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I, for one, am super-stoked and amazed that they tracked
down the legendary Kathy Marshall. Ever since I read about
her in Bob Dalley's book, I have been fascinated by this
"Queen of the Surf Guitar". I knew she was enigmatic, that
she could trade licks any-day-of-the-week with good old
Dick Dale. I thought for sure she was still around OC. I'm
so glad she is still around! I'm dying to hear anything she
has recorded (Bob hints that she might posess acetate
masters from the olden days!)...I wonder if she could ever
be convinced to pick up the old Jaguar and come out and
play. I wonder, if like Paul Johnson, she's kept at it all
these years. Maybe old PJ could convince her to play a gig
for all us die-hard surf-fanatics. I would love to hear
her shred, even if it's only for ten minutes. I think I
will visit the OC museum, just to see what has been found
re: good old Ms. Marshall. That's so cool....the Queen of
the Surf Guitar lives on in OC! Someone should write a
book...or at least a biographical article.
til then,
-dp
--- Kristena Hernandez <> wrote:
>
> great article. I may just go check out that exhibit this
> weekend.
>
> -K
>
> On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 23:52:05 -0000 "San Barry"
> <>
> writes:
> >
> >
> >
>
> >
> > POP MUSIC
> >
> > Upon this rock, a scene was built
> >
> > O.C. was the birthplace of surf music and the fabled,
> amped-up
> > Fender guitar. So take
> > that, L.A.
> >
> > By Marc Weingarten
> > Special to The Times
> >
> > February 17, 2005
> >
> > Orange County is the Orange Curtain, the wags say, a
> gulag of strip
> > malls far from the
> > vibrant cultural currents of Los Angeles. Fox's sexy
> soap "The O.C."
> > hasn't burnished the
> > rep either, what with all of those sexed-up young
> things and a
> > middle-aged patriarch who
> > likes to surf in his spare time.
> >
> > Which is why the Fullerton Museum Center's exhibition
> "The Orange
> > Groove: Orange
> > County's Rock 'n' Roll History," is a necessary
> corrective to the
> > cultural misperceptions
> > about this maligned region. The display, a sweeping
> survey of the
> > county's musical
> > heritage that features rare memorabilia, handbills,
> musical gear and
> > other ephemera,
> > places Orange Country in its proper historical context
> as the home
> > of some important rock
> > musicians and a breeding ground for surf music, a genre
> that's
> > synonymous with Southern
> > California but, alas, not necessarily Orange County.
> >
> > Perhaps it's because Orange County is regarded by many
> as the
> > state's capital of
> > conservatism, a place where the apotheosis of artistic
> expression is
> > Disneyland. But
> > according to the show's curator, Jim Washburn, Orange
> County's
> > conservative philosophy
> > actually gave a leg up to the nascent music scene.
> >
> > "For a while, the conservative mind-set worked to the
> scene's
> > advantage," says Washburn,
> > a veteran music journalist and a contributing editor
> for the OC
> > Weekly. "There was this
> > whole notion of letting the market determine
> everything, of
> > eliminating Big Brother. If
> > someone wanted to rent a hall for a concert, so be it."
> >
> > As the exhibition makes clear, the region's most
> important musical
> > figure was a free-
> > market entrepreneur: Leo Fender, who invented the
> solid-body
> > electric guitar out of his
> > Fullerton shop. In the 1950s Fender began shilling his
> Stratocaster
> > guitar to local
> > musicians to advertise his product, and one of them,
> Dick Dale,
> > became O.C.'s first local
> > rock hero. The Balboa resident, who bashed out his
> jittery surf
> > guitar hits "Let's Go Trippin'
> > " and "Miserlou" on a custom-made, left-handed Fender
> Strat,
> > launched an O.C. surf
> > movement.
> >
> > Suddenly, everyone was saving up to buy a Fender guitar
> so they
> > could start a band.
> > Fifteen-minute O.C. surf groups such as the Blazers,
> the Rhythm
> > Rockers and Santa Ana's
> > the Chantays played key venues such as the Rendezvous
> Ballroom on
> > the Balboa peninsula
> > and the Pavalon in Huntington Beach. The Chantays'
> "Pipeline" became
> > the first O.C.-bred
> > national hit, selling more than a million copies in
> 1963. "We had a
> > big fan base in Orange
> > County," says the Chantays' Bob Spikard, a Santa Ana
> native. "We
> > played the Rendezvous
> > Ballroom for two years straight."
> >
> > Meanwhile, Spikard's high school classmates Bill Medley
> and Bobby
> > Hatfield were
> > emulating the gritty vocals of L.A. R&B act Don and
> Dewey and
> > performing locally as the
> > Righteous Brothers. The duo became the most successful
> musical duo
> > to emerge from
> > Orange Country, with Top 10 hits "You've Lost That
> Lovin' Feeling,"
> > "Unchained Melody"
> > and "(You're My) Soul and Inspiration." "The Orange
> Groove" has two
> > of Medley and
> > Hatfield's stage suits on display, as well as rare
> album covers,
> > some canceled checks for
> > local gigs and a video loop of TV performances.But it's
> the
> > obscurantist strain in "The
> > Orange Groove" that makes it such a revelation. There
> is significant
> > display space devoted
> > to Kathy Marshall, for example. Virtually unknown
> today, she was a
> > crackerjack in her
> > early-'60s heyday, the "Queen of the Surf Guitar" who
> matched licks
> > onstage with Dale and
> > other guitarists.
> >
> > "Kathy was an amazing player, but terribly shy,"
> Washburn says. "She
> > used to throw up
> > before going on stage."
> >
> > Tracking down Marshall was one of Washburn's most
> challenging
> > quests: "I couldn't find
> > her anywhere," he says. "Finally, on a tip, I looked in
> the phone
> > book for Marshall
> > Advertising, and she answered the phone. It was a
> half-mile from my
> > house in Costa
> > Mesa."
> >
> > When the Beatles relegated surf music to obscure status
> in 1964,
> > Orange County moved
> > through all of the requisite developments in rock the
> psychedelic
> > movement, the
> > singer-songwriter coffeehouses (where Fullerton natives
> Jackson
> > Browne and Tim Buckley
> > first performed) and the Marshall stack-heavy riffage
> of local acts
> > like the Stack and Birtha.
> > One of "The Orange Groove's" most impressive items is a
> large mural
> > of a scene including
> > the Acropolis from the Balboa coffeehouse the Prisoner
> of Socrates,
> > where local folkies
> > Steve Gillette and Tim Nelson performed. "It was being
> used as an
> > oil-drip pan when I
> > found it," says Washburn. "Fortunately, the owner had a
> nice car."
> >
> > Punk music is arguably Orange County's most culturally
> significant
> > export, but it began
> > modestly. "There were no places to play," says Jim
> Guerinot. The
> > manager of O.C. bands
> > No Doubt, the Offspring and Social Distortion, Guerinot
> began his
>
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