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00:00:10and we're rolling all right here we go strange beautiful grass of green with your majestic
00:00:18silver seas your mysterious mountains i wish to see closer may i land my kinky machine
00:00:25although the world wonders me with your majestic and superior cackling hand your people i do not
00:00:34understand so to you i shall put an end and you never hear surf music again those are the words
00:00:49of
00:00:49jimmy hendrix that have been cited thousands of times as if jimmy was saying surf music had died
00:00:56in the 60s and it couldn't be further from the truth hendrix was wrong
00:01:03so
00:01:09so
00:01:16so
00:01:41just like motown for detroit and reggae for jamaica it was a local regional
00:01:47music that came out of the lives of you know young kids in southern california
00:01:55the growth of surf music was really quite phenomenal it started in 1961 in southern
00:02:01california with only a handful of bands and a handful of recordings and within a year or two
00:02:05there were hundreds of recordings by hundreds of bands across the country in the beginning it was
00:02:11just about the music and the surfers enjoying the music and embracing it and kind of claiming it as
00:02:20their own
00:02:21surf music is a bunch of kids on a beach around a bonfire and just having the best time without
00:02:28any social obligations or school pressures and there was no future and no war and no economy and
00:02:36nothing to worry about i was attracted to the simplicity and the energy of it that's what rock and
00:02:42roll is and was was simplicity and energy i dropped the flute like a hot potato because i love the
00:02:51guitar
00:02:56because there was no sound systems we knew that we couldn't hear the voice anyway and we were more
00:03:02interested in the melodic and in the power surf music truly is rock instrumental with a reverb tank
00:03:13there's something about the sound of instrumental surf music that flips a switch with people
00:03:18there's something magic that happens something magic that happens with the audience they regress they
00:03:26start feeling younger they want to get up out of their seats and dance we had those amps it was
00:03:33that
00:03:34kind of music where they didn't care it was the fun of the music because it was loud there's no
00:03:42pretension there's no hidden meanings there's no message it's just pure unadulterated fun
00:03:53in the early 60s my family lived in montclair southern california a little dry dusty town in the
00:04:00inland empire on the edge of the mojave desert montclair was removed from ground zero of surf music by
00:04:0840 or 50 miles but i got a transistor radio in 1959 and that opened up the world to me
00:04:23and one day in 1961 i'm listening to kmen in san bernardino and they were the first radio station
00:04:29to actually play dick dale's first record once i heard my first dick dale record i was hooked on that
00:04:36kind of music and i started collecting surf records left and right and at the same time i was learning
00:04:42how to play guitar bands like dick dale and the deltones the challengers eddie and the showman and
00:04:47the bel airs they were like my teachers and a few years later i realized that i had several thousand
00:04:53records and i discovered that there had been surf bands from every state in the union and from almost
00:05:00every overseas country it was just an amazingly diverse form of music that had spread like wildfire
00:05:10and so i wondered where did this music come from to begin with what happened to it did it really
00:05:15go
00:05:15away if it did why
00:05:33the outside world didn't really view surfers all that much at first because there was just so few
00:05:37of them and it was more or less seen as a he-man athletic pursuit that was very rare sometimes
00:05:43a
00:05:43dynamic romantic photograph or drawing of surfers would appear on the travel magazines surfing as
00:05:51a culture kind of flew in the face of mainstream culture it was non-productive kind of hedonistic
00:05:58pleasure-seeking responsibility avoiding kind of thing and no self-respecting parent would endorse their
00:06:06children pursuing that in exchange for school and career because our parents were all children of the
00:06:13depression for them it was security as a surfer you were getting the idea that maybe that was a false
00:06:22god maybe there was other things that were important there was a real high priority on having a job
00:06:29everybody wanted to have a job and be productive and be contributing to society and all of that kind of
00:06:35thing well if you said you were a surfer it was like you were a drop out of that and
00:06:40you were sort of
00:06:42by the time surf music exploded in southern california in the early 60s surfing culture had pretty much
00:06:48been firmly established here at least since the late 50s as surfers we drive to the beach and we'd get
00:06:55jacked up to the music on the car radio interestingly the music that we were surfing to at that time
00:07:01was
00:07:02um probably jazz we'd get some beer go to some guy's house try and get some girls to come over
00:07:10and put on
00:07:11jazz records like herbie man at the village gate miles davis henry mancini the theme to peter gunn
00:07:18theme to black saddle in newport was a place called the rendezvous ballroom and my parents found out
00:07:24about the rendezvous and started taking me there when i was maybe 14 and during a wonderful several
00:07:32year period i heard every major big band that would come through gene krupa's band and les brown woody
00:07:40herman stan kenton tommy dorsey jimmy dorsey to be there on the bandstand and watching the band and
00:07:47the vocalists and the drummers and all that was kind of was marvelous and then we start going down
00:07:52to the lighthouse in uh hermosa beach and there's a bunch of guys from the stan kenton orchestra that
00:07:58are playing there's shelly manz the drummer howard rumsey on bass connie condoli trumpet shorty rogers
00:08:05trumpet bob cooper sax bud shank sax and one of the more innovative filmmakers was bruce brown
00:08:12and bruce brown would go down to the lighthouse because that's where the jazz was played
00:08:21the reason that jazz was adapted to surfing by surfers was that it had kind of a lyrical flowing
00:08:30surf-like environment it created and surfing the wave was sort of improvisational and jazz was
00:08:38improvisational it was about virtuosity and jazz was about individual instrumental virtuosity so there
00:08:46were really lots of kind of symbiotic aspects of the two forms of expression
00:08:55these artists like henry mancini les baxter and martin denny were looking for an atmosphere
00:09:00and that atmosphere really gelled with beach culture and ultimately surf culture
00:09:06it really wasn't as much of an idea of a california culture it was like a transplanted hawaiian thing
00:09:12they had like kooky luau's down at the beach they kind of wanted to be like hawaiians
00:09:18in that kind of later 50s time frame the fact that the board went from a hundred pound piece of
00:09:25dense
00:09:25wood to a light 30 or 40 pound fiberglass balsa wood board surfboards became even more accessible when
00:09:32foam came out in 59 so they could make as many boards as they needed to to fill the demand
00:09:37the
00:09:39sport had gone from maybe 500 1500 surfers to five or six or seven or eight thousand surfers and that's
00:09:45where it was when the movie gidget came out
00:09:53one day i came to malibu and there was a shack there and i think harry stone lake and tube
00:09:58stake
00:09:58build it different guys would hang out there because there was some shade terry tracy who was
00:10:03living there was married and lived elsewhere like inglewood or something he was at the shack a lot
00:10:08and he would just be he'd just hang there you know and hang out with guys and get him to
00:10:12buy him
00:10:13some beer and stuff like that he named gidget
00:10:17there was a girl midget that arrived on the scene
00:10:22and sets up headquarters what she does she goes home and tells her daddy all this stuff her daddy
00:10:30writes a book i remember the day that my father picked me up at malibu and drove me home it
00:10:38was in
00:10:38the dynaflow buick because my board was sticking out of the back and i turned to him and i said
00:10:44i'd like
00:10:44to write a story about what's going on at malibu and my father said why don't you tell me everything
00:10:50and
00:10:50i'll write the story for you i'm the writer so i started telling him that i was called gidget at
00:10:58malibu which meant girl midget i told him about terry tube steak tracy that lived in a shack
00:11:05with harry stone lake and i told him how incredibly interesting the lifestyle that i saw at malibu was
00:11:13it was all about what was outside and i thought the whole sort of lifestyle was fascinating that
00:11:18there were surfboards there were young men there was somebody living in a shack and we were waiting
00:11:26for the wave
00:11:29that book really was i don't know they're going
