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Thanks for the awesome response Ted.
--- In , "spskins" <superchimp9@h...> wrote:
>
>
> Jacob,
> I assume that Satan's Pilgrims is one of the "Portland bands" you
> speak of-. Speaking for SP, bands like the Ghouls were an influence
> (especially in our dress code)as were Frank E. Stein and the Ghouls
> (not surf, but monster-themed instrumentals). Check out this link for
> more on them and to see how we paid tribute (ripped them off) for our
> Creature Feature album.
>
>
>
> I always think of the Ghastly Ones as taking a cue from the Deadly
> Ones, who were obviously the monster-themed parody of the Lively Ones.
> I've posted this before, but there were also individual songs, like
> Satan's Theme (the first song we ever learned as a band), and Devil
> Surfer that weren't by bands that had any kind of horror or monster
> theme, but influenced us in the direction we wanted to go.
> When we started MOAM was doing the space/sci-fi thing, the Untamed
> Youth and Phantom Surfers were doing the surf band thing, so we just
> sort of went for the vampire thing, and the Ghastlys followed
> soonafter and one-upped us with their background in Hollywood mask
> making and special effects.
> As far as SP and the Ghastly Ones go, if I may speak for them, what's
> really going on here is that we were/are not only fanatic about surf
> and other early 60s music, bit we were/are fanatical about early 60s
> pop culture in general. Just as Ed "Big Daddy" Roth, Mooneyes, Honda
> Bikes, and early skateboarding are peripherally tied to the surf
> culture of the early 60s, so was the huge explosion of interest in
> monsters and horror movies.
> The classic Universal Monsters created from the 30s through the 50s
> (Dracula, Frankenstein, the Mummy, Wolfman, Creature From the Black
> Lagoon, Bride of Frankenstein, etc) enjoyed their height in popularity
> during this time thanks to drive-ins recycling the films and the
> popularity of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. Thus, you get
> "Monster Mash" and its copy cats, the Munsters, the Addams Family, the
> Haunted Mansion opening at Disneyland etc.
> To the mind of a pre to early-teen male, monsters were just as cool as
> surfing and hot rods. Aurora introduced the Frankenstein model in 1962
> , it sold like hotcakes, and soon all of the Universal Monsters were
> available as hugely popular models. Then,in the mid-60s, Aurora
> combined two big sellers, monsters and hot rods and came up with
> models like Dracula's Dragster and Mummy's Chariot, while Grandpa
> Munster's Dragula car was wowing everyone along with the Batmobile.
> Drag Nut, Surf Fink, etc. by Ed Roth were all basically monsters
> surfing and dragging, and they were copycatted to create the
> "Weird-Oh" series of models, which had its own "surfy" companion album
> by the Silly Surfers.
> I was born in '67, so I don't remember any of the "first wave" monster
> stuff (ha ha) but I clearly remember it still being popular through
> the mid-70s along with the hot rod stuff (at least for young boys).
> Maybe someone who was around for the first wave might shed more light
> on this and validate it or not...
> Maybe we we're using a form of revisionist history, like modern
> rockabillies with all of their tattoos-did Carl Perkins have a tattoo?
> Maybe he did....I don't know. Anyway, we have fun with it and while we
> didn't stick to the genre as closely as say, the Ghastly Ones (we've
> never been able to stick to anything) it gave us an identity.
>
> Sorry, I'll stop now.
> Ted Pilgrim
>
> --- In , "Jacob Dobner"
> <jacobdobner@y...> wrote:
> >
> > Something I have always been curious about is the obvious sub-genre of
> > surf music that is the so-called horror music. How did all of this
> > start? There are the Portland band's who are really into the whole
> > thing and then there are the Ghastly One's. And all the way back we
> > have the Ghouls. There are many more modern bands that have this sound
> > as well. How did this whole idea start and evolve?
> >
> > And do we think of the horror sound because of the image of the band
> > or do we associate the actual melodies with creepy music we have heard
> > in our youth.
> >
> > Are the Ghouls really the start of it all? In other words were they a
> > popular enough band to influence the bands that came.
> >
>
