to my friends The Ventures!
they have been nominated as inductees into
the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame.
before The Beatles there was The Ventures.
they certainly were an influence on me.
when I first heard The Ventures I was a drummer in the school band*.
all the kids in my neighborhood loved The Ventures.
they were the popular music at our school dances
and especially a favorite of the musicians.
before I ever touched a guitar, they made me want to play one.
I loved the sounds they made (I still do).
they were musical pioneers.
nobody else sounded like The Ventures.
maybe that's why I have always felt a kinship to their music.
and they're still a great band today.
congratulations boys, I hope you win!
* it would be another six years before I put my hands around a guitar neck, but when I did walk don't run was the first song I remember learning (followed by you've got to hide your love away) the year was 1966. by then I was a junior in high school.
There are few things more fun for me to play on guitar than surf songs. The Ventures, The Mermen, Man... or Astro-man?, I try to learn as many of their songs as I can. Glad to see you have a similar appreciation.
ReplyDeletei started out playing surf and garage drums too. Then Hendrix, Cream and the Who came out and we kind of forgot surf music. it's funny to have a style of music associated with a recreational water sport. Not many of those. Is there a style called bassball? Surf came from midwestern guitar music originally i think like Duane Eddy. Nokie does an annual jam here every summer. later ken
ReplyDeleteBelieve it or not, I believe my brother has that album! He was a big fan of the very early surfer/guitar sound.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to know when all of those very small British Invasion bands will make it into the Rock Hall. So many, so little space, I suppose. DC5, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J. Kramer, The Swinging Blue Jeans, The Mindbenders... There are so many I can't even name them all!
Adrian, what influence (if any) did these less well known British bands have over your early love of music or even your current sound?
We all know you have the hippy hippy shakes... :-)
D'day Ade,
ReplyDeleteThanks for filling me in on The Ventures - up until your post, I had never heard of them..... :( what can I say, it's a long way to the land down-under.....
But it sure is great that they got nominated for induction to the R&R Hall of Fame....
Whilst I am here, I just wanted to give you all the heads up about a very interesting article and the associated hot button topic that I have been considering over on my blog. I'd hazzard a guess that the current evolution of the music industry, including the implications of the recent 'Radiohead' on-line album release, are topics that may pique your interest.... If so, then I would be honoured to have you all pop on over to my little blog....
http://outofthebelew.blogspot.com
Warm wishes to all,
Wendy
i heard this beautiful music over a loud speaker outside a museum in southern california. I didn't recognize the artist and had to ask; a lady behind the counter informed me it was The Ventures.
ReplyDeletei'd love for my band to someday cover "Dick Tracy".
... this is not Mel Torme
ReplyDeleteAwesome moniker, Hormel.
I like the DOLTON identity in the upper right hand corner. Great music.
annette:
ReplyDeletesome of my favorite british invasion music was made by the Kinks, the Yardbirds, and the Zombies.
the Kinks' Ray Davies is a brilliant songwriter who produced some of my all-time favorites songs and has a very unique voice.
the Yardbirds were a stomping band which produced three! legendary guitarists. yow!
and the Zombies had the best singer of the lot: Colin Blunstone. what a fabulous voice he has.
being a drummer I did like the Dave Clark Five. also added to my list would be the Beau Brummels, even though they were from they U.S. they sure seemed british.
in my humble opinion I don't know that bands like the Blue Jeans or the Mindbenders, even though they had their share of cool songs, should be inducted into the RRHOF. I think it should take a lifetime of accomplishment for that honor.
cheers,
adrian
You're right about the Mindbenders and the Swinging Blue Jeans, I didn't meant to lump them into the Rock Hall group. I will say that the Rock Hall has a few cool artifacts from these British Invasion groups, like some nice suits, drum kits, etc.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the response, Adrian!
Annette ;-)
annette:
ReplyDeleteas you might know, the power trio played a show at the RRHOF. I found the whole place fascinating. who could have guessed when we were teens doing the "hippy hippy shake" that there would be a museum for our passion someday?
and in "why cleveland" no less!
I'm from there and we ask ourselves that very same question all the time, Adrian, LOL! ;-)
ReplyDeleteWe do have great rock fans in Cleveland, as I'm sure you've seen from playing here. Porcupine Tree just played at our HOB on Monday and gave us a very special (and impromptu!) rendition of The Sky Moves Sideways. Steven said they love it here and always want to include us on their tours. We were blessed twice this year!
You guys had to pick one of the snowiest days in history to play the RRHOF! Nothing like winter on Lake Erie... Was pretty icy when I saw you in Cincy that Saturday as I recall, too.
A.