00:11:34bitch and rocket bombs and go gidget go shoot the curl god can you believe that i can't
00:11:43columbia studios bought the rights to the novel and in 1959 the hollywood version hits theaters nationwide
00:11:59the movie comes out everybody loved the movie except for guess whom surfers the movie gizget was
00:12:07was kind of interesting these days it would be pooh-poohed the surfers would sneeze at it but when it
00:12:13came out it was the first acknowledgement by the mainstream world of surfing the theme song to the
00:12:19movie was sung by james darren it became a top 100 hit record in the spring of 1959
00:12:27when the gidget film comes out a teenage culture emerges in a completely different environment you're
00:12:33not seeing skyscrapers you're not seeing buildings you're not seeing metal microphones you're seeing
00:12:38a shack in the sand next to water and luminous waves that people are zooming in and out of with
00:12:45these little boards this is just unprecedented no one's seen anything like this it made me cool
00:12:51and it glorified the surf culture even though it did it sort of in a dorky way every time hollywood
00:12:57touches surfing they goof it up even when surfers try to do surfing they don't get it right
00:13:03so when hollywood does it what are they going to get so surfers were listening to jazz and rhythm and
00:13:11blues but where was the surf music there was no such thing as surf music at the time i'd never
00:13:22heard
00:13:22that expression surf music that maybe somebody had a bongo drop when you're in the water and malibu is
00:13:32six to eight feet you're out there and here comes a set i guarantee you you're not going to sit
00:13:40there
00:13:40saying oh bro this is music to surf you don't do that you just take off on waves surfing films
00:13:49of
00:13:49the 1950s were not seen by all that many people bud brown had been making surfing movies from about 1942
00:13:57or 43 and showing them just at you know lifeguard stations greg knoll was making little tiny films
00:14:03called search for surf just before gidget came out bruce brown was doing his first movie slippery when
00:14:10wet gidget gives the ability for these people to make full-length features and draw larger audiences
00:14:18once gidget becomes popular teenagers that are into rock and roll start gravitating towards surfing
00:14:24in the surf movies they wouldn't have music sent on the footage itself it was just they'd turn on the
00:14:30projector he was just putting an album on and he put on the soundtrack to peter gun
00:14:43the mancini peter gunn thing was used for big waves at sunset beach we'd be looking at the screen and
00:14:49you see this wave and you couldn't really tell what was going on with it and all of a sudden
00:14:53you see
00:14:53a couple of ants sweep up the face and the driving boom boom boom boom boom boom boom and my
00:14:58god those
00:14:59waves 25 feet and you know you just get jacked out of your mind and so you started to see
00:15:05a lot of
00:15:05interesting things come about from the filmmakers for instance i remember john severson in a film
00:15:11sequence at sakus of a hot offshore morning having kemp auberg play flamenco guitar
00:15:27i honestly think that bud brown was probably the first person to connect instrumental music to
00:15:34the surf culture because he acquired the fireballs music right when it came out in the late 50s
00:15:44and he immediately started playing those albums with his movies
00:15:53things were changing civil rights movement was getting going folk music was getting big the
00:15:58kingston trio came along so there were all these kind of hints at what was going to be developing
00:16:04culturally in the 60s it was still kind of in its youth kids weren't really paying that much
00:16:10tension they were just doing their thing but in reality 1959 1960 was a pretty bland period musically
00:16:19what you were hearing on the radio just before surf music broke was mostly teen idols and and heavily
00:16:25orchestrated material that was the era of frankie avalon and bobby rydell what are generally regarded as
00:16:32the ones who tamed rock and roll down to where it was safe and the early days of the dangerous
00:16:38stuff
00:16:38were were kind of over and it was still about four years before the beatles came along with elvis in
00:16:43the army and chuck berry you know busted by the man act and little richard finding religion jerry lee lewis
00:16:49getting busted for having a wife who was 13. on the flip side of that big rock and roll stars
00:16:55were gone
00:17:01we started to hear instrumental rock and roll about 1956 with bill doggett and honky tonk
00:17:09and then bill justice had raunchy in 57 and that had a really neat little echoey nashville sort of guitar
00:17:16twang to it and that was really exploited by duane eddie who came out with rebel rouser in 1958 on
00:17:24the flip
00:17:24side of that you had link ray with rawhide and rumble and eventually jack the ripper
00:17:30then there was johnny and the hurricanes with their full band organ saxophone guitar riffs
00:17:35the fireballs were from new mexico a little more tex-mex style and i started getting some really tough
00:17:41rock and roll sounds that were based in guitar as a young guitar player what really held the fascination
00:17:49for me and the cool factor was this new sound this instrumental guitar led rock and roll i was
00:17:55particularly attracted to the instrumental players duane eddie link ray that was probably the most vital
00:18:01stuff that was going on at that time it was spontaneous and exciting and they pretty much
00:18:07started the kind of music that evolved into surf music in california and ultimately that led to the
00:18:13ventures
00:18:19the ventures had walk don't run which was like the fireballs a straight guitar sound with no saxophone
00:18:25and that was like the shopper around the world in 1960. walk don't run was a national top 10 record
00:18:31that inspired and influenced thousands of kids learning how to play guitar at the time myself
00:18:36included and all the bands that we played in would play walk don't run as well as all of the
00:18:42other
00:18:42guitar dominant instrumentals that we were hearing on the radio at the time
00:18:53so it was 1955 that i found and my dad went crazy a 1941 wld flathead harley it was like
00:19:04it just came out
00:19:05of the military the way it was it was wild i lived in southwest l.a my buddy ray said
00:19:13to me one day he said
00:19:14let's go down to belbo and check out the babes so we went on down there and pulled into that
00:19:20town
00:19:21and it was something like alice in wonderland i mean it had the ferry that would take you across
00:19:27the channel to belbo islands you were on a peninsula that was three miles long
00:19:33because of our motorcycles i guess we scared some of the people maybe and the police invited us to leave
00:19:40so we left and came back in the car but our guitars with us a couple of guitars
00:19:50well as you walk down balboa boulevard you have the fun zone on the left which is bordering the bay
00:19:58and you have the rendezvous on the right after you've passed the balboa theater you're at the rinky
00:20:06dink this is an area that was populated with people coming down off for easter break for the
00:20:12summertime we were playing at the rinky dink on weekends our audience became primarily surfers and
00:20:19these were people that heard about us from other surfers from other people even from dick
00:20:24everybody that was there looked at least like they were part of the surf culture so this looked
00:20:29like a surf culture happening the box was for adults the prison of socrates was for folk music
00:20:37so the kids had no place to go so when we moved to the rendezvous we were a magnet
00:20:42dick didn't set out to be a surf guitarist he wanted to be a country western singer what happened
00:20:48was that he started playing at the rendezvous ballroom even though he wanted to be up there singing he'd
00:20:53the kids say we'll play an instrumental next week dick dale was playing this song called let's go
00:20:58trippin that he made up the kids used to say let's go trippin down to the beach to hear dick
00:21:08dale play
00:21:10so he wrote a song about it and it became an anthem and from that grew another instrumental and grew
00:21:17another instrumental and dick wasn't calling it the surf music he was calling it the dick dale sound
00:21:23when we went to the rendezvous we went there to listen to the music and to dance and to just
00:21:28be
00:21:29part of the celebration of all of us having the common interest of surfing and surf music
00:21:36i was surfing with 17 surfers and i said i'm playing tonight at the rendezvous ballroom it's the biggest
00:21:42ballroom on the peninsula come on down and have fun 17 surfers that was my first audience they go you're
00:21:49the
00:21:49king man you're the king that sound on your guitar once we heard the dick dale surfer thing it was
00:21:56like
00:21:56there's no turning back we had started surf music
00:22:03so
00:22:24Miserle was an Eastern Mediterranean folk song that had been around for centuries.
