JIMMY REED: The Groover of Rock, From Motown To Sesame Street

...with 2 strutting
Music Players!

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Today, the jaunty Jimmy Reed, the groover of Rock!
Hear 2 extensive music players, one of Reed and one of all his disciples from the 1950s to today!

Music Player quick-links:
𝟭 Jimmy Reed
𝟮 Jimmy Reed's disciples: 1950s-Today

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𝟭
ROCKIN' WITH REED!:
The Music of Jimmy Reed

The "Sesame Street" theme and many other famous songs we love all exist because of one Blues man.

Sometimes you can tell a history of Rock'n'Soul through the influence of one guitarist, or one voice, or one beat, or one song, or a groove. Jimmy Reed trademarked a groove that defined generations of music afterward.


JIMMY REED
by Tym Stevens
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Jimmy Reed was an unassuming gentle soul who raised up a lot of noise and ripples.

A Mississippi blues man, a peer in the new 1950s electric wave of John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, and Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy regularly galloped hits and standards into the pop charts alongside upstart colts like Chuck Berry> and Bo Diddley>. Catchy, no frills, all thrills. Jimmy bridged the worlds of Rock and Blues exactly as the first youth of Rock'n'Roll> were learning to play.

Jimmy had a sweet disposition, like a cherished uncle talking loose, that felt like casual confessionals of hidden depth. He was a whisper and a smile, a gas and a groove. You could catch the melody, dance to it, and play it. Many many did and do.

He rolled out classics like printing money. "Ain't That Lovin' You, Baby?", "Baby, What You Want Me To Do?", "Bright Lights Big City", "Big Boss Man", "I Ain't Got You", "Shame, Shame, Shame". Each one pinballs the skull, tickles the tongue, taps the feet.

He was a good soul with a fine run and some bad breaks. And in the long run he was great.

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𝟮
AIN'T THAT LOVIN' YOU, BABY!:
The Disciples of Jimmy Reed

JIMMY REED: Disciples 1950s-Today
by Tym Stevens
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*(This Player is limited to the first 200 songs.
Hear the unlimited Playlist here.)

All songs in order from the 1950s to today.
16 hours and seven decades of music
influenced by Chuck Berry, including:
Chuck Berry • Bo Diddley • Little Walter
Link Wray • Dale Hawkins • Dale Hawkins

Marvin Gaye • Everly Brothers • Sam Cooke
Barbara Lynn • Lonnie Mack • Etta James
Rolling Stones • Jackie Wilson • Velvelettes
The Animals • Soloman Burke • Los Brincos
Them • Sly + The Family Stone • Moody Blues
Bob Dylan • The Ad Libs • Beach Boys
Booker T And The MGs • The Pretty Things
Shangri-Las • The Standells • Irma Thomas
Piero Piccioni • Small Faces • Capt. Beefheart
Stevie Wonder • Wilson Pickett • Elvis
The Who • John Mayall • The Who
Shangri-Las • The Standells • Bobbie Gentry
Frank Zappa • Jimi Hendrix • Charlie Rich

The Doors • T.Rex • The Grateful Dead
Freddie King • Aretha Franklin • The Byrds
Jim Croce • John Lennon • Chicago • ZZ Top
Koko Taylor • Bryan Ferry • Joe Sample

Blues Brothers • Clifton Chenier • Stray Cats
Neil Young • Elvis Costello • Half Japanese
Meat Puppets • Lyres • The Delmonas

Paul McCartney • Thee Headcoatees
Eddie Clearwater • Bodeco • Jeff Beck

James Blood Ulmer • The Kills • HeadCat
Willie Nelson • Wynton Marsalis • Oasis
Rosie Flores • Barrence Whitfield

Black Joe Lewis • Gary Clark Jr • Nikki Hill
The Baboons • Tony Joe White • Don Bryant
and many, many more!



Jimmy Reed is the mover and the groover. His easy-to-learn chords, earworm tunes, and amiable candor cut the baby teeth of Blues, Rock, and Soul folks for the long stroke.

His classic songs have been routinely covered from the late-'50s up to this day. You'll even hear the young Jackson 5 (1967) learning how to play to Jimmy Reed!

Link Wray; Barbara Lynn; The Doors; The Blues Brothers


The Jimmy Reed groove is a boogie shuffle that was becoming standard in Blues and the emerging Rock in the mid-'50s. He stamped it with his stark directness, catchy simplicity, and leisurely ease. He took such sonic possession of it, or it him, that it became hard to believe it ever existed without him.

After his first strutting hits, it started to diverge into two tempos, each of which launched many covers and imitations: e.g., the slow stroll of "Bright Lights Big City", and the sunny jaunt of "Big Boss Man".



The BRIGHT LIGHTS BIG CITY Groove

The Rolling Stones; The Yardbirds; Bob Dylan; ZZ Top

Jimmy Reed turned the standard slow blues shuffle into a stripped, insular, smokey mood. It's the sound of shack backrooms, creaking floors and bones, raspy regrets, and woozy funk. It can be wandering midnight city cement, lost and glazed, on the wrong side of downhill. Or it can be sinuous and sultry, or lazed and content, or drunk and drained. It starts in rough Rockin' form on "I Found My Baby", simmers down on "Baby, What You Want Me To Do" and "Take Out Some Insurance", and reaches pure slow burn with "Bright Lights Big City". The groove and the mood becomes his through the spare atmosphere, languid vocal, and bleak harp.