HEY--NICE BLOG-SIR--yes--the ventures--made all-want to get a
ReplyDeletefender jaguar--great muting device on the bridge--or one of dem jazzmasters--with the goofy controls--but both with--TWANGERS-OR TWANG BARS---YEAH--wow my brother--we are certainly alike--
i remember trying to buy--kinks/zombies recordings as a youngster--i had to order 45's and wait till they came in--another cool night rob/and i saw--all three
CLAPTON/BECK/PAGE-PLAY ARMS CONCERT
IN MSG-N/Y--JAMMING TOGETHER--(CHILLS)--plus i got to see-YOU/CGT-DO-WALK-DON'T RUN-LIVE--AT THE in-famous villa montalvo--haha-
(you know)--anywho--CLEVELAND was
cold/snowy-but what a night--they
loved the abpt--and your wonderful
ZAPPA COMMENTARY--looking toward the future--and HALL OF FAME--FOR--
THOU--SIR-AND YOUR CAREER-LOVE--GARY
Sorry to go off topic, but I must...
ReplyDeleteWE WANT SIDE FOUR!
WE WANT SIDE FOUR!
WE WANT SIDE FOUR!
WE WANT SIDE FOUR!
WE WANT SIDE FOUR!
~ Scott
Hey Gary! Great to hear from you - as always! I just love your ADRIAN BELEW for the R & R HALL OF FAME comment....And I heartily second that thought! :-D
ReplyDelete++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We interrupt your viewing for this special message......
Yeah Scott!
What a great idea - I'm sorry, but I can't control myself any longer either....
SIDE FOUR LIVE! - SIDE FOUR LIVE! - SIDE FOUR LIVE! - SIDE FOUR LIVE! - SIDE FOUR LIVE! - SIDE FOUR LIVE! -
What do we want?
SIDE FOUR LIVE!
When do we want it?
NOW!
I think you get the picture :-D
Sorry.....as you were.
Speaking of guitar heroes...
ReplyDeleteI bought a Zoom G1 stomp box last week and one of the factory presets (C-5) is called "Adrian". The Patch list discribes it as:
"Unique lead sound as created by Adrian Belew in his song "Big Electric Cat". The addition of high octaves to the original sound is the expression of a distinctive sonic outlook. This mysterious sound matches any guitar"
The patch by the way sounds nothing like "Big Electric Cat" but it was cool to see you mixed in with Jeff Beck and Angus Reed guitar emulations.
that's all fine and dandy. the "surf" guitar sound was very important to the evolution of rock music. To me "surf" is all about economy of notes and getting the most out of a note. It's simple and raw. Now i'm a guy who likes alot of notes but there is something very refreshing about rediscovering this approach to guitar playing. It's really about time they were shown some respect. People like Davie Allen, Dick Dale, the guy from the shadows, Link Wray and others helped revolutionised electric guitar. I do play Dick Tracy in a band thesurfonics.com. Written for television it didn't make the cartoon but should have. Oh i'm a virtual cornocopia of unknown facts. there are some equipment purists about the style known as surf nazis and but that's a bit extreme. I do urge people to discover the plethora of bands that played and owned this short lived 65-66 genre.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAdrian - I loved the Dave Clark Five, too! In fact, I became a drummer because I thought that Dave Clark was so cool. And when they were on Ed Sullivan and they all raised their arms during "Do You Love Me?" ... wow, I just thought that was so cool. So, I've played drums for the past 25+ years although I've recently started learning the bass guitar.
ReplyDeleteLuv ya - Dan
Strange experience. In elementary school in the 70's, I had five songs that ran through my head. I would hum or whistle those melodies to myself, and had deep resonances with all of them, but remembered no words or any idea where they had come from. They were songs that had penetrated my subconscious in the earliest years of my life.
ReplyDeleteThey were eventually wonderful revelations to find and identify these "mystery tunes," and therefore enjoy the originals again. The best example would be "Sounds of Silence." (Can you imagine an elementary schooler carrying that mournful tune around in his psyche?) Another was "Classical Gas." I've forgotten one of them now, but I think the third was "Tom Dooley."
A major one was "Walk, Don't Run." And then, much more recently, got a whole collection of Ventures tracks a couple of years ago, and have loved adding such a dynamic "new" sound to my collection and routine.
The best part of this little story was the last revelation. By eighth grade, I had skipped past most "crap" straight into "good" music. (For example, I had all the Eno "pop" albums by then, and bought both Lodger and Discipline when they first came out.) We had a good local FM station and I was reading all that I could about rock music.
So the last revelation was the most stunning, the most "out of left field" to have lost its origin, carried it with me for so many years, and finally find it again from the most unexpected source.
"Help!"