts who had the international hit “Wipeout”. His travels from Hollywood to his 15 year jungle experience on the island of Maui have been documented in numerous music books and magazines in the US and Europe. Merrell has gained legendary international status throughout the field of rock music; his credits include over 300 songs published and released.

“Merrell Fankhuaser 'The Best Of' is my first retrospective, a 2-CD set with songs from 1963 to now. It was a difficult task to pick a group of songs from nearly forty albums – I found a few unreleased gems along the way.” - Merrell Fankhuaser

Merrell Fankhauser 'The Best Of' features tracks spanning the majority of the music legend's extraordinary career; featuring Merrell And The Exiles (1963-64), Fapardokly (1966), Merrell And HMS Bounty (1968), MU (1971-74), and solo (1976-2011) including several unreleased recordings. Many tracks included on this compilation are hard to find, highly sought after, collector's items that have been out of print for many years, making Merrell Fankhauser 'The Best Of' the definitive collection.

Merrell Fankhauser has presented a number of television programs over the years including 'California Music', 'Route 66 TV Live', and in 2001 he began hosting a music show called 'Tiki Lounge' that airs on the California Central Coast, Southern California, Hawaii and parts of the East Coast. 'The Best Of The Tiki Lounge' volumes 1&2 DVDs feature highlights from Merrell's cable TV show and is also available now on Gonzo MultiMedia UK.

To purchase Merrell Fankhauser 'The Best Of' two-cd set:http://www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/product_details/15291/MERRELL_FANKHAUSER-The_Best_Of.html

To purchase Merrell Fankhauser 'Best Of Tiki Lounge' DVDs:www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/product_details/15360

Visit the official Merrell Fankhauser website at www.merrellfankhauser.com

Press inquiries: Glass Onyon PR, PH: 828-350-8158, glassonyonpr@cs.com

Tags:

merrell-fankhauser

Top