OFF: Buck and Lucky Leif

[Douglas Pearson]

Uh oh, you just set me off ... ;^) ...

On Tue, 10 Apr 2001 16:49:39 -0400, Stephen Swann <swann at CUGC.ORG> wrote:
>On Tue, Apr 10, 2001 at 03:25:16PM -0400, Michael S. Habiby wrote:
>> I just heard for the first time the cut "The lay of the surfers".  Just
>> too funny.   Love the Beach Boys' send up.

And appropriate, since the Beach Boys were a band who had quite a bit of
(mostly unacknowledged) influence on spacerock.

>Actually, I keep thinking that would be an awesome tune for
>Buck Dharma to cover - since he's so into surf music, and
>that's the surf music tune to beat all.  ;)

Except for the fact that ... THE BEACH BOYS DID NOT PLAY SURF MUSIC!!
(Well, that's not entirely true, since they covered "Pipeline" and "Let's
Go Tripping" and a couple other surf instrumentals).  "Surfin' USA" is no
more surf music than, say, Billy Lee Riley's "Flying Saucer Rock and Roll"
is spacerock.  A pop/rock song about surfing isn't surf music, and a
pop/rock song about space aliens isn't spacerock.  (And, ironically, the
BEST Beach Boys song that has the word "surf" in the title has absolutely
nothing whatsoever to do with surfing.)

Dick Dale, the Ventures, the Surfaris, the Chantays, and countless other
instrumental bands played surf music.  There's one person who (sometimes?)
lurks on this list (hi Stretch!) who could tell you a WHOLE LOT more about
that than I could.

>(Not to mention that Buck would *really* improve the
>guitar break).  ;-)

Improve on a Paul Rudolph break?  Impossible (well, OK, I'll grant you that
one ... as long as he doesn't attempt "Uncle Harry's Last Freakout")!

    -Doug
     ceres at sirius.com