You can hear this groove and mood play out in other classics like The Yardbirds' "Like Jimmy Reed Again", The Rolling Stones' "The Spider And The Fly", Ray Hoff and The Offbeats' "My Good Friend Mary Jane" (Australia), Chicago's "Anyway You Want", and in mutant spirit in Bob Dylan's "Rainy Day Women #12 & 35" and ZZ Top's "Tush", or Half-Japanese splicing their cover with The Ventures' "Walk Don't Run".



The BIG BOSS MAN Groove
(or, "Can You Tell Me How To Get Some Respect For Jimmy Reed?")

Tommy Tucker; Marvin Gaye; Solomon Burke; The Ad Libs

But it's the jaunty groove that everyone loves, even if they don't realize it's origin.

It's especially odd that songs influenced by 'the Bo Diddley' beat>' are named, noted, and archived routinely, but no one seems to do the same for the upbeat Jimmy Reed groove. Yet it's often as ubiquitous.

It is paralleled early by similar groovers like Little Walter's "My Babe", Chuck Berry's "You Can't Catch Me" and "Memphis, Tennesse"*, and Little Willie John's "Leave My Kitten Alone". But Jimmy distills the blues jaunt into a classic rhythm with "Big Boss Man" (1960). He refines it with "Baby What's Wrong" (1961) and perfects it on "Shame, Shame, Shame" (1963).

* (One critic contends that all of the songs I will ascribe as the Jimmy Reed jaunt are just variations of Chuck Berry's "Memphis, Tennessee". But I would respectfully counter this by expanding it. Rather than the false borders of antithesis, this is the fluid reality of synthesis in action.

Chuck's original was a 1959 b-side that sounds like a proto sketch, more of a straight jog than a jaunt, and was rarely heard. Only after Lonnie Mack (1963) and Johnnie Rivers (1964) had hit covers with it that skewed closer to Jimmy's rhythm did the song become famous, and even Chuck then changed how he played it after their lead. Creativity is endless synthesis. Note that Lonnie covered Jimmy's "Baby, What's Wrong" with the signature jaunt on the same album, and how much of Reed he brought into his very loose cover of "Memphis". So I contend that Jimmy Reed, though perhaps initially influenced by his peer Chuck, crystalized the rhythm that everyone will continue to expand on. But I've included all on the player for your own estimation.)

As Jimmy furrows the major groove, it mirrors in minor sides like The Esquires' "The Sight Of You", Cheryl and Pam John's "That's My Guy", and The Crickets' "All Over You". Even as Jimmy lay tread with "Shame, Shame, Shame", Tommy Tucker was on his heels with "Hi-Heel Sneakers".

It bops into the popstream with Marvin Gaye's "Can I Get A Witness?", laces loose in The Velvelettes' "Needle In A Haystack", and parties up Solomon Burke's "Everybody Needs Somebody To Love".

The Pretty Things; The Standells; Bobbi Gentry; Black Joe Lewis

But it probably reaches critical mass with The Ad Libs' "The Boy From New York City" (1965). By then it's a standard rhythm underscoring acolytes like Jean Wells' "Put The Best On The Outside" and answer songs like The Beach Boys' "The Girl From New York City". By now it's international, like Roy Head's "Apple Of My Eye" (England) and Los Johnny Jets' cover "El Leon" (Mexico), Les Furys' "Aide-Moi" (Canada), The Times' "Glad Not Sad" (Australia), and Datar's "Alveg ær" (Iceland).

This is the juncture in creative interchange when covers become clones become cousins. It goes from covers like The Pretty Things' or Bobbi Gentry's "Big Boss Man"; to clones like The Olympics' "We Go Together (Pretty Baby)" and The Arthur Brown Set's "The Green Ball"; to cousins like Booker T & The MGs' "Outrage", The Standells' "Dirty Water", The Ad Libs' "He's No Angel", The NightRiders' "Love Me Right Now", and Black Joe Lewis' "Black Snake".

Two cool things birth a third cool thing. Just as Jimmy echoed the blues shuffle in his own way, others reverbed his way into their way, and then all of them started to ricochet with each other. The Stones channel the Jimmy jaunt via Marvin Gaye with their response "Now, I've Got A Witness". Sugar Pie DeSanto gets there by answering "Hi-Heel Sneakers" with "Soulful Dress", as do Oasis with "(Get Off Your) High Horse Lady". The young Sly And The Family Stone strut Willie Mabon's "Seventh Son" sidelong into the Jimmy jaunt. Inez and Charlie Foxx burn into "Hurt By Love" by way of Martha And The Vandellas' "Heatwave". Shirley & Company cross Jimmy with Bo Diddley in their "Shame, Shame, Shame". Elvis Costello gets there in "Tokyo Storm Warning" by way of The Stones' "Satisfaction". Thee Mighty Caesars broadcast "Signals Of Love" on waves of Link Wray.

Cross-fertilization is how creativity (and culture, and the human lineage) works.

