Post #610209 by congawa on Fri, Oct 14, 2011 12:00 PM

Since you mentioned my band the Ding Dong Devils emspace (and that you were "appalled" that we would be thought of as "Tiki"--which proves you are far more passionate about the subject of establishing strict boundaries than I am, since I'm not too concerned about what musical genre or label we fit under really), I figured I should respond to this.

The idea of "Tiki" as a musical genre and lifestyle and everything we now think of only exists now, and for the past 15-20 years. It was a unique creation by a group of historians, collectors, artists and others, many of whom came from punk rock, rockabilly, mod, hot rod, lowbrow, post-beatnik, etc. backgrounds.

The original "Tiki" and "Tiki Music" was purely a commercial medium created to sell drinks, food and music. There was no actual lifestyle associated with it in the way we think of it now, nor the passion for it there is now. I know because I lived through the original era, and my mother was the archetypal "customer." She got into Hawaiian and polynesian motifs, but in a casual diversionary way that most people did in those days(other than folks like Don the Beachcomber or the Oceanic Arts guys). She took us to the Outrigger in South Laguna regularly for Sunday brunches (and sometimes Royal Hawaiian and other Polynesian palaces). She had Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman records (and I might add when she took my brother and I to see Lyman--kicking and screaming at the time, I totally admit--in Corona del Mar, CA, it was at a nondescript non-"Tiki" restaurant, not the CDM Don the Beachcomber which wasn't very far away, or the Laguna places I mentioned). The original customers for the exotic restaurants and exotic music bands were (with a minority of exceptions) not into it as a "lifestyle" as we think of it today, more of a temporary diversion from their suit and tie world. For instance, few people in the early 1960's would have put forth such a passionate definition of what is or isn't Tiki or exotica music as you have emspace, nobody really thought about it as such, and whoever did everyone understood it was strictly a commercial musical medium and, more importantly, a diversion in their lives, not a focus.

Much brilliant music came out of this original commercial medium (in the 1950's and 1960's, some of the best music came out of purely commercial forms, and even commercial jingles themselves) but it should always be recognized that. My dad, who actually served in World War II, like Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman and thought my mom's taste in music (including and maybe particularly Denny and Lyman), and needless to say rock and roll was never spoke of (except the time my dad laughed about how his friends mocked the song Earth Angel when it came out--see two paragraphs later for further details on this mindset).

Many feel that Robert Drasnin's Voodoo is the best exotica album--it' brilliant. But Drasnin himself has admitted he was not enthusiastic about the project at first, since he was a jazz artist and would rather have continued his energies in that direction. He certainly wasn't think "I'm a Tiki musician." Arthur Lyman was no doubt proud of his considerable achievements, but would have probably just as soon have been invited to play jazz festivals doing jazz vibes a la Red Norvo and Cal Tjader wearing a suit and not an Aloha shirt. I'll bet none of these people ever used the phrase "Tiki music." So really, the bands today making what some may call "Tiki Music" are the first musical groups to be identified as such.

The most important thing about the original Polynesian restaurants of the 1950's and 1960's (and "Polynesian" was the phrase I heard my mother and other adults say most frequently to describe these restaurants back then, never "Tiki"--they didn't place Tikis as a particularly important thing, just one of the many decor embellishments), which any TC folks too young to have lived through the 60's youth revolution (and I was extremely young, but remember seeing the hippies on the streets of Laguna Beach when driving by) is...

THE GENERATION GAP WAS STILL IN PLACE!!

This is the single most important thing in understanding what kind of music was actually played at Polynesian restaurants in those days. Quite simply, before the very late 60's/early 70's, adults and teenagers did not mingle at the same establishments. Polynesian restaurants were for adults only, or children and teens dining with them and behaving like adults. However, the bars and showrooms only featured music that adults listened to then, and adults did not listen to rock and roll. With only occasional exceptions, surf bands did not play at Polynesian restaurants (until after things started to change in the early 70's). Surf bands were almost strictly at teen canteens and auditoriums where the under 21/under 18 crowd could go. Polynesian restaurants were more likely to have adult pop standards singers or jazz when not featuring Hawaiian music and exotica, but never rock and roll. If rock and roll bands were playing at a Polynesian restaurant, it meant it was on it's last legs and about to go (see Kono Hawaii in Santa Ana in the 1980's, when it started booking people like David Crosby right before folding).

But the generation gap doesn't matter that much now--you can see 55-year-olds and 18-year-olds enjoying the same tiki event (or at the same punk rock show for that matter), and now surf music is intrinsically wrapped in Tiki/exotica in the current Tiki scene (as is rockabilly and other forms) and it is Tiki.

In short, enspace, you are upholding the sanctity of something that never really existed, but I admire your passion!

Caltiki Brent