Surf music is an incredibly diverse genre. Ever since its inception on the beaches of Southern California in the late 50s and its speedy adoption in Australia, surfers have been listening to a wide variety of music that falls into the ‘surfing sounds’ category. So lets put down our sticks and wade into the surf music debate…
Ask a non-surfer to define surf rock and you’ll get conventional answers with the Beach Boys in high rotation. Ask the same question to a bunch of surfers and you’ll get answers as varied as their boards.“The Atlantics rule”, says a shortboarder who must have been born a good two decades after Bombora first rocked the airwaves.
“Jack Johnson, Xavier Rudd and the Beautiful Girls”, says a longboarder.
“Midnight Oil”, proclaims her friend on a mal.
“Paul Kelly’s Gunnamatta”, calls out a silver surfer as he paddles by on a custom 9’2” Peter Ashley.
“Beau Young’s Last Wave of Summer”, chips in a wahine on a carver.
And after hurtling down a wave and dropping in on me, a young bodyboarder grins. “It’s what old people listen to”, he offers.
He’ll keep.
From its beginning in the late 50’s, surf music always had the ability to mean different things to different people at different times. Once surfing music was very identifiable with a distinct resonance, but now, a wide range of musical styles fall into the surf music category at concerts, accompany surfing films and on surf inspired CD compilations.
You can think of surf music in two categories; vocal and instrumental. Jan and Dean's hits Deadman’s Curve and Surf City paved the way for groups such as The Beach Boys harmonic vocals leaned more towards the mainstream pop-rock style of music, often referred to as ‘beach music’ or ‘surf pop’. Whereas, instrumental groups like The Atlantics often comprised one or two guitar players, a bass player and a drummer and were inspired by Dick Dale, the original ‘King of the surf guitar’. Dale pioneered instrumental surf music and was the first to play Leo Fender’s breakthrough guitar, the Fender Stratocaster. Dale reckons that his distinctive sound came from his desire to recreate the sound of Gene Krupa the famous jazz drummer that created the sounds of the native dancers in the jungles along with the roar of mother nature's creature's and the roar of the ocean.
Today Dale and Jan and Dean are still performing after overcoming huge personal and professional odds, with Dale overcoming cancer and Jan Berry terrible brain injuries in a near fatal auto accident in 1966. Some 12 years later, he was finally able to tour again with Dean when they supported the Beach Boys, some 15 years after they first played together.
Like longboarders, surf musicians seem to go on forever.
Surf music’s current resurgence means that it is listened by more than those who can recall Phyllis O’Donnell winning the first woman’s world championship in1964. Surfers of all ages as well as their non-beach going mates are turning up their radios – or iPods – to catch the surfing sounds. Surf music is also full of players who would not know a good wave from a wipeout. The Atlantics were from Sydney’s eastern suburbs and took their name from a petrol sign, not the ocean as many supposed. Dale confessed that while he did surf, he wasn’t great and paradoxically, Dennis Wilson, famously the only Beach Boy who actually surfed, drowned in 1983. However, despite their lack of ability as a group to grab a wave, the Beach Boys certainly managed to hijack the genre.
You don’t have to be a surfer to enjoy the music that’s been inspired by the wave-walking lifestyle. No matter if your tribe is into Foo Fighters, Powderfinger, a Coastal Chill collection or the whole Blue Crush soundtrack, it seems that they all concord into the surf music category. And it’s not just the beachside suspects singing about sex, surf and sun; take the Vivesectors who describe themselves as ‘a Lo-fi Psychosurf band from the Deep Russian Underground’, or Denmark’s The Baywatchers, a surf rock n’ roll punk ensemble founded in Copehagen and now based in Berlin. It seems that if surfers (or those who like the idea of surfing) listen to it, then its surf music.
Just as Australia’s surfers tended to follow the lead shown by their US counterparts when it came to board construction and design, we also followed their musical influences. 1963 was the year when surf music exploded in Australia, with eight of the national top 10 hits surf related. The Denvermen’s ‘Surfside' was the first Australian surf song, but it only hit the charts after American songs ‘Pipeline’ by The Shantays and ‘Wipeout’ by The Surfaris livened up the airways.
On the local scene, surfers and landlocked youngsters alike were stomping along to Little Pattie (Patricia Amphlett now the president of the Media Alliaince) who was then as famous as any recent Australian Idol winner. In 1963 her first single He's My Blonde Headed Stompie Wompie Real Gone Surfer Boy/Stompin' At Maroubra reached #2 on the Top 40 charts, beaten only by The Beatles at #1. Once The Atlantics recorded 'Bombora' it seemed that every major recording artist was recording a 'Surf' record – including crooner Barry Crocker and ballet dancer Sir Robert Helpman.
But sometimes being a local band wasn’t a virtue,
"When ‘Bombora’ was first released, a lot of people especially in the music industry thought we were American”, comments drummer Peter Hood. “Since then, we've met a lot of deejays who have confessed that if they had known we were an Australian band then they would never have played our records." The late ‘60’s shortboard revolution kick started by Bob McTavish, Nat Young and George Greenough was in tandem with traditional surf music losing popularity to rock, despite strong bands such as the Sydney northern beaches group Tamam Shud, who contributed four songs to legendary surf movie 'Morning of the Earth, which is enjoying a resurgence and fecently played a number of sell-out concerts around the country to an audiance comprising mostly surfers who could rememebr the 60s and beyond.