The original Sesame Street cast

The universality of the groove paved the way for the TV theme, "Can You Tell Me How To Get To SESAME STREET?" (1969), by Joe Raposo. The series began as a counterculture response to MISTER ROGER'S NEIGHBORHOOD, with an urban slant emphasizing diversity in the cast, film mediums, and especially music styles. Raposo was excellent at underscoring all of the segments with folk, jazz, blues, soul, rock, and more, a subtle music education for budding minds. Having the pulse of the times, he would have been aware of the Jimmy Reed jaunt in some form. So there it shines in a sunny tune that beamed itself into the cultural DNA of five decades of children.

Today is brought to you by the letter G, for Groove!



© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• Revolution 1950s: The Big Damn Bang of Rock'n'Roll!

• 1950s PUNK: Sex, Thugs, and Rock'n'Roll!


• CHUCK BERRY: The Guitar God and His Disciples

• BO DIDDLEY: The Rhythm King and His Disciples

• BUDDY HOLLY: Rock's Everyman and His Disciples

• LITTLE RICHARD: The Voice of Rock and His Disciples


• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: A Manifesto, A Handy Checklist

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ROCK Sex: "Rumble" - Link Wray > Adam Ant > TWIN PEAKS

ROCK Sex says "That gum you like is going to come back in style."

Today, a riot in the streets or a tumble in the sheets? Here's a song full of secrets both sexy and dangerous.

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It started with a dance in the late-'50s called The Stroll; crowds would line parallel while couples vamped spontaneous dances in the walkway between them. This was often done to easy shuffles like Chuck Willis' remake of the perennial blues, "C. C. Rider".

A Canadian quartet called The Diamonds had a huge hit on the trend with "The Stroll", turning it into a sensuous slow-grind with raunchy sax and an air of menace underneath.

THE DIAMONDS -"The Stroll" (1958)



Guitarist Link Wray was jamming with his band to work out an instrumental take of "The Stroll" for a live gig. They emphasized the grinding edge and came up with a new original which was a smash with the crowd, who demanded they play it five times. Link punched holes in his amp speakers to replicate that live buzz when it came time to record it.

It is the only instrumental ever banned on the radio because of conservative fear that it would trigger gang riots! Instead, it unleashed a style riot that never ends. The song is hailed as the dawn of feedback and distortion in Rock music, opening the way for Garage Rock, Heavy Metal, Punk, Industrial, and Grunge later.

LINK WRAY & HIS RAY MEN- "Rumble" (1958)



Adam Ant and his great guitarist Marco Pirroni modified the "Rumble" riff for their own song of menace.

ADAM AND THE ANTS -"Killer In The Home" (1980)



"Rumble" is the spiritual and sonic father of this song by the acclaimed composer Angelo Badalamenti for the soundtrack, TWIN PEAKS: Fire Walk With Me (1992). In the film, troubled teen queen Laura Palmer gets into a night of debauchery in The Pink Room, a dangerous backroom in a sleazy bar. (The room portends the hinge to The Red Room, the ultimate crux of the TWIN PEAKS series.)

Slow, edgy, sexy, lethal...

ANGELO BADALAMENTI -"Pink Room" (1992)


Here is an alternate extension, released later...

ANGELO BADALAMENTI -"Blue Frank" (1992/2007)

*****NOTE:
If you are new to TWIN PEAKS, watch the original two TV seasons first, and then the follow-up film TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME after them.
[Then watch the new series, TWIN PEAKS: THE RETURN (2017)].
Though the film is a prequel, it is deliberately meant to be seen after the first two seasons for dramatic context.*****



© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• TWIN PEAKS: Its Influence on 30 Years of Film, TV, and Music!, with 5 Music Players!

• "MOONLIGHT SONATA" - Beethoven > The Beatles > Piero Umiliani > En Vogue > TWIN PEAKS

• MAGRITTE = The Beatles > Jeff Beck > THE EXORCIST > Jackson Browne > Styx > TWIN PEAKS


• The Pedigree of PETER GUNN, with Music Player!


• The Real History of Rock and Soul!: The Music Player Checklist

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The Pedigree of PETER GUNN

...with Massive Music Player!

RockSex
now brings you the actual, all-inclusive history of Rock'n'Soul music, with Music Players.
▶ Music Player Checklist


Spotify playlist title=
PETER GUNNThis is a Spotify player. Join up for free here.


This Music Player contains 5 hours of covers, clones, and cousins of "Peter Gunn",
from 1958 to today in chronological order, spanning all musical genres.

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The Pedigree of PETER GUNN

"Louie Louie" is a riff that underlines the whole history of Rock'n'Roll, and "Peter Gunn" shadows it on the same trail.

It was created by unusual supsects who would become the world's most wanted. Writer/director Blake Edwards created the 1958 TV show, bringing in Henry Mancini to compose the themes, who cloaked the worldly detective in a jazz-noir score of torrid sax and motor engine riffs. (They went on to make their fame with the Pink Panther films.) The pianist on the sessions was future film composer John Williams.>

It was a surprisingly sophisticated and yet street-lethal score for the fresh new world of television. In fact, with its liberal use of West Coast free jazz, it opened the door for using Jazz in movies and television from then on. The bestselling soundtrack became a hinge into modern jazz for mainstream audiences. And its fusion of dramatic intrigue and brashly sensual bop created the Crime/Spy Jazz sound, paving the grooves for the soundtracks of James Bond and all his clones.