00:22:29But I took it from listening to my uncle playing on an oud, the traditional way, where it
00:22:36goes and the belly dances would come out.
00:22:44And I said, well, that's too slow to play.
00:22:48So what I do with the Gene Cooper drumming picking?
00:22:55So I went, that's how that came to be.
00:23:04And this song comes on the radio, and I had never heard anything like that before.
00:23:09It really changed everything.
00:23:11So all of a sudden, kids are talking about who's going to drive this weekend to go down
00:23:15to the rendezvous, to go to a Dick Dale stomp.
00:23:18He was awesome.
00:23:20Dick Dale was obviously a big influence, and we would all go down there and watch him
00:23:24every Friday and Saturday night.
00:23:26Everything was tight, strong, with an attitude.
00:23:30With the combination of the bass, the rhythm guitar, and the drums gave that animal feel
00:23:37to it.
00:23:37Dick Dale's sound was just totally unique from anything I'd ever heard before.
00:23:44The sound was intense, and it was big.
00:23:48Our music was identified as surf music in 1960, and we didn't have a name for the band
00:23:52yet.
00:23:53And it happened that Dick's sister, Shirley, invited people to suggest names, and somehow
00:23:58the name Deltones came out.
00:24:01So we were called Dick Dale and the Deltones.
00:24:04Later, it was changed to Dick Dale and his Deltones.
00:24:07We just started filling up the place.
00:24:10Playing with the Deltones was just the gas.
00:24:13It was like a dream come true.
00:24:16I mean, I never thought in a million years that I would end up doing anything like that.
00:24:20And for a guy with all the little surf girls around, the place being packed, just seeing
00:24:25the lines of kids around the block, you know, waiting to get in.
00:24:28And I didn't care about getting paid, I didn't care about anything, I just wanted to be a
00:24:32part of it.
00:24:33We had a new sound.
00:24:34Dick emphasized being loud.
00:24:37I wanted that tribal sound, and I couldn't find an amp that was powerful enough to sound
00:24:42like Gene Cooper's drums until I met Leo Fender.
00:24:45He was like Einstein, and he says, here, I just made this and I'm trying to get the bugs
00:24:49out of it.
00:24:49Why don't you bang on it and tell me what you think of it?
00:24:52That gave me this big tribal thunder where I'm going, dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun
00:24:58-dun-dun-dun,
00:24:59like that.
00:25:00Leo used to say, if it can withstand the barrage of punishment of Dick Dale, then it is fit
00:25:06for the human consumption.
00:25:08Leo Fender listened and worked with musicians at the time.
00:25:12It was the work he did with Dick Dale that led to the revolutionary development of the
00:25:16Showman amplifier, the most powerful amplifier at the time.
00:25:20He also worked with Dick to develop the Fender Reverb Unit in 1961.
00:25:25This was a device that gave a wet, kind of a drippy sound to the guitar.
00:25:29And later, that sound became strongly associated with the sound of surf music.
00:25:34As soon as we started playing, they were on the dance floor.
00:25:38Everybody reacted to the music, obviously, or they wouldn't be lining up to get in.
00:25:42You could see that everybody was feeling the music, not listening to it, but feeling the
00:25:47music. And thus, they started the surfer stomp that went along with it.
00:25:58Of course, you couldn't miss the sound of the surfer stomp.
00:26:01I remember it as couples, you know, facing each other, just stomping away, kind of shuffling.
00:26:08It was an old wooden floor at the rendezvous.
00:26:12The floor would move up and down.
00:26:14You could kind of feel the whole building moving.
00:26:17You know, it's sweaty.
00:26:18It's hot.
00:26:18They're stomping.
00:26:19It's loud.
00:26:20It was great.
00:26:21It built up to 4,000 people a night.
00:26:24And I kept adding to my band bigger and bigger and bigger and bigger.
00:26:36Our music attracted some attention with the city officials.
00:26:41They said the guitar music was evil and devil music.
00:26:48It was a suggestion that we leave town.
00:26:55They fired me.
00:26:56And they didn't realize that people were standing out in line coming in from all these
00:27:01places to watch us do what we were doing.
00:27:07And all of a sudden, bands started playing this new style of rock and roll that Dick Dale
00:27:12and the deltones were doing, this sound called surf music.
00:27:16We were hanging around Torrance Beach in the early summer of 61.
00:27:19And I kept hearing the surfers there talking about,
00:27:22Hey, man, are you going down to the rendezvous this weekend?
00:27:25We're going down to see Dick Dale, you know?
00:27:27I had no idea what it was all about.
00:27:29We went down ourselves to see what was going on.
00:27:32I was blown away.
00:27:39I met this guy, Eddie Bertrand, on a school bus in 1959.
00:27:43And we discovered that we were both fledgling guitarists, both Dwayne Eddy fans.
00:27:50So we got together and played guitars one day and went, wow, this is really neat.
00:27:55I developed a style of rhythm guitar playing that covered both the drums and the bass,
00:28:00because I wanted it to sound complete with just Eddie and I.
00:28:07And that, ironically, came to sort of be regarded as the surf style of rhythm playing.
00:28:13The sound that we got just fascinated us.
00:28:17So we got a drummer and we got a sax player.
00:28:20It became a band.
00:28:22It was, you know, we just decided we needed to be a band.
00:28:31I was still learning my basic chords.
00:28:34And I was just learning how to play a bar position B flat.
00:28:37And I was switching back and forth between that and the D minor chord.
00:28:41I started hearing this melody in my head to go with that.
00:28:45Right about that time, there was this wrestler in L.A. called Mr. Moto.
00:28:49That's the name for the song, so we titled it Mr. Moto.
00:28:53Mr. Moto was one of the first 45 RPM records I bought as a kid.
00:28:57I really liked the chord changes and the melody.
00:28:59It was probably the first instrumental I learned how to play on the guitar.
00:29:03I did the musical arrangements and Eddie played the lead guitar
00:29:06and Delvey was the business manager.
00:29:08I said to him, would you guys like to make some money?
00:29:12And they said, sure.
00:29:13So I booked us a sock hop at the high school I was going to.
00:29:18The first dance we threw, we passed out flyers around the beach
00:29:21and sure enough, we got about 200 kids to come.
00:29:24You know, most of them were the surfers.
00:29:26I remember one surfer came up to me and he simply said,
00:29:29well, man, your music sounds like feels out there on a wave.
00:29:32You ought to call it surf music.
00:29:34I don't know if the Bellers ever considered themselves a surf band at first.
00:29:37I think people who were digging the band kind of just tagged us that.
00:29:41The world of surfing claimed us, so to speak, as theirs.
00:29:46We went from 200 kids at the beginning of the summer
00:29:49to 1,500 kids at the end of the summer.
00:29:52We made an amazing amount of money.
00:29:54I couldn't believe it, being a kid and making all this money
00:29:56every time we did a dance.
00:29:58The first dance we threw, I remember going home and we had about 600 bucks.
00:30:02We threw it out all on a mattress and we're like, you know, doing this with it.
00:30:06We played at a party and took that money and went to Hollywood
00:30:10and decided to make a record.
00:30:11We rented some time at Liberty Recording Studio,
00:30:14went in, spent about an hour or two and recorded five tracks.
