Surf Rock: The Surfaris
In which some of us learn that "woodie" is also a nickname for a kind of car.
Easily one of the most memorable songs to come of the early 1960s surf rock scene, the Surfaris’ “Wipe Out” landed the band in the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame. It is without question one of the most influential and recognizable instrumental songs of all time.
(Photo credit: thesurfaris.com)
Like all good surf music, it
feels
like surfing. The melody of the guitar evokes an image of a surfer balancing on his board, fighting the waves; there’s the tension of the drum rolls as the wave crashes; and then the staccato chords offer glimpses of surfers disappearing in the surf around them. Like a perfect day on the water, it just restarts, and the song doesn’t even really finish - it fades away - because we could do this all day.
The song deserves its place in the hall of fame - it’s such a perfect representation. Other contributions, like
Scatter Shield
and
Point Panic
do their part as well, but nothing quite captures the perfection of
Wipe Out.
Like a lot of surf bands at the time, they also dabbled in hot rod rock, and performed covers without compunction (honestly, I’ve heard about 432 versions of Miserlou during this week’s exploration).
But … we need to talk about
Surfer Joe
. Now, I will grant that The Surfaris may not have been the world’s greatest or most innovative band, but they were pretty good. And
Wipe Out
alone is enough to convince me of their creativity and talent. I mean, just listen to Ron Wilson’s drumming - he literally inspired millions of rock n’roll wannabes.
Oh, right. I was about to rip into the track “Surfer Joe,” which was The Surfaris’ second biggest hit.
It is awful.
And honestly, I think it says more about the American people and American culture at the time that they would allow that track to even hit the airwaves. But
it did
. And hoo boy.
The track is poorly written, poorly sung, and talks about Surfer Joe’s green “woodie” - which made me spit beer out when I first heard it.
(Photo credit: WikiCommons)
It sounds like it was written by a fifteen year-old boy and his nerdy friends. Oh. Right.
It was
. Ron was 17, but Bob Berryhill, Jim Fuller, and Pat Connolly were all
fifteen fucking years old
when they wrote one of the best instrumental songs in American history. What happened to modern American youth? Seriously: what were you doing when you were fifteen? Masturbating, probably. What are you doing now? Don’t answer that. Or at least change the track to something other than
Surfer Joe
while you finish.
Old surfers never die, they just swim out in search of another wave. Which is to say that Bob Berryhill still performs as the Surfaris, and released new material even into the 2000s.
But today we are listening to their 1963 debut
Play
(their best work)
,
and the awesomely named 1964 album
Fun City USA
,
which, like a lot of the surf rock albums of the time, blends surf rock with hot rod rock. Enjoy. But for the love of all that is surf rock, skip “Surfer Joe.”