More immediately, it captured the dangerous allure of the modern city in the fantasies of young people nationwide.

Craig Stevens (r), starring as Private Eye "Peter Gunn".

Most of all, it was the power of that striding strain that arrested their attention. "Peter Gunn Theme" was the sound of walking cocky, punching felons, chasing roadsters, talking cool, and entangling hot. It was steamy and unseemly, a grinding prowl, a hungry stare, a hip-grinding dance. It was the entirety of the forbidden side of adulthood that teenagers ached to have. "The Peter Gunn title theme actually derives more from rock and roll than from jazz," Mancini clarified.

Rock'n'Roll guitarist Duane Eddy snuck his way into the club first. His twang-bar style, with its extra heavy reverb, amped the walking bassline into a tougher strut on his 1959 cover version. While Mancini's was sassy horns swinging in a hot nightspot, Eddy's was horny young nightowls on the prowl down midnight tarmac. At least in teen fantasies, it was a sidedoor into the sleazy twilight underworld they longed to slink into. The hard clang instrumentals of Duane Eddy and Link Wray ushered in Dick Dale and Surf guitar, which kept the edgy heart of Rock'n'Roll alive into the British Invasion.

Duane Eddy; Sarah Vaughan; Dick Dale.

Beyond simply the riff, the moody sound evoked by Eddy mutated into a shroud of instant atmosphere. For instance, the mid-60's English bands The Lost Souls ("This Life Of Mine") and The Syndicats ("Crawdaddy Simone") aren't playing "Gunn" specifically, but their songs are clearly rewrites of its chords and sound. Same thing for instrumentals by Freddie King ("Hide Away") and James Brown ("The Scratch"). When The Monkees broke free of their producer to play on their own records, the first thing they tried was a shambling pastiche called "Peter Gunn's Gun". Its status as a standard in any upstarts' repertoire carried it through the rehearsal holes of the world. Somebody somewhere would always don its instant cool, no matter whether honest or bootleg. Jazz queen Sarah Vaughn sang a lyrical version called "Bye, Bye" in '64. Dick Dale, Jimi Hendrix, and myriad garage bands donned its trenchcoat for some midnight rambling.

In the 70's, as rock began rebelling against its overblown indulgences, the tight riff became crucial. It was like cutting to the chase with a switchblade. Boston's Jonathan Richman had admired the lethal lyrics and blunt buzz of the Velvet Underground; he and the Modern Lovers trawled the city's dusky deadends in Peter Gunn's roadster in 1974's "Pablo Picasso". (This song is most remembered for its immortal lines, "Pablo Picasso was never called an a$$hole/ not like you.") His terse hum would soon transport punks.

X-Ray Spex; The Cramps; The B-52's.

For punkers, this edgy sordid nightscape was their reality. It became a theme song where the usual suspects were now the heroes. You can detect it in the surging buzz of X-Ray Spex's "The Day the World Turned Day-Glo" in '78. The Cramps crimped that stalking stocatto for their mix of pychobilly, garage, and horror movies by mutating it into 1979's "Human Fly". Duane's rival, the original psychobilly Link Wray, sprungload it with new edge in his "Switchblade", with punkabillies nodding in approval. The B-52's relay that riff into an alien signal via throbbing satellite with 1979's "Planet Claire", cut through with the stabbing clang of silver surfer Ricky Wilson.

The Blues Brothers; Nina Hagen; REPO MAN soundtrack.

The BLUES BROTHERS movie (1980) may have done more to expose the song to a new generation that any other source; their version is fueled by the guitar of Steve Cropper and bass of Duck Dunn, of the legendary Booker T And The MG's. Conversely, out in some bleak no man's land, Bruce Springsteen hears it on his dashboard as "Mr. State Trooper", burning through the ebon byways with some bad menace in his heart. His stripped down acoustic seethes like a harrowing confession before something terrible happens. Also in 1982, German alien Nina Hagen germinated the riff with Captain Beefheart's rasp, quotes of Bowie's "Ziggy Stardust", and cascades of cosmic clang and shrill in "Iki Maska".

The title theme of the 1984 REPO MAN film, by Iggy Pop, has definite treadmarks of Peter's ride. To underscore the point, fellow acolytes Burning Sensations repo-ed Richman's carriage, putting a Duane Eddy kit on it in their "Pablo Picasso" cover for the same movie. This version is so popular that many thought it was the original.

The shamus haunts the darks of Bauhaus' "Hair Of The Dog", Front 242's "Body To Body", and L7's "Uncle Bob". Grandmaster Flash and Tthe Furious 5 flipped fresh spin on the theme with "Style (Peter Gunn's Theme)", where Flash honed back in on the horn riffs. The British Art Of Noise chopped that HipHop with some orchestral flourish, congas, and the hard twanging strut of the actual Duane Eddy himself in their "Peter Gunn", an alternative dance smash in 1986. Aussie rebels Midnight Oil called in the lawman's ghost to bust its country's guilty conscience over issues of Aboriginal land-rights with "Beds Are Burning", with the riff's phantom flickering through their 1988 breakthrough hit. (There's also brief chops of Chuck Berry's "Little Queenie" in there, too.)

The TWIN PEAKS soundtrack by Angelo Badalamenti.

