Post #491533 by aquarj on Mon, Nov 2, 2009 2:11 PM

Sven, can't wait to see and hear this cd.

Maybe the question's already been answered. I think you're just asking what category makes sense for those two songs, as opposed to getting opinions on whether they fit with the "sound of tiki". If so, here's my take on the categorization stuff...

It's pretty hard to call the Shadows surf. They were part of a global trend in guitar-driven instrumentals, which was more of a pop phenomenon and less tied to the California surf sound. It's hard to look (or listen?) back to that era with the right context. Surf instrumentals appeared on the charts in the U.S., but so did other instrumentals too. But from today's perspective, surf is a niche sound. Because it's tied mostly to guitars, it's easy to draw a connection between surf and other guitar-led instros, as opposed to considering the context of the bigger pop instrumental genre which hasn't really survived to the present. I think of the Shadows as really being more in the latter category, since they were influenced much less by the surf sound or even the Ventures.

The eleki sound in Japan is interesting because it was influenced more by the Ventures ("Beloved Invaders") and the popular music of the U.S., plus some traditional Japanese stringed instrument technique. There are some great examples of Japanese eleki with more of a surfy sound than the Shadows, doing songs like Hawaiian War Chant.

I'd say the Ventures are trickier to categorize though. Their "Surfing" album is simply great surf music. But they were all over the map with their sound, partly because so much of what they did was aimed at covering well-known songs to carry record sales. I think Hawaii 5-O was a hit for them, but it's kind of a funny example of a Ventures song. Since they tried to make it sound as much as possible like a straight rendition of the soundtrack, there's not really much Ventures identity on there, and very little connection to their sound or style, and even less connection to the surf genre than other Ventures stuff.

HOWEVER, when you watch the Hawaii 5-O dvds with captions on, and the theme plays, I believe the caption says, "jazzy surf music" or something like that. So there you go, on definitive authority. That's the official Mort Stevens version (woops haha, I originally wrote Morton Gould here), but it's very similar to the Ventures version, so there's some justification.

Incidentally, the band the Astronauts did a beautiful surf rendition of Quiet Village. You have to listen pretty close to hear the relationship to the exotica number though. The Astronauts are sort of your label mates on Bear Family, in the reissue sense. Again, this goes back full circle to the broader trend in pop instrumentals back then. Surf bands were doing Quiet Village, Adventures in Paradise, Siboney, Similau, The Breeze and I, etc., along with other pop hits like Lonely Bull. And pop instrumentalists were covering surf songs right back too. The good old days!

-Randy

[ Edited by: aquarj 2009-11-02 14:16 ]