But then, suddenly surf music was old hat and the music from your tranny was more likely to be from the ‘British Invasion’; the Rolling Stones, the Animals or the Beatles. Like longboards, surf music was regarded by the mainstream as the sign of the old timer, while punk, rock and heavy metal stood sway.
The current revival slowly came to mainstream ears when Midnight Oil released 'Wedding Cake Island' and it slowly gained momentum in mid-80s when Quentin Tarantino used Dale's ‘Miserlou’ in Pulp Fiction. Suddenly, baby boomers rediscovered the longboards they abandoned along with bands such as the Atlantics (who by the way are still going strong and for the most part, look as fit and hip now as they did back then). Despite having their first hit in 1961, like any good surf break they are still rocking. In 2000, the Sydney Olympics closing ceremony featured ‘Bombora’, while 100 lifesavers dragged a giant lifesaving reel into the arena and their support during the Beach Boys tour in 2003 showed that they had not lost their passion or ability to put on a stunning performance.
Another more grass-roots venue for surfing musicians are surf film events held in RSL’s, school halls and surf clubs all over the country. Whether it’s the local board-riders running a fund raiser or part of a mega surf brand competition, these events allow both local musicians and the broader surfing community to come together. At the 2005 Australian Surf Movie Festival, the live music at the Palm Beach Sydney show came from local band Token View with surf film soundtrack stalwart Pico playing at intermission to an audience that ranged from under six to 60 plus. Mostly wearing surf themed t-shirts, boardshorts, loud shirts and thongs.
Events such as the Byron Bay Blues and Roots Festival have showcased the emergence of talented artists such as Jack Johnson, Xavier Rudd, John Butler, The Beautiful Girls, Ben Harper and his pro-surfing pal and singer-songwriter Donovan Frankenreiter, whose mellow tunes and lyrical sounds appear to have totally re-invented the surf music sound. Johnson is typical when he says that his diverse musical influences includes; Nick Drake, The Beatles, Hendrix, Tribe Called Quest, Dylan, Ben Harper, Radio Head, G. Love, Special Sauce, Otis Redding, Neil Young, Marley, Kurosawa and Tom Curren.
This new surf wave with their blues-roots sound and eclectic influences have encouraged many local and internal surfers to make waves in the recording studio. Beau Young, former 2000 and 2003 world longboarding champion, has shown he’s not just incredible in the water, as his first release 'It Ain’t Easy' on the Weekend Sessions CD proves. “In my mind, music in my life is just as important as surfing.” His first album Waves of Change was a critical and commercial success and Still, album number two shows he's as unstoppable in the studio as he is on a wave. Friend and fellow longboard champ Lucas Proudfoot’s band, Max Judo released their first CD in 2005 and it went gangbusters in Japan. Even Kelly Slater is getting into it with his imaginatively named band ‘The Surfers’.
Even the Rip Curl Pro the longest running profesisonal surf comp in the world, now subtitles their event a 'surf & music festival'; the 2009 lineup included Ash Gunwald, The Goons of Doom and a host of talemt as diverse as the waves Bells can produce.
But the classic surf sounds endure.
Paul Kelly’s glorious release Gunnamatta is reminiscent of early surf instrumentals and ‘Mal & the Longboarders’, a gang of cool dudes who surf – what else – longboards in the 2nd Wind Longboard Club based at Federal near Byron Bay, play their own songs alongside more traditional music and are in huge demand at surfing comps and parties up and down Australia’s east coast. Member Soz Carlberg is so devoted to music, he even named his son Strat, after his favourite Fender guitar. Their new album 'The Other Side 'is selling strongly to longtime wax-heads as well as kids were weren’t even born when the band first rode a wave – or wrote a note. “It’s all about fun in the sun and catching waves”, says their bass guitarist Mal Walker.
“Like surfing, surf music is all about good times”.
Aloha to that.
More Info
Waltzing the Plank – the illustrated encyclopedia of Australian surf music 1963-2003 by Stephen J McParland www.garyusher.com/cmusic.html This encyclopedic work is an essential publication for anyone interested in the history of Australian surf music
Must have surf sounds
Atlantics – Bombora and Point Break
Beach Boys – Surfin’ Safari
Ben Harper – Diamonds on the Inside
Beau Young Waves of Change
Blue Crush soundtrack
Chantays – Pipleline
Coastal Chill – any compilation
Donovan Frankenreiter - Donovan Frankenreiter
The Sandals - Endless Summer soundtrack
G-Love & Special Sauce - The Best of G. Love and Special Sauce
Jack Johnson – Brushfire Fairytales
John Butler Trio - Living
Mal & the Longboarders – The Other Side and Sticky Feet
Midnight Oil – Wedding Cake Island
Paul Kelly - Gunnamatta
The Surfaris – Wipeout!
Weekend Sessions (any compilation)
Wetsuits – Golden Tones of the Wetsuits
Xavier Rudd – Live at the Grid
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