Much of Mancini's original score haunted Angelo Badalamenti's brilliant music for the TWIN PEAKS TV series (1990); the clanging reverb takes possession of the title theme, while the fingersnapping hipster jazz tunes take their cues from Mancini tracks like "Brief and Breezy". Poison Ivy, the axe-slinging dominatrix of The Cramps, claims to own about every cover of "Peter Gunn" ever made; she puts her stiletto all the way through the floorboards in her ultimate version. Covertly, Peter dogs the footsteps of '90s era songs by Living Colour, Diamanda Galas, and The A-Bones.

England's vastly underrated Elastica, known for their chop shop tricks, trysted Peter with The Beatles' "And I Love Her" for a scintillating twist in their fuzzy stomp, "Love Like Ours" (2000). Iggy & the Stooges refueled their reunion in 2003 cruising Peter's night haunts with "Skull Ring", skewering the mugging partystars and glampires who have gentrified his beat. It's the propulsive bassline of The Strokes' "Juicebox" (2005). On the eternal trail, the flatfoot still pounds the beat of The Come Ons, Los Explosibvos (Mexico), and Django Django.

Have riff, will travel. That memorable hook and the atmosphere that surrounds it always resonate beyond the moment, transporting anyone who ever hears it, and forging new paths into the future.



© Tym Stevens

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See Also:

• The Legacy of LOUIE LOUIE, with Music Player!

• Shock Waves: How SURF MUSIC Saved Rock'n'Roll!, with 2 Music Players!

• JOHN BARRY: The Influence Of The JAMES BOND Sound On Pop Music, with 2 Music Players!

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• John Barry > Fatboy Slim

• "Misirlou!" -The Deep History of Dick Dale's Surf Classic

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Shock Waves: How SURF MUSIC Saved Rock'n'Roll!

...with 2 Music Players,
of classic Surf Rock
+ all its modern disciples!

RockSex
now brings you the actual, all-inclusive history of Rock'n'Soul music, with Music Players.
▶ Music Player Checklist



Surf Music kept the Rock movement alive from its original Rock'n'Roll origins into the British Invasion, and continues today.

Here are two Music Players charting that enduring influence on Rock history.

Music Player Quick Links:
𝟭 SURF ROCK: : the First Wave of the 1960s
𝟮 SURF ROCK Disciples: from 1962 to today

Each Music Player is in chronological order, from the '50s to the present.

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𝟭
Tidal Waves:
1958-1964

SURF ROCK: 1958-1964
by Tym Stevens

This is a Spotify player. Join up for free here.
*(The Player is limited to the first 200 songs.
Hear the unlimited Playlist here.)


This first Music Player covers the initial rise of Surf Rock from 1958 to its mainstream peak in 1964, in chronological order.

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The rhythm sections made it Roll but guitars made it Rock.

There was a bristling edge to those pulsing strings that was unearthly yet dirty, as ebullient as it was evil. The stinging leads in those first 1950s Rock'n'Roll> songs jolted every kid in their tennies and rung them like tuning forks.

Many unsung heroes electrified the star's hits: Charlie Christian (Bennie Goodman), Scotty Moore (Elvis Presley), James Burton (Ricky Nelson), Cliff Gallup (Gene Vincent), Paul Burlison (Johnny Burnette Trio), Hubert Sumlin (Howlin' Wolf), Joe Maphis (Wanda Jackson), Danny Cedrone (Bill Haley), and many more. Chuck Berry> broke through because he was able to write and sing as well as he played. But slowly, the guitarists started to get the limelight of their own.

Two of the new Guitar Stars paved the course. Link Wray, sartorial sharpie in a pompadour, was the sonic equivilent of a knifefight. Naturally his breakout was the moody instrumental "Rumble". His hard reverbing strings and prickly chords would open up the door to Surf, Garage Rock, Hard Rock, Heavy Metal, Punk, and beyond. His peer Duane Eddy tuned his weapon to echo a brutal twannng that would mug you as soon as look at you. His rocking take on Henry Mancini's "Peter Gunn Theme"> launched a thousand covers and clones. Their sound and its attitude paved the wave of instrumental breakdown that followed.

Now the undercurrents churned to the surface with the rise of guitar-driven instrumental rock bands. Riff hits like "Raunchy" and "Tequila" roiled a swell of instro acts by 1959 like Santo And Johnny, The Vampires, The Montereys, Sandy Nelson, and The Frantics. This cascaded into the huge success of The Ventures' "Walk Don't Run" (1960), a sunny island melody on clanging guitar with a rolling drum break that brought the rogue wave into vogue.

The underflow is in motion, even if the mainstream hadn't reeled in the notion. They were too busy trying to sink Rock'n'Roll at the dawn of the '60s. And with the almost simultaneous loss of most of its singing figureheads (to the Army, death, God, or marrying your underage cousin), it seemed to be capsizing itself. Maybe this new punk music had only been a fad after all, like the quaking straights had been shreiking.

But the flame was kindled in the beach fires of the budding surf communities of southern California. The Pacific sport had hit the beaches and swept up the young with it. Kids practicing in garages began pounding out their covers of Rock'n'Roll and Rhythm'n'Blues in beach houses and party clubs, and then surfed the rest of the time. One of these guys, a Lebenese fan of Hank Williams and Mediterranean melodies, had an epiphany.