00:30:18Mr. Moto had two takes because I didn't like how I played the chorus.
00:30:22Other than that, it was all first takes and we were out the door.
00:30:25The record came out and it didn't do anything for like six months.
00:30:28So we started hyping the record to the radio stations.
00:30:31We got our friends to call in and request it.
00:30:33And at that time, KRLA was running these things where they played the top ten
00:30:37from high schools every night on Sam Riddle's show.
00:30:41It came on at 9 o'clock every night.
00:30:43It was called Topic Youth.
00:30:45And every night, he would highlight a different high school
00:30:47and he would play the top ten records that that high school submitted.
00:30:51We started creating these phony surveys.
00:30:57So I sent in a list of the top ten.
00:30:59Of course, Mr. Moto was number one.
00:31:01I created a whole bogus top ten
00:31:04for the Redondo High School where I was going.
00:31:08And that night, it was all about Redondo High School
00:31:10and Mr. Moto was number one on the Redondo High School survey.
00:31:14And then one night, he plays the top ten from Palos Verdes High School.
00:31:18And he says, I don't know who you guys are, but good luck.
00:31:20And there it goes.
00:31:21And I went, just nuts.
00:31:23If you saw the movie That Thing You Do, you know exactly what it was like
00:31:27for a bunch of young kids to hear the song playing on the radio.
00:31:31I mean, I got a big boost.
00:31:33Every morning at 8 o'clock, as I'm getting ready to go to school,
00:31:36I could turn on the radio and hear Mr. Moto.
00:31:38Big thrill.
00:31:41After Mr. Moto became a small hit,
00:31:43next thing I know I'm getting phone calls from the parents in the group
00:31:45trying to tell me what their direction is for the group.
00:31:48And some of these people I'd never even talked to.
00:31:51I got real upset and my mother says,
00:31:53Well, quit the band.
00:31:54Start another one.
00:31:55I said, I can't do that.
00:31:56And I remember crying.
00:31:58Something happened to kind of split that group apart.
00:32:01And that something that happened was the Fender Reverb unit.
00:32:05Eddie Bertrand decided he really wanted to start using that
00:32:09to modify his sound in the band.
00:32:11Paul Johnson, the other guitar player,
00:32:13really didn't want to go in that direction.
00:32:15So there was a separation of the ways.
00:32:18Eddie Bertrand left the group to form Eddie and the Showman
00:32:21and continue with his powerful reverb-driven guitar instrumentals.
00:32:25Squad Car, going in two.
00:32:28Squad Car was written by Paul Johnson,
00:32:30but Eddie recorded the most powerful and frantic version of the song
00:32:34that became a local radio hit.
00:32:36It was kind of an easy thing to do,
00:32:38and it all happened within probably a couple, three weeks
00:32:41after the Bel Airs broke up.
00:32:43We played the Rendezvous Ballroom in Balboa,
00:32:45and we just kept playing louder and louder and louder.
00:32:54By the end of the night, that speaker was shredded.
00:32:57I thought, Well, I'll go to Fender.
00:32:59He'll fix this.
00:33:00Showed up, and he looks up.
00:33:01He says, Now, how can I help you?
00:33:03I said, Well, I have a bandmaster piggyback,
00:33:06and I ripped the speaker to shreds.
00:33:08I was just thinking, What if we put two speakers in there?
00:33:12And he said, Tell you what?
00:33:14You leave that stuff with me.
00:33:16I'll give you something to play out of until then.
00:33:18Went back in two weeks, and here's this cabinet
00:33:21with two speakers in it.
00:33:23And I played it.
00:33:27And I went, My God, this thing just sounds huge.
00:33:31The last thing Leo said to me,
00:33:33Whatever you do, don't tell anybody what we've done,
00:33:36because we don't produce these amps.
00:33:39Other musicians would come, like, bam, up to the stage room.
00:33:43What's that?
00:33:44And I'd say, What's what?
00:33:47Anyway, within probably a month, I'm guessing,
00:33:50it became the standard bandmaster.
00:33:52Had two 12s from then on.
00:33:55He wanted to model his sound after Dick Dale's sound.
00:33:58He was totally blown away by the power
00:34:00of that Fender guitar, reverb, and amp combination.
00:34:03They really got a foothold locally
00:34:05when they became the house band
00:34:06at the retail clerk's hall in Buena Park
00:34:09and started to attract as many kids there,
00:34:11actually on weekends,
00:34:12as Dick Dale was bringing to Harmony Park.
00:34:18In November of 1962,
00:34:20we came out with an album called Surfer's Choice.
00:34:24A number of the songs on the album
00:34:26were recorded at the Harmony Park Ballroom in Anaheim.
00:34:35In 1963, Dick Dale and the Deltones were having such success
00:34:39that they booked a tour up and down the East Coast.
00:34:42Coming ground, X31, ready to check.
00:34:44Thanks for the one, two.
00:34:45It must have been 63,
00:34:47where we had a small tour back East.
00:34:50Mainly, we played at this nightclub in New Jersey.
00:34:52And, of course, it was a drinking crowd,
00:34:54a much different crowd than we had in Southern California.
00:34:58And when we went on stage and played,
00:35:00it was like we were from Mars.
00:35:02They could not relate to this music.
00:35:05Now, here's the youngster you read about
00:35:07recently in Life magazine.
00:35:09Here from Boston and Quincy, Mass,
00:35:12and now the coast,
00:35:14Dick Dale a-surfing and a-swinging.
00:35:16So, let's have a fine hand.
00:35:21Well, I looked at the heavies.
00:35:23They were moving in fast.
00:35:25I knew I'd better make it
00:35:26because it just don't last.
00:35:27I'm surfing.
00:35:29Yeah, swinging and a-surfing.
00:35:32It was a disappointment for Dick.
00:35:34We had to play behind the curtain
00:35:35while Dick was up front.
00:35:37It's probably because they didn't want to pay us
00:35:39Union scale or whatever.
00:35:47Let's have a nice hand for these countries to golf, okay?
00:35:50Capitol, in their wisdom,
00:35:52had decided that they didn't want to use
00:35:54the deltones on the records.
00:35:55They wanted to use studio players.
00:35:58Big mistake, I think.
00:36:00Dick said, well, if I can't have my band,
00:36:02I've got to have at least one of my guys,
00:36:03and he chose me, thankfully.
00:36:07While we were back east...
00:36:08Let's go surfing now, everybody's learning how.
00:36:12Come on, it's a party with me.
00:36:14Come on, it's a party with me.
00:36:16Early in the morning, we'll be starting now.
00:36:18The Beach Boys had, like, their first hit.
00:36:22The talk around the beach was,
00:36:24who are these Grammys?
00:36:26You know, the whole feeling behind it
00:36:28was that these guys were just
00:36:29a bunch of inlanders who were trying
00:36:32to jump on the trend as it was developing.
00:36:35It only sounded vaguely like it related
00:36:37to the kind of music we were playing.
00:36:39There was a big question mark as to
00:36:41how authentic this was.
00:36:42In fact, some of the surfers were so annoyed,
00:36:45this was candy-coating and commercializing
00:36:47the sport, and I remember hearing
00:36:49a bunch of surfers saying,
00:36:50hey, let's go beat those guys up.
00:36:54You know, this is my favorite sport,
00:36:55next to skydiving.
00:37:01Look, I just drove up.
00:37:03Looks like a couple of senior citizen dropouts.
00:37:12The Beach Boys were booed.
