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Hey Ivan,
Being a writer and performer of trad surf instro music, and having been a fan
of surf instro music for about 45 years, I was wearing out Dick Dale albums
while most of day's surf guitarists were still in diapers, or not even born.
There's no question about DD's talent, abilities, technical prowess, and the
significance he will always have as being one of the founding fathers of 1960's
surf music. Maybe it's my Classical Music training coming to the surface, but
I've gravitated tastes-wise towards the surf bands that play with less volume
and more dynamics, and who do a lot of slower, moodier numbers. You mention
several great bands - and there are many others as well, such as The
Astronauts, The Pyramids, The Nocturnes, The Sentinels, The Impacts, Dave Myers
and The Surftones, and among today's surf bands, The Surf Kings, The Aqua
Velvets, The Aquamarines, The Deoras, The Eliminators, The Surf Coasters
(wow!!), The Nebulas, your old band, The Space Cossacks, Satan's Pilgrims,
Slacktone, Insect Surfers, The Torquays, I could go on for the next several
paragraphs.
Most of these bands and players have been able to make their own unique
innovative contribution to the rich heritage of Surf Music, without sounding
like clones of DD.
I've written a song or two that clearly showed DD's influence, but, it's
tremendously fatiguing to both player and listener, to be besieged by an hour of
120+db machine-gun riffs, when I would rather have heard a modern take on Theme
from The Endless Summer! The Chantays' Beyond and Space Probe are both
excellent, but so is Killer Dana.
I remember seeing The Crossfires play somewhere in the South Bay, back in '63,
with an older cousin, and I thought the lead guitar was Tom Stanton, but that
was a long time ago, and sometimes one's memory can be a tricky thing.
Longboard Ranch, my band, has three guitars, so we can have the classic
Astronauts-pioneered full surf rhythm-section, including damped reverb rhythm
guitar. I'm lead guitar and main songwriter. Our Second Guitar is Loyd Davis,
an original founding member of The Surf Raiders, who when still a teenager, used
to travel from Downey, California to Newport Beach, to see DD performing,
starting right about the time "Let's Go Tripping" was released. Before DD,
Loyd's favorites were The Fireballs, The Wailers, Link Wray and Duane Eddy.
I guess my point is pretty much in agreement with what you said in your posting,
that there are indeed many other pioneering Surf Artists we can discuss, (and I
say this with much respect) without the discussions being dominated by DD.
BTW, I ordered several sets of the Rotos, in 12 & 13. The 13's on my Jazzmaster
sound much better than the RW 12's on my Strat, so on the Strat, it's back to
D'Addario 12's, but I'm liking the Rotos on the Jazzmaster, quite a lot. Thanks
for having informed us all about them!
Respectfully,
Bruce D
ipongrac <> wrote:
Bruce, with all due respect, when we're just finding out he used
roundwound strings in the sixties, and songs like Nitro Fuel or
Ghost Riders have NEVER (as far I know) been mentioned on the list,
then there's stil plenty to talk about. Much better than discussing
Eric Johnson (who I actually saw play live in July of '90, and was
there hours before the show, watching him prepare and hang out with
Paul Reed Smith who gave him a guitar as a present - the show was in
Washington, DC) on a surf list.
The more I get into Dick's sixties music, the more I enjoy it and
the more respect I have for him as a guitarist. Maybe five years
ago I would have responded in the same way, but it's shocking to me
how many surf fans know very little of his music outside the Rhino
best-of. He had six albums in the sixties, you know... How many
times has his last studio album from the sixties, Summer Surf, come
up? I think this is an amazing album, with two tracks that are well-
known and deservedly so (Banzaii Washout and Tidal Wave) but with so
many more that are completely unknown (very much undeservedly so),
like The Star (of David), Spanish Kiss, Surfin' Rebel, and Never on
Sunday. These albums of his are selling for $80 on eBay, too!
Anyway, I don't know why you hang out on this list, but I personally
want to learn more about surf music, and there is still a lot more
unknown about Dick. And I know for a fact that guys that know
something about topics like these and want to know more, and want to
just discuss, have dropped off the list.
But hell, if you don't want to talk about Dick, no problem. How
about Jim Messina & the Jesters? Or the Lively Ones? The Surfaris
don't pop up very often, but I think "Scattershield" is an intense
tune! How about the Crossfires? Al Nichol really gave Dick 'a run
for life' - listen to him on "Out of Control" - holy shit!! When
was the last time a track by the Chantays (NOT Pipeline) that came
up in discussion? I've always been fond of "Beyond", "Space Probe"
and their version of "Wayward Nile" never fails to give me the
shivers.
I'll be very happy to talk about any of these when we get bored of
Dick. I enjoy a lot of modern surf, as should be very clear, but
c'mon, the sixties surf was so damn GOOD - don't you think so???
Ivan
--- In , bruce duncan <wetreverb@y...>
wrote:
> Dick Dale has been discussed and threaded to an incredible
degree. A change of subject is refreshing at times!
>
> With all due respect,
>
> Bruce D
.
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