Dick Dale wanted to channel the roaring rush of power he got from surfing through his amplifier. He worked with nearby guitar maker Leo Fender to develop an amp that could project and withstand his aural assault. After myrad exploded amps they developed the Fender amps that rockers use to this day. Leo also came up with the Fender Reverb Unit, a crucial pedal that Dale used to create the signature tough-echo Surf Music sound. Dale rode the crest of fame up and down the west coast, christening acolytes by the score. The new wave of Rock had risen.

Instro bands worldwide caught a ride. Surfin' the USA were The Lively Ones, The Sentinels, The Surfaris, The Challengers, and The Trashmen. From the UK, idiosyncratic producer Joe Meek streamed The Tornados, The Shadows, and The Outlaws (with Ritchie Blackmore). "Catch a wave/ and you're riding on top of the world."

The novice narrative tells you that Surf was a local Cali scene that subsided. In reality, it was reflected worldwide and has never really stopped. Surf had liberated Rock in a way that chartwatchers and fadflits miss: it democratized Rock by lacking vocals and including world melody styles. It became a purely musical language beyond borders that could include anyone playing their music in its style. For every Cali band that imagined surfing in Mazatlan, Hawaii, and Bangalore, there were world acts likewise teeming with California dreaming.

Rolling in on the flip were The Spotnicks and The Noise Men (Sweden), The Twangies (Indo-Rock from the Netherlands), The Skyliners (Belgium), Les Crescendos (Canada), and Los Sleepers (Mexico). The Ventures had as much impact on Japan as The Beatles would everywhere else, inspiring the 'Group Sounds' guitar bands like The Spiders, The Quests, The Pinky Chicks, and The Golden Cups. Spain cruised the slews with Equipe 84, Los Sirex, Los Continentales, and 4 Jets.

Surf also advanced Rock in another way. Like Jazz and Bluegrass before it, Surf brought chops, speed, and diversification through an exploratory instrumental style. (Psychedelia would extend this as a response to Free Jazz.) It amplified and intensified Rock pace and power into a fierce surge beyond the gallop of Rockabilly, mapping the course for every single harder Rock form that would follow.

The Beach Boys and Annette Funicello
in THE MONKEY'S UNCLE (1965).

But if instros set the mood, vocals set the scene. The tides of Surf really broke nationally when The Beach Boys and Jan And Dean wrote Pop postcards about the surfari. The harmony hooks and slang lyrics pulled in the popular imagination with dreams of this sunshine fantasia. One deeply profound sea change from this financial windfall was the recentralizing of the recording industry from New York to Los Angeles. There, in sunbaked new studios, young upstarts like producer Phil Spector and Brian Wilson> pipelined hits like the tides, with the brilliant L.A. session mob "The Wrecking Crew". They inspired and competed with each other with classics at a ferocious clip.

The torrents tumbled laterally. Spector's astute arranger Jack Nitzsche literally scored a hit with the majestic "The Lonely Surfer" (1963). He wasn't the only composer so inspired. Surf had become a whirlpool of stinging echo guitar, tribal rhythms, Spanish flamenco inflections, Latin claves, Mediterranean and Middle Eastern and Polynesian melodies, and often intense horns. It was cinematic and cosmopolitan in ways that film and TV composers quickly channeled.

In London, former Rock/Jazz combo leader John Barry> tersed up this heady mix into his first film scores. His bold move of placing Vic Flick's severe Surf lead upfront gave the JAMES BOND films their cutting edge. Quick on his wave was Ennio Morricone, who deconstructed all of these new pop influences into a darker avant tsunami of his own. His textural and experimental scores for the Italian westerns> and thrillers ricocheted with the hard clang (and whistle) of Alessandro Alessandroni; from NAVAJO JOE and THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY, to DANGER: DIABOLIK and ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST.

Surf's success opened the floodgates of Beach Movies, often starring Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon, which projected the technicolor fantasy to every shore, and included guest performances by hit Pop artists. The GIDGET books and films led to the TV series starring newcomer Sally Field. [The trend of combing beach culture continued into later films like AMERICAN GRAFITTI (set in Cali', 1962), FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, POINT BREAK, and BLUE CRUSH; and TV shows like Magnum P.I., Miami Vice, Baywatch, and Laguna Beach.]

Women have been part of every form of Rock and consistantly been ignored like they weren't. In truth, one of the very first Surf songs to break was Kay Bell And The Tuffs' "(The Original) Surfer Stomp" (1961). And like their brothers, plenty of vocal groups like The Honeys, The Beach Girls, and The Powder Puffs blitzed the spritz.

But women played Surf music, too. 13-year-old Kathy Marshall tore it up in clubs as guitarist for Eddie And The Showmen but she was never recorded.> Lead guitarist Chiyo Ushi at least got that shot with The Crescents' "Pink Dominos". Germany's Peter Reese And The Pages featured Helga Gwiasta on Fender Jazzmaster. And all-female bands rode toes on the nose, as well: The Pleasure Seekers (with teenaged Patti and Suzi Quatro) caroused the proto-Garage classic "What A Way To Die" (1964); The Continental Co-ets' reverberated with "I Don't Love You No More"; and the great Char Vinnedge's lead snarl fueled The Luv'd Ones' surfstrumental "Scratchy".