00:37:15Vegetables and fruit were thrown at them
00:37:17on the stage by the surfers
00:37:18because they thought they were, quote,
00:37:20rank.
00:37:21Who wants to hear these stupid lyrics?
00:37:24It wasn't heavy duty.
00:37:26It wasn't power.
00:37:28I remember listening to the radio
00:37:29going, how did they get to spread
00:37:32the word about surf music?
00:37:33And here we are trying to do it,
00:37:35and here's Dick, the innovator,
00:37:37the father of surf music.
00:37:38You know, he doesn't get to partake
00:37:40in spreading this word.
00:37:42Dick Dale is the originator,
00:37:44not one of the originators.
00:37:47The originator.
00:37:49Here are the challengers.
00:37:56I just quit, walked away from the bellers,
00:38:00and I started the challengers.
00:38:02I was booking these little legion halls,
00:38:05and I'd call up the Pepsi company.
00:38:07They'd bring down a truck.
00:38:08I'd call Brian Wilson.
00:38:09I'd have him come down,
00:38:10and so it'd be us and the Beach Boys,
00:38:12and next thing you know,
00:38:13the place was crowded,
00:38:13and then cops, and then fights would break out,
00:38:15and then that was the last time
00:38:17we could use that hall.
00:38:19That happened to us about three or four times.
00:38:21The challengers were the hardest working band.
00:38:26We backed more artists, made more recordings,
00:38:28and all of the bands combined.
00:38:30We were always the dependable band
00:38:32that could back you live and then do our show
00:38:34and draw a certain number of people to the venue.
00:38:37So that really set the stage
00:38:39for credible appearances on television and radio,
00:38:42and we would play the theme song
00:38:45for Lloyd Baxton's TV show.
00:38:47My name is Lloyd Baxton.
00:38:50The Lloyd Baxton show was hugely popular
00:38:54here in Southern California.
00:38:55We would all rush home from high school
00:38:57to watch Lloyd Baxton.
00:38:59His was the only TV dance hop
00:39:01that featured surf music on a regular basis,
00:39:03including the challengers.
00:39:05In fact, they asked him to endorse their second album,
00:39:08surfing with the challengers.
00:39:13I played what I wanted to play,
00:39:15and it just so happened that I liked the music
00:39:18that the kids liked.
00:39:19Here they are, the astronauts!
00:39:21Yeah!
00:39:23Most shows came from New York,
00:39:24and they had the New York look.
00:39:27No one ever saw the surf music back east.
00:39:29They didn't see this.
00:39:30Well, they could come to California
00:39:32by turning on their television set
00:39:33and watching the Lloyd Baxton show.
00:39:36That's what made surfing move
00:39:38out of Southern California
00:39:40to go all across the nation
00:39:41and eventually all over the world.
00:39:43And it happened because of the Dick Dales.
00:39:45It happened because of the challengers.
00:39:47They brought the surf to me.
00:39:49The challengers gained a national reputation
00:39:52and became one of the most successful
00:39:53surf instrumental bands
00:39:55by virtue of their many appearances
00:39:57on local TV shows and syndicated TV shows
00:40:01like Hollywood Agogo and Shebang.
00:40:04On behalf of myself
00:40:06and the rest of the guys in the group,
00:40:08we would like to thank you all
00:40:09for making our song, Pipeline,
00:40:11such a big hit throughout the nation.
00:40:13We would like to play it for you now.
00:40:21What ended up becoming Pipeline,
00:40:23it was at one time called 44 Magnum.
00:40:26Next time we called it Liberty's Whip,
00:40:28but we went to this Bruce Brown movie.
00:40:30They showed this sequence of Bonsai Pipeline
00:40:32and we're going, whoa, this is cool.
00:40:35Why don't we call this song Pipeline?
00:40:37The first time I heard the opening glissando
00:40:39to Pipeline, I was impressed.
00:40:41It was the first time I'd heard anything like that.
00:40:44And as a result of Pipeline,
00:40:46the glissando became a standard technique
00:40:48used by surf bands.
00:40:49When Pipeline came out,
00:40:51we were playing at the Rendezvous Ballroom.
00:40:54We'd have thousands of people in there,
00:40:56doing the surfer stomp.
00:40:57All the surfers would show up in the Hirachis
00:40:59and the whole place would start rocking
00:41:00because everybody was stomping on the floor.
00:41:03It was wild frenzy dancing, you know.
00:41:06Just people would just let themselves go.
00:41:08Every time I walked into that retail clerk's hall
00:41:12or the Rendezvous, either one of those giant places,
00:41:14I would have to hold my ears
00:41:16and it would take me 10 or 15 minutes
00:41:18just to get through the DB level
00:41:20that was being pumped through that room.
00:41:24Everyone sort of jumped up and down
00:41:25in unison to the music
00:41:27and the building would move
00:41:29like a wooden gym floor
00:41:30and it was flexible
00:41:31and I think it bounced the musicians on the stage
00:41:34from the crowd going up and down.
00:41:37The Rendezvous was a lot of fun,
00:41:39but also kind of dangerous.
00:41:41But there were confrontations
00:41:43between the people from the beach
00:41:45and the inland people.
00:41:47And I can remember going out and dancing
00:41:50and some big, nasty-looking, biker-type ho-dad
00:41:54coming up to me and saying,
00:41:55you dance shitty.
00:41:57A whole line of people would link arms
00:42:00and then facing them was another line.
00:42:04They would run up to the other line,
00:42:06they would come up like this and go back.
00:42:10Destined for trouble.
00:42:15This guy got in a fight with this other guy.
00:42:19One of the fighter's girlfriends got involved
00:42:21and started mouthing at the other guy
00:42:23and all of a sudden this guy pulled out a switchblade
00:42:26and stabbed at the guy and missed him
00:42:29and hit the girl and it went into her eye or something.
00:42:32And my girlfriend and I just fled and never went back.
00:42:36Surf music was a male-dominated cultural event.
00:42:40And that's why Kathy Marshall's presence on the scene
00:42:43was extremely significant.
00:42:46She could have been a huge star
00:42:48if the future had unfolded a bit differently,
00:42:50but she does deserve a unique place in the history books.
00:42:53Kathy never released a commercial recording,
00:42:56but she went in the studio with Eddie and the showman
00:42:59to record a demo of Bullseye.
00:43:08Being a girl and playing guitar,
00:43:11I don't know if I was good enough to have said,
00:43:13come on in, let's play like a guy,
00:43:15but it also rubbed me wrong when,
00:43:18oh, you're really good for a girl.
00:43:20Because I didn't want to be good for a girl.
00:43:22I wanted to be as good as the guys.
00:43:25My grandmother had a little get-together
00:43:27on a Sunday afternoon and she invited one of her friends
00:43:30and he brought his electric guitar.
00:43:34I just was mesmerized.
00:43:37The transistor radio was how I learned how to play the guitar.
00:43:40From the golden world of gas and the 1510 Music Man,
00:43:44here's a picket for you.
00:43:47I would come home from school,
00:43:49turn on the transistor radio, pick up my guitar,
00:43:52and learn whatever song was on the radio.
00:43:55I was so devoted to it
00:43:57and I think my mom could see me getting better at it.
00:43:59It was her suggestion that I take guitar lessons.
00:44:05The first time I heard a surf band live
00:44:08was the time I played with one.
00:44:11My sister was having a graduation party at her house
00:44:14and so they hired a local band called The Blazers
00:44:17and my mom mentioned that I played guitar.
00:44:20Their manager says, oh, let me hear her.
00:44:23So I sat down and I played Pipeline.
00:44:31So the day of the party,
00:44:33I got up and I played with the Blazers.
