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I have been lurking about SG101 lately watching various
conversations evolve regarding the future of surf music:
the lack of surf music fans, lack of shows, a glut of surf
bands, selling cds, selling vinyl etcetera etcetera
etcetera.
I just wanted to chime in with my two cents regarding all
these intertwined threads regarding the current health of
the surf music economy.
First, as much as I'd like to make a living with the surf
music, for me this is not a realistic possibility. Often,
when we can't make a living doing something, then there
seems to be a lack of economic incentive to continue.
Fortunately, for me, surf music wasn't really ever about
economics at all. It is cool to make a little dough
playing a show, or selling a cd, or selling stickers and
t-shirts...but, I don't base my entire economic survival
and health on surf music. In other words, I have a day job.
Surf is my avocation.
Secondly, I have never really worried about the popularity
of surf music...the reverberated surf tones are popular
with me, and really, that's all that matters to me. At one
time, surf was very very popular. Some would even say that
first wave surf was a victim of it's own popularity. Early
surf was so popular it burned itself out as a musical
genre. Many Surf bands really wanted to simply be pop radio
bands and dance bands. Playing surf for surf's sake seems
to be a second and third wave phenomenon. Anyway, if only a
few really appreciate the reverberated tones of surf,
that's okay with me.
Lastly, there is something I hear in the power and beauty
of an amplified reverberated guitar that I don't find in
any other sort of music. I believe that there is a specific
and identifiable aesthetic involved in the production of
surf music as an art.
So there you have it: surf music is a calling to me. In a
very real sense, surf chose me...I didn't really choose
surf. I like the surf tones so much, that I really can't
imagine picking up the guitar for any other reason. Even
when I'm not playing surf, I play surf.
That's how it works for me.
-dp
ps: anyone ever hear the cascading "human chorus" like
effect of a highly reverberated guitar played through a
loud loud LOUD Showman? it's like angels singing but
really freaking loud...or maybe it's simply the sound of
impending tinitus...distortion and reverberation
overwhelming...
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