Dick Dale and Stevie Wonder
in MUSCLE BEACH PARTY (1964).

Surf floated all boats. Soul songs by The Isley Brothers, The Mad Lads, Dee Dee Sharpe, and Johnny Otis crashed the splash. Duane Eddy's "Your Baby's Gone Surfin'", Hal Blaine's "Dance To The Surfing Band" and Al Casey's "Surfin' Hootenanny" were all actually sung by the dynamic Darlene Love And The Blossoms. There were covers of The Beach Boys by The Tymes, The Orions, and The Supremes. And the osmosis was fluid, as The Trashmen's classic hit "Surfin' Bird" was a combined cover of The Rivingtons' "Papa Oom Mow Mow" and "The Bird's The Word".

Riding the wave were albums like "Bo Diddley's Beach Party" (1963), "Freddy King Goes Surfin'" (1963), and the compilation "Look Who's Surfin' Now" (1964) featuring surf songs by James Brown, Albert King, and King Curtis. In 1964, Little Stevie Wonder raised some sand performing in the movies MUSCLE BEACH PARTY and BIKINI BEACH, and with his "Stevie At The Beach" album. And young Jimi Hendrix took some initial lessons from Dick Dale (both lefties who played their flipped guitars with strings unreversed).



The outmoded narrative is that '50s Rock imploded in 1959 and was resurrected by the British Invasion five years later. In reality, Rock had kept going worldwide on into the early-'60s>, and was bouyed by Soul>, Girl Groups>, and Doo Wop. But it was the ferocity of guitar-driven Surf rock that most carried the movement into that transition. Surf music peaked commercially with the advent of The Beatles>, but its ongoing tides have whitecapped through Rock to the present day.

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𝟮
Tsunami:
1962 To Today

SURF ROCK Disiciples: 1962-Today
by Tym Stevens
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This second Music Player covers the influence of Surf Music on music, soundtracks, and culture, from 1962 to the present.

30 hours and seven decades of music
influenced by Surf Rock, including:
John Barry • Dick Dale • Lonnie Mack
The Drifters • The Crickets • The Ventures
Beach Boys • The Beatles • Sly Stone
Stevie Wonder • Supremes • Rolling Stones
Willie Mitchell • Thee Midniters • Los Holy's
Bobby Fuller • Davie Allan • The Yardbirds
The Who • Ennio Morricone • Love
The Monkees • Jimi Hendrix • Pink Floyd
The Music Machine • MC5 • Feminine Complex

Pink Fairies • Paul McCartney • The Stooges
Incredible Bongo Band • 10cc • Chicago
The Clash • Eddie Hazel • The Jam • The Zeros
Cheap Trick • X-Ray Spex • Ramones
The Specials • Patti Smith • Dead Boys
The Damned • Blondie • Revillos
The B-52's • Radio Birdman

X • Devo • Fear • Germs • Minutemen
Dead Kennedys • The Go-Go's • The Bangles
Black Flag • Jesus + Mary Chain • Sonic Youth
Love And Rockets • Stevie Ray Vaughan

Pixies • Anthrax • Jane's Addiction
The Gories • The Breeders • Soundgarden
Man Or Astro-Man? • L7 • Throwing Muses
The Neptunes • Susan And The Surftones
Laika And The Cosmonauts • Ultrasonicas

Chicks On Speed • Raveonettes • Guitar Wolf
Thee Headcoatees • Electrocute • The Kills
Wau Y Los Arrrghs!! • Feist • Wavves • Girls
Vivian Girls • Best Coast • Peach Kelli Pop
The She's • Django Django • La Femme
Dengue Fever • Moon Duo • Curtis Harding
The Coathangers • Las Robertas • Habibi
Ikebe Shakedown • La Luz • The Shivas
and many, many more!

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Surf Music had rescued Rock'n'Roll.

It brought back its guitar edge coupled with more power and speed, more chops, and more melodic range.

The Beatles

This morphed quickly sideways into drag race songs, strip joint grinders, and metallic space shanties. But it also continued to peel out in in the songs of its peers. It underlines The Beatles' "I Feel Fine" and "Back In The U.S.S.R.", The Rolling Stones' "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", and The Yardbirds' "Happenings Ten Years Time Ago", as well as songs by L.A. bands like Love and The Monkees. Many bands got their start as Surf bands first, such as The Crossfires who became The Turtles.

It is the running roar in the Garage Rock of The 13th Floor Elevators, The Chob, The Purple Underground, Los Holy's (Peru), and The Easybeats (Australia).

It continued cruising the world with mid-'60s acts like Los Johnny Jets (Mexico), Los Yorks (Peru), Le Mini Coopers (France), Les Kangourous (Canada), Takeshi Terauchi And The Bunnies (Japan), The Invaders, (South Africa), Kriptons (Angola), Les Krakmen (Congo), Os Rebeldes (Portugal), Los Four Star (Bolivia), and The Golden Ring (Iran).

Helen dancing in joyful abandon
in GUMNAAM.

