SPILL FEATURE: GRAB YOUR SURFBOARD AND HEAD FOR THE WAVES – A CONVERSATION WITH JOHN BLAIR AND MARK LINETT

GRAB YOUR SURFBOARD AND HEAD FOR THE WAVES

A CONVERSATION WITH JOHN BLAIR AND MARK LINETT

According to the Internet, April 1, 1995 was a cool evening in Hermosa Beach in California. And cool is the perfect word, because that night at the Lighthouse Café hosted an evening of surf music, both classic bands and new surf artists. Original members of The Chantays, The Surfaris, Davie Allan & The Arrows, performed with special guests such as Bob Dalley of The Surf Raiders and Bob Demmon of The Astronauts. Supporting the performers was a stellar backline featuring Don Murray (The Crossfires, The Turtles), Pete Curry (The Halibuts, Los Straitjackets), and John Blair (Jon & The Nightriders). It was a night to remember, and thankfully producer Mark Linett (Beach Boys, Brian Wilson, Red Hot Chili Peppers) was there to capture the show. As a result, we now have the incredible album Legends Of Surf Guitar. An incredible live album capturing the energy and fun of that evening.

The new album, Legends Of Surf Guitar is produced by John Blair and Mark Linett. I had the opportunity to speak with both of them through Zoom. We first discussed the reason it has taken a while for this important document to be released.

“This is on me,” laughed Linett. “I used to like to go and do live recordings in the ‘80s and the ‘90s. I invested in a bunch of portable recording gear, well portable in quotes. Just things that were interesting. I don’t remember how I heard about this particular show. I am guessing it was probably because Elliot Easton [The Cars] had heard about it. He went with me and helped me put everything together. The other reason may have been that I had just gotten the first digitally 8-track recorder. This meant that, rather than my old portable two inch, 16-track, which in relative terms was quite small and compact, I now had this thing that was just four inches tall. The entire package we took that day was three or four pieces and four microphones. John will tell you, because he played the show, that nobody there realized we were recording.”

When the world came to a screeching halt, Linett had time to listen to the tapes and make a decision as to what he could do with it. “I played with it over the years, but it was during the pandemic I was looking for things to do with myself,” said Linett. “I went through my archives and tried to get everything organized and get it all bumped up to computer digital. John and I had done two other surf projects. In 2017, I recorded this two- or three-day event, Surf Guitar 101.”

“Yeah, that’s right,” agreed Blair. “You could call it a festival or weekend. It was called a convention in those days, which was something of a misnomer in my opinion.”

“I had found someone locally who wanted to release it, unfortunately he didn’t really promote it. So, I did that and back in 2018 I recorded it again. That sat on the shelf until 2020 when during the pandemic, John and I got the idea to finish it. We got permission from all the bands to finish it and use it as a fundraiser for Music Cares, especially during the pandemic when musicians really got their asses kicked. We put that out and raised about $10,000 and maybe that got me thinking about this older recording. So, we got together, began looking at it and it was another two years to get it done. The interesting thing is that what it would have sounded like 30 years ago is quite different because with the current technology, I can get a lot more out of the audio.”

Thankfully that night of music was captured, and Blair remembers playing in the show with a great deal of fondness.

THE LEGENDS OF SURF GUITAR ALBUM REVIEW

“My 78-year-old memory is struggling here a little bit,” laughed Blair. “The way that show was put together was…Paul Johnson [surf guitarist, The Bel-Airs] was kind of the organizer of the whole thing. And he knew all these surf bands from the 1960s because he played in one. He knew all these people, and a lot of them were still local, and he got the idea. In the beginning it was that he wanted to get these bands to regroup, reunite for this show, some bands who hadn’t played together for 30 years. It became, pretty much, an impossible task, because several of those players had passed away by then, a lot had moved out of the area, and to try and get the original members together became too much of an effort.”

But that did not prevent the show from happening. Johnson hit upon a pretty creative and cool idea. “So, the best thing was to pull in the lead or rhythm guitar players from all of these ‘60s first wave bands and have them play several of their bands tunes that are fairly well known and backed up by other musicians who were not in the original band,” continued Blair. “That was the plan. There were only two bands that played as full bands. One of them was Paul Johnson’s band, The Packers and the others were The Chantays. Which, by the way, as far as I am aware, this record has the only live recordings of The Chantays, ever! For some reason that band never did a live record. This is important in that regard, because “Pipeline” was such an important record. So that is how it came together.”

Blair’s band played as part of the show as well and provided back-up to some of the classic surf guitarists. “I was invited because I had a surf revival band in the late ‘70s and the ‘80s named Jon and The Nightriders. We were fairly well known locally, and Paul asked me to come and play a couple of my band’s tunes, as a revival band. Bob Galley was the other revival band; he had a band called The Surfraiders. Bob was invited along with all the other first wave guitar players. He wanted me to be one of the backing musicians behind these other guys, which I was happy to do. In fact, Bob Demmon from The Astronauts was part of the show, which was a very unique part of the event. The Astronauts were from Colorado. Bob was the rhythm guitar player, so I was asked to play the lead for several of The Astronauts tunes with Bob Demmon on stage, which was an incredible honour for me to do that.”

Mark Linett reflected on surf music. “Nobody thought we would be talking about old pop music years later, but especially surf music. True surf music, like this, as opposed to Jan and Dean and The Beach Boys, who are lumped into that category by most people, was not, except for a few big hits, was not generally regarded as any more significant than anything else in the pop world. The great thing about pop music, or as the elders used to refer to ‘rock ‘n’ roll and other children’s records back in the old days, was the wide diversity of genres that made its way onto the hit parade. There was a lot more room for that kind of diversity on the radio then.”

And John Blair has another look at the ongoing success or phenomenon of surf music. “I don’t think there’s an easy answer to that. I guess the best I can do is bluegrass music is another indigenous form of American folk music that is still popular today. Bluegrass music today has a grassroots following that is very serious about the music and they have concerts that attract a lot of people. I don’t know what it is. Surf music died in the late ‘60s because of The Beatles and Motown. People started growing up, people who were in high school at the time and were into that music graduated and went to college and took on different types of interests. The ‘70s brought us heavy metal, disco, and all kinds of alternative music that most of the crowd I was in didn’t like. The ‘70s brought us so much bland and horrible music that most people my age just didn’t care for. When it came time in the late ‘70s for these surf bands to start making waves, if you will, I think there were a lot of people who gravitated to that because they were so disappointed with the pop music they were hearing on the radio for so long. And on TV for that matter. I think it is a modest response to that question. As bands formed, and records were made for public consumption, I think more people became attracted to it and by the time you get to 1994, you had Pulp Fiction, and Tarantino used a lot of surf music in the soundtrack. That CD was on the charts for over a year and was very popular. That helped bring a lot of people into the fold.”

It is time to grab your surfboard and head for the waves. Legends Of Surf Guitar will not only conjure up old memories but also can introduce a new generation to the excitement of surf music. Grab your partner, and dance and enjoy the fun, instrumental rock music that keeps on going.

The Chantays Links

Background Photo Credit: Les Perry