00:44:43When the party was over with,
00:44:45their manager said to my mom,
00:44:47I don't think I've ever seen a girl rock and roll
00:44:50electric guitar player before.
00:44:52What do you think about her playing with the Blazers?
00:44:55And she said, okay.
00:44:59The Blazers, they were all surfers.
00:45:02We'd get up at five o'clock in the morning.
00:45:04My mom would take us all down to Huntington Beach.
00:45:07They would surf and we'd sit on the beach
00:45:09and just play our guitars.
00:45:11It was surf music.
00:45:13Retail Clerks Union Hall in Buena Park.
00:45:16And it was like the Mecca for all the stars to go.
00:45:19It's the first time I ever saw Eddie and the Showman play.
00:45:22Eddie and the Showman, to me,
00:45:24were like a huge step up in musician quality.
00:45:27And I was kind of in awe of them.
00:45:29He was a good looking guy.
00:45:31What impressed me more was his presence.
00:45:34Just before the Righteous Brothers were to go on,
00:45:37Eddie's dad came to my mom and said,
00:45:39would she go on with Eddie and the Showman?
00:45:41And my mom said, yes.
00:45:43I would play a lick and then he'd play a lick.
00:45:46It was like a battle going back and forth.
00:45:49And then the next thing I know,
00:45:50he started stepping on my licks.
00:45:52And I walked up to his guitar
00:45:54like I was really going to watch him play.
00:45:56And I just pulled his plug.
00:45:58I was so mad.
00:45:59I just yanked his plug out.
00:46:01After that, I had a really good following.
00:46:03Because of this little rivalry
00:46:05that went on between Eddie and I from that point on.
00:46:09I was 14.
00:46:10Eddie was 18 or 19.
00:46:12And our relationship was rocky at times.
00:46:16I don't want to say love-hate relationship.
00:46:19I mean, I cared for him
00:46:20and I think he liked me and I liked him.
00:46:22It seemed like he resented me at times,
00:46:24but he always tried to help me too.
00:46:25And he was the star.
00:46:27Because he had the presence.
00:46:30He was very patient with me.
00:46:36Dave and the Marksman, Eddie and the Showman,
00:46:38and Kathy Marshall went out on the road
00:46:40and toured California like a little review.
00:46:43And it was just like one big happy family
00:46:45having a great time on the road like that.
00:46:51We had some really great times on those tours.
00:46:55The first time I heard Dick Dale play live
00:46:58was the day I played with him.
00:47:00I was not allowed to go to Harmony Park,
00:47:02which is where his venue was most of the time.
00:47:05Harmony Park had a reputation
00:47:06of being kind of a rough place.
00:47:09So I never got to see him in person.
00:47:11My manager booked me to play with him
00:47:14at the Huntington Pavilion.
00:47:17And I was scared to death.
00:47:20I had heard stories that he's very rough
00:47:23and he's not a nice guy and all this stuff.
00:47:26When they brought me up on stage,
00:47:28he was playing with me at the same time.
00:47:32He was just like being a rhythm guitar player playing behind me.
00:47:36And he stopped what he was doing
00:47:37and he walked over and he stood there for a minute,
00:47:41you know, in front of the whole crowd
00:47:42and then he threw his hands up like he couldn't compete
00:47:46and went over and put his guitar down
00:47:47and then stood off to the side.
00:47:50I gave her a title.
00:47:51I called her Queen of the Surf Guitar.
00:47:54I never heard of another girl rock and roll
00:47:57electric guitar player at the time.
00:48:00I was an anomaly.
00:48:01I mean, it was something very different.
00:48:03I didn't think about being well-known
00:48:06or being even compared to someone like Dick Dale.
00:48:09And my impetus was, I just want to play guitar.
00:48:12Gather on, kids, and I'll tell you a story
00:48:14on how you can become a blonde-haired surfer boy.
00:48:18You grab yourself a surfboard, swimsuit and all,
00:48:21and hop into your woody and find them ten feet tall.
00:48:24None of us really could comprehend
00:48:27how big it was going to get.
00:48:28Giddy up, portal line.
00:48:30Watch out for those stingrays.
00:48:32Within a short period, the large movie studio
00:48:35saw an opportunity and started producing teen exploitation
00:48:39movies in the form of beach party films.
00:48:43The mainstream jumped on it and began to merchandise the heck out of it.
00:48:47It was just like in the movies.
00:48:51Those depictions of fights and stuff like that, those fights actually happened.
00:48:56Beach party with Frankie and Annette.
00:49:02That made more money than Cleopatra did.
00:49:05So find the beauty in commercialism.
00:49:08The good part is, they woke up the world to the world of surfing.
00:49:14And that blew it up into a hula hoop,
00:49:18kind of fad from which it never recovered.
00:49:23Eddie and the showman got to do the Hollywood Bowl,
00:49:31which in itself was insane.
00:49:34I'd like to tell you about Eddie and the showman.
00:49:36I walked out and here's 10,000 plus people.
00:49:40These boys come from the South Bay Palace verdicts.
00:49:44The feeling I had was like, whoa.
00:49:47All right, Eddie.
00:49:48Tell them what you're going to play.
00:49:55Is surfing a fun boy?
00:49:58There was a period of time that you could open up Time magazine,
00:50:01Sports Illustrated, and surfing was included as part of mainstream America.
00:50:06It just became an industry, just like music business.
00:50:11And they got swept up into this romantic wave that if you go out west,
00:50:15it's not movie stars, it's the bees, it's blondes, it's surf music,
00:50:20it's all the freedom that you could ask for because there wasn't anything else on the horizon yet.
00:50:26The media just glamorized it even more, but it was glamorous.
00:50:31There was this desire for everybody to have this identity with this surf culture.
00:50:38Suddenly you were bleaching your hair, you had a flat top with a little bit of peroxide on it
00:50:41so you looked like you'd been to the beach, but you haven't been there, but you look like it.
00:50:45Kids would drive around in the Midwest in the United States
00:50:48with half a surfboard hanging out the trunk of the car
00:50:51to emulate being a surfer and they'd never seen the ocean.
00:50:53The surfing community at the time wasn't really thrilled about going national,
00:50:59having surfing get that big because now it's bringing a lot of people
00:51:03who aren't really true surfers into the field,
00:51:07but it happened because of the music.
00:51:11In 1961, there was a literal explosion of bands and dances and 45 RPM records.
00:51:18Within a short period, thousands of garages across Southern California
00:51:22began to fill with teenagers who were eager to form their own bands
00:51:26and jump on this new phenomenon.
00:51:33The 45 RPM record became a way for these bands to market themselves and their music.
00:51:38The number of recordings steadily escalated and peaked during the summer of 1963,
00:51:44but only a handful found their way onto the radio
00:51:47and even fewer were picked up by major labels and became hit records
00:51:51such as Pipeline by the Shantaes or Wipeout by the Surfaris.
00:51:58Ronnie, being the consummate musician he was,
00:52:00starts this drum beat and we go,
00:52:03well, we better put some chords and a melody to this
00:52:05because it'll be a drum solo if we don't.
00:52:08I got a shingle from the roof.
00:52:10Bob cracked it over his knees,
00:52:12sounded like he had surfboard cracking,
00:52:14and then Dale had this crazy laugh that he did at parties.
00:52:19Wipeout!
00:52:21Pretty soon, Wipeout went worldwide.
00:52:24So we were having a really good time.
00:52:28Then...
00:52:38When the Beatles came out,
00:52:40surf music suffered a lot.
00:52:45The Beatles changed everything.