It kicked out in Soundtracks like the scores of Ennio Morricone and Piero Piccioni, and the classic "Jaan Pehechan Ho" from Bollywood's GUMNAAM (1965); and snarled gnarly in classic TV show themes like "The Munsters", "Secret Agent", Neil Hefti's "Batman", and of course Morgan Stevens' "Hawaii 5-O" as played by The Ventures.

Surf tubed from drag race into the brutal fuzz of Davie Allan's biker movie anthems, like the classic "Blue's Theme" (1967).

Pink Floyd; Jimi Hendrix.

As Psychedelia arrived, it thrived in interstellar overdrive via Syd Barrett's alien surf in Pink Floyd's "Lucifer Sam" (1967), and deepdove into the underwater expressionism of Jimi Hendrix's "1983... (A Merman I Should Turn To Be)".

It bombed the bomboras inside the piledriving ferocity of Hard Rock bands like MC5, The Stooges, and Pink Fairies.

In the '70s, it caught air from the Funk of The Incredible Bongo Band to Barrabas (Spain), from the Power Pop of The Raspberries' harmonies to the signature Duane Eddy-style riff of Bruce Springsteen's "Born To Run".

Radio Birdman; The Zeros.

Surf's deluge force spunks up Punk with Radio Birdman's "Aloha Steve And Dan-O" (Australia), the speed and bang of the Ramones' cover of "California Sun" (1977), and the bent Alex Chilton. Having taught a generation to play, it stagedives notably in L.A. Punk bands like The Zeros, The Gears, The Last, and The Surf Punks.

It is the angry insect salvos of The B-52's magnificent Ricky Wilson on "Private Idaho" and Peter Gunn-rewrite "Planet Claire", and irrigates the fetish psychobilly of Poison Ivy for The Cramps.

Keeping the focal local in the early '80s were California bands like the Hardcore Dead Kennedys, Fear, Agent Orange, and Black Flag; and Surf revivalists like Jon And The Nightriders, The Barracudas, The Go-Go's, and The BusBoys (who naturally flipped the trip with "Soul Surfin' USA").

By its name, how could New Wave not be Surf turf, as reflected in songs by Romeo Void and The Motels, the tart parody in Suburban Lawns' "Gidget Goes To Hell", the ringing guitar and Burundi drums of Bow Wow Wow, and the Morricone majesty of Marco Perroni on Adam Ant's "Desperate, But Not Serious"?

Surf hopped the chops with the rapidfire and rippling dynamics of Speed Metal (mid-'80s); and the late '80s neo-Garage of Love And Rockets, Jesus And Mary Chain, and the criminally underrated Joey Santiago's essential leads for Pixies, who covered The Surftones' 1964 "Cecilia Ann".

In the '90s, Man Or Astro Man, The Trashwomen, and the latter day Russian satellites Laika And the Cosmonauts presaged the fullblown resurgence of Surfmania when Quentin Tarantino used Dick Dale's "Miserlou" in his 1994 film PULP FICTION (because it reminded him of Morricone scores). This rip-currented Dick Dale back into currency, along with Surf revivalists like The Mermen, Los Straitjackets, and The Aqua Velvets. Like many other timeless musical styles (labeled Retro by the shallow), Surf returned with a new rise of unironic and exploratory acolytes, which continues unabated with acts like Lost Acapulco, The Woggles, and Mach Kung Fu (Japan).

And like a roundhouse cutback, Surfer Grrrls are kicking any hoser 'bros' out of the ocean now. Surf dapples brightly in varied acts like The Neptunas, Susan And The Surftones, Baby Horror (Spain), 54 Nude Honeys (Japan), Chicks On Speed, Electrocute, Best Coast, The She's, Peach Kelli Pop, La Luz, and Baby Shakes.

Whether it's the rough Garage of Guitar Wolf (Japan), Dex Romweber Duo, and The Kills, or more abstractly with Dengue Fever, La Femme (France), and Curtis Harding, Surf still 360s for 12/365.

The Silver Surfer,
created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby:
the Static Shock cartoon series.

Surf made Rock'n'Roll roar. It gave swerve to its swagger, rush to its rumble. It gave it sea legs to sail out into the unknown. And its riptides still underscore music, fashion, slang, sports, and sun culture to this day. When was the last time you used the terms Dude, Awesome, For Sure, Bro', Bitchin', Dork, Gnarly, Rad, or Wipe Out? Probably your last tweet. And then there's skateboarding, windsurfing, snowboarding, streetboarding...

Courtney Conlogue

That surging rise you're feeling is the roiling, fluid power of Surf guitar. Long may it clang!




© Tym Stevens

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See also:

• 1950s PUNK: Sex, Thugs, and Rock'n'Roll!, with Music Player!

• CHUCK BERRY: The Guitar God and His Disciples, with 2 Music Players!

• BO DIDDLEY: The Rhythm King and His Disciples, with 2 Music Players!


• The Pedigree of PETER GUNN, with Music Player!

• The Legacy of LOUIE LOUIE, with Music Player!

• JOHN BARRY: The Influence Of The JAMES BOND Sound On Pop Music, with 2 Music Players!

• BRIAN WILSON-esque: All The Songs Imitating His BEACH BOYS Music Styles!, with 3 Music Players!

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• "Hawaii 5-O" - The Ventures > Radio Birdman

• "Misirlou!" -The Deep History of Dick Dale's Surf Classic

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