Jim Thomas of the Mermen gave an amazing lecture on instrumental surf music at the the exploritorium in San Francisco back in 1997 that really makes the connection between the act of surfing (wave riding) and surf music. I have a CD of it I got at a Mermen show years ago. It would be easy to copy it and send to you but, I’m a ferm beleiver in giving an artist his or her due… So you might try an e mail through the Mermen web page www.mermen.net or the FB page. Jim would probably be stoked to discus it with you and send ya a copy…" if you are interested"
and BTW, I’m just a huge instrumental surf music fan and love it all from the early traditional (first wave) stuff to the newer more progressive (fourth wave) stuff you might hear today. Given that, Jim Thomas is by far my favorite musician and if you were wondering, he’s a pretty good surfer too.
I wish I could have seen the Mermen last night at the beach chalete on OB. I’m sure it was a great time as usual.
Good luck on your project and hope we get to see a sample of your work once complete.
Exactly. It is a very specific sub genre of rock and roll that started in the early/mid 60s and was briefly popular at that time.
Anyone who thinks that Jack Johnson or the Beach Boys are “surf music” does not know what surf music is. One cannot redefine a genre that was well established 50 years ago.
I mean, would you call anything with a saxaphone “jazz”?
I was quite dismayed when I bought the box set “Cowabunga” . Supposedly, a surf music compilation, it includes many tunes that are definitely not surf music. Stuff like The Beach Boys, The Honeys, and more. They blew it. The space given to non surf tunes would have been better used by including some great tracks they omitted. A blown opportunity, for sure.
I know its super far from being ‘Surf Music’, but does anyone know any background of the theme from Gidget Goes Hawaiian. I know there was a version by James Darren, and Duane Eddy, but do not know much else. Was the Duane Eddy version just a more ‘Surf Music’ cover of the original from the film, and were there any other versions.