00:52:47I don't think people wanted to sit and just listen to instruments anymore.
00:52:51They wanted lyrics and they wanted voice.
00:52:54The songs, instead of being about surfer girl or your hot rod,
00:53:00it became, you know, protest songs
00:53:02and it just became a very unhopeful time.
00:53:06The surf bands, for the most part,
00:53:08just sort of like one day they were not there anymore.
00:53:11The marketing people were just gearing up
00:53:14to really cash in on the surf culture when the Beatles showed up.
00:53:18I had other bands after the Bel Airs in the surf vein,
00:53:21but it all was gone by 1965.
00:53:24The folk rock thing was just starting,
00:53:26and I jumped on that.
00:53:28Lyrics tell you what to think.
00:53:31Instrumental music doesn't.
00:53:33It gives you the freedom to think what you want
00:53:35and go where you will.
00:53:36That's why I loved instrumental music.
00:53:40To me, it was bubble gum because, once again,
00:53:43we were doing this rock and roll and rhythm and blues.
00:53:47The artists that were just breaking out,
00:53:49climbing up the charts,
00:53:50it was just like they hit a brick wall.
00:53:56In 1966, the Rendezvous Ballroom,
00:53:59the legendary home to Dick Dale
00:54:01and the birthplace of surf music,
00:54:03burned to the ground.
00:54:09Surf music should never be anything but fun.
00:54:12It just happened that it ended,
00:54:14and it couldn't support, it couldn't pay its way anymore.
00:54:21The music changed and the people changed,
00:54:23and their attitudes changed.
00:54:26And you'll never hear surf music again.
00:54:35Jimi Hendrix may have been right.
00:54:38Surf music experienced an existential crisis.
00:54:41The music of the 70s was characterized
00:54:43by long, drawn-out solos,
00:54:46overproduced arrangements,
00:54:47conceptual album music with hidden meaning.
00:54:51And there was disco.
00:54:53I mean, it just seemed like nobody
00:54:56was interested in surf music anymore.
00:54:58But that wasn't true for me.
00:55:00So it occurred to me one day that it might be fun
00:55:02to put a band together and make a surf record,
00:55:05which is something I wanted to do back in the 60s,
00:55:08but I never had the chance.
00:55:20Surf music had died a long time ago.
00:55:22Nobody even knew what surf music was.
00:55:24There were no surf music crowds.
00:55:26There was no such thing.
00:55:27Always the Beach Boys, big-name band like that,
00:55:30and Jan and Dean probably were doing something somewhere.
00:55:34You know, as time went by in the music in the 70s,
00:55:36everything was overblown, overproduced.
00:55:40Big guitar, big hair.
00:55:42And I think people started getting tired of that.
00:55:45I think the main appeal of John and the Knight Riders,
00:55:48it was just the pulse.
00:55:50It was primal to the nth power.
00:55:53This was recorded at a friend's house
00:55:56in Orange County
00:55:57on a four-track reel-to-reel tape recorder.
00:56:01And I took the tape into Los Angeles
00:56:04to have it pressed up by a record company,
00:56:05and I asked them to do it on blue vinyl,
00:56:08because I thought it looked cool.
00:56:14I took this record and I drove it to K-Rock,
00:56:17which was in Pasadena.
00:56:18I walked right into the control room,
00:56:20and I said, hey, you've got to play this record.
00:56:22And they put it on,
00:56:23and they played it immediately right on the spot.
00:56:25That's how cool the station was.
00:56:26And then we booked a studio in Los Angeles
00:56:29and recorded what eventually became Surf Beat 80.
00:56:33This album hadn't been out
00:56:35longer than a couple of months
00:56:36when I had a phone call from a concert promoter
00:56:38who wanted to hire us
00:56:39to open a big show
00:56:41at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium.
00:56:43Well, it's historically known
00:56:44as the concert that revived surf music.
00:56:47It was the Surf Punks and Dick Dale
00:56:49at the Santa Monica Civic
00:56:50and we're the opening act.
00:57:02John and the Knight Riders,
00:57:03we were like doing lightning speed versions of...
00:57:05I mean, we were like, you know,
00:57:07surf music on drugs or something.
00:57:09That just opened the door.
00:57:10All the L.A. bands, like the Go-Go's
00:57:13and the Missing Persons,
00:57:14they all wanted John and the Knight Riders
00:57:15to open for them.
00:57:16All right, Surf's up!
00:57:18More and more people were picking up on this sound.
00:57:21I mean, in the 1960s,
00:57:23I don't believe any surf band
00:57:24ever played at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go.
00:57:26And yet, in the 80s,
00:57:28several surf bands played at the Whiskey-a-Go-Go.
00:57:43The only gigs they could even get
00:57:47were with areas of the punk rock audience.
00:57:50And if John and the Knight Riders came out and rocked,
00:57:53they'd slam dance to them, too.
00:57:56As long as you ducked the beer cans, it was fun.
00:57:58It was a very exciting time in Hollywood.
00:58:00A lot of punk bands playing.
00:58:02L.A. Weekly and Band Magazine
00:58:04and all these trades were talking about the band.
00:58:07The punk scene had been given birth.
00:58:09He had X and the germs.
00:58:12That whole scene was going on.
00:58:13People have just embraced it again
00:58:15into this whole era, the early 80s.
00:58:18But when you got off into the surf punk world,
00:58:20we just found our little slot right in that.
00:58:23So there was a whole instrumental revival
00:58:25like nobody had ever seen before,
00:58:27and it started happening all over the world.
00:58:34All of a sudden, John said,
00:58:35OK, guys, we're going to Europe.
00:58:37That was almost shocking.
00:58:39Are these people nuts?
00:58:40They want surf music in Europe?
00:58:42That first show that we did in Holland
00:58:44was at a huge rockabilly festival.
00:58:47At the time, what was very current
00:58:49and trendy and popular in Holland
00:58:50was the Clark Gable movie, Gone with the Wind.
00:58:53And they were all, like, into this southern motif.
00:59:00We were playing in a very large hall,
00:59:03and there must have been
00:59:04several thousand rockabilly fans there.
00:59:06And I remember being constantly booed by the audience.
00:59:12And then a bunch of German rockabilly guys
00:59:14were kind of yelling at us, like,
00:59:16Rockabilly, man! Rockabilly!
00:59:19Rockabilly!
00:59:22The promoter had told us before we left,
00:59:25you need to learn the Song of the South surf style.
00:59:28So we flew right off into Dixie.
00:59:39The moment we did that song,
00:59:41that crowd erupted and loved us.
01:00:04Everybody in the crowd, man,
01:00:06just started waving flags
01:00:08and everybody started cheering.
01:00:09The crowd did a complete 180-degree change
01:00:13in their attitude.
01:00:14And we walked off that stage as heroes.
01:00:21I think if we wouldn't have done that,
01:00:23they may have, you know, stormed the stage.
01:00:25John of the Night Riders
01:00:26may have never come back to America, you know?
01:00:29I remember thinking on the flight home
01:00:32that European audiences
01:00:34really weren't that much different
01:00:35than those in the States.
01:00:37It was obvious to me
01:00:38that surf music had a universal appeal.
01:00:41There was a place for it
01:00:43in the pop music scene.
01:00:47We came home to do more tours,
01:00:50make more records,
01:00:51and played more venues.
01:00:58Throughout the 80s,
01:00:59new surf bands continued to form.
01:01:02Bands like the Surf Raiders,
01:01:03Paul Johnson and the Packards,
01:01:06the Evasions,
01:01:07the Surf Punks,
01:01:09the Insect Surfers,
01:01:11and the Malibus
01:01:12were among a growing number
01:01:13of surf bands
01:01:14that all helped
01:01:15to draw attention to the music.
01:01:18Dick Dale was featured
01:01:19in a segment on KABC's
01:01:22Eye on LA.
01:01:23He was interviewed
01:01:24at his home in Newport Beach
01:01:25when he felt he was ready
01:01:26for a comeback
01:01:27after battling cancer
01:01:28and being absent
01:01:29from the concert scene
01:01:30throughout the 1970s.
01:01:34And he did come back
01:01:35to tour and record again.
01:01:37You know,
01:01:38it's really great
01:01:38to see somebody
01:01:39make a comeback like that.
01:01:40The Ventures,
01:01:42who toured exclusively
01:01:43in Japan for years,
01:01:44returned to U.S. stages
01:01:46after a decade of absence.
01:01:50Reunion concerts were held.
01:01:56And people remembered
01:01:58the fun again.
01:02:10And then something happened
01:02:12in 1994 that sparked
01:02:13the popularity of surf music
01:02:15to a greater degree
01:02:16than ever before.
01:02:17The Best Picture
01:02:19of the Cannes Film Festival.
01:02:24For just sheer,
01:02:27like,
01:02:28rock-charged viscera,
01:02:30I think it would have
01:02:31to be Miserloo.
01:02:34Pulp Fiction really cemented
01:02:36surf music
01:02:37into the consciousness
01:02:39of the world.
01:02:40As a result,
01:02:42surf bands started forming
01:02:43in even greater numbers
01:02:44all across the globe.
01:02:46This time period became known
01:02:48as the Third Wave.
01:02:49All around Europe,
01:02:50the same story
01:02:51is repeating.
01:02:52Pulp Fiction,
01:02:53who really presented
01:02:54the surf music
01:02:55to a wider audience.
01:02:56Instead of using
01:02:57the word surf music,
01:02:59a lot of people now,
01:03:00so you're playing
01:03:01Pulp Fiction music.
01:03:03Founded in the late 80s,
01:03:05the Huntington Beach
01:03:06International Surfing Museum
01:03:07continues to support
01:03:08the surf music community
01:03:10with Sunday afternoon
01:03:11concerts during the summer.
01:03:15For the last several years,
01:03:17Liborno,
01:03:18a small Tuscany town
01:03:19on the west coast of Italy,
01:03:20has been the location
01:03:21for a huge,
01:03:23three-day international
01:03:24surf music event
01:03:25called the Surfer Joe Festival.
01:03:27Well, the Surfer Joe
01:03:28Summer Festival
01:03:29was born from my idea
01:03:30a few years ago
01:03:31with the purpose
01:03:32to put together
01:03:32all the Italian surf bands.
01:03:34But people were thinking
01:03:35that I was crazy
01:03:36trying to put together shows
01:03:38and pushed the entire
01:03:40surf music movement
01:03:41in Italy.
01:03:42We had the first festival
01:03:43in 2003,
01:03:44and the festival
01:03:45was absolutely great.
01:03:54Los Straightjackets
01:03:56have recorded
01:03:56over 13 albums to date
01:03:58and have appeared
01:03:59several times
01:04:00on the Conan O'Brien Show.
01:04:01Not surprisingly,
01:04:03they're hugely popular
01:04:04in Mexico.
01:04:05The first time
01:04:06Los Straightjackets
01:04:07went to Mexico,
01:04:08we weren't sure
01:04:08how they were gonna receive us.
01:04:10If they would've thought
01:04:11that we were making fun
01:04:12of them or something,
01:04:13which we weren't,
01:04:13we were inspired
01:04:14by their culture.
01:04:15There were two shows,
01:04:17one in Mexico City
01:04:18and one in Guadalajara,
01:04:19and they were both sold out.
01:04:20It was a shock.
01:04:21We had no idea
01:04:21we were that popular there.
01:04:32Dick Dale started to tour,
01:04:34headlined in Vegas,
01:04:35and made records again.
01:04:45And every so often,
01:04:47I'd hear about
01:04:48surf bands popping up
01:04:49in some of the most
01:04:50surprising places
01:04:51like Japan,
01:04:52Finland,
01:04:53Croatia,
01:04:54countries you'd never
01:04:55expect to hear
01:04:56surf music from.
01:05:13The appeal of the music
01:05:15was cross-cultural
01:05:17and even more diverse
01:05:19than before.
01:05:21Surf music had experienced
01:05:22a full-fledged revival.
01:05:24It became obvious to me
01:05:26that surf music was
01:05:27very much alive
01:05:28with a universal appeal
01:05:29that I hadn't imagined
01:05:31a few years earlier.
01:05:32Surf music is my life.
01:05:35Unfortunately.
01:05:36Surf music, for me,
01:05:37it's a religious life form.
01:05:39It just gets in your heart,
01:05:40it gets in your soul,
01:05:41it gets in your spirit.
01:05:42For me, it's my childhood.
01:05:44It takes me back.
01:05:45It's all in the melody
01:05:45and the beat.
01:05:49It's still all about
01:05:51escapism,
01:05:52enjoying the moment,
01:05:53dancing,
01:05:54having fun.
01:06:09Even though
01:06:10we're slowly losing
01:06:12the pioneers
01:06:13and the people
01:06:14who first played
01:06:15around with this,
01:06:16it's bigger
01:06:17than it's ever been
01:06:18by far.
01:06:20The spirit
01:06:21of surf music fans
01:06:22has not been dampened
01:06:24by the test of time.
01:06:25That spirit
01:06:26still represents
01:06:27all of the things
01:06:28that made the sound
01:06:29of surf popular
01:06:30in the days before
01:06:31the Beatles.
01:06:32It's commonly assumed
01:06:33that when
01:06:35Jimmy said
01:06:36that you'll never hear
01:06:37surf music ever again
01:06:39that he was saying
01:06:40we're here now
01:06:41and screw you,
01:06:43but he apparently
01:06:44was a really big fan
01:06:46of Dick Dale,
01:06:47and the real reason
01:06:48he said it was
01:06:49there had been
01:06:49a false news report
01:06:51at the time
01:06:51that Dick Dale
01:06:52was ill and dying.
01:06:54I had collapsed,
01:06:56and then I was
01:06:57at the hospital.
01:07:00Jimmy was recording
01:07:01at the time.
01:07:03Hey, I heard Dale
01:07:04did a no-show,
01:07:06and his guitar player
01:07:07said,
01:07:08no, man,
01:07:10he's dying.
01:07:14And then Jimmy said,
01:07:16man,
01:07:17he says,
01:07:18you'll never hear
01:07:18surf music again.
01:07:20But he knew
01:07:21what a fighter I was,
01:07:23and he said,
01:07:24that sounds like a lie
01:07:26to me.
01:07:29I have that on tape
01:07:32somewhere.
01:07:34The king of surf guitar
01:07:37has passed away.
01:07:38Dick Dale
01:07:39led the way
01:07:40for generations.
01:07:44Dale performed
01:07:45at blazing speeds
01:07:46until the end.
01:07:47Dick Dale
01:07:48was 81 years old.
01:07:54you'll never
01:07:54hear surf music
01:07:55again.
01:07:59That's a big lie.
01:08:02applause
01:08:03.
01:08:03.
01:08:03.
01:08:09.
01:08:10.
01:08:10.
01:08:20guitar solo
01:09:08guitar solo
01:09:17guitar solo
01:10:05That's about it.
01:10:10guitar solo
01:10:11guitar solo
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