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If the Beatles Did Surf Music
17 May 2025
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LucyInTheSkyWithHackneyDiamonds
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I suggested this question a while back but did not get half the discussion warranted.

 

The Beatles are no Beach Boys , but the closest they came to surf was "Another Girl " - but that is me thinking of the beach scene from Help !

Were they too mature?

Beatles on the beach : r/beatlesImage Enlarger

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I would say that "Cry For A Shadow" is surf music in all but name. The Shadows' instrumentals are very similar to the style of instrumental guitar music that was concurrently being developed in the USA, but I'm not sure if any of the American practitioners explicitly called what they were doing "surf music" at the time. (Unless I'm wrong and Dick Dale did just that. He was an actual surfing enthusiast, besides being a guitarist, and supposedly began using a reverb unit on his guitar because the resultant echoey sound seemed to evoke the sound of the surf.) 

I don't know that Dale or the other American "surf" bands had any knowledge about what The Shadows were doing, or vice-versa; and it seems almost impossible that the Shadows would describe themselves as recording "surf music" - except possibly retroactively, decades later. Nonetheless, there are definitely similarities in the sonic result. After all, they were all using the same technology.

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17 May 2025
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LucyInTheSkyWithHackneyDiamonds
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I agree, but considering it was all the rage in 1964/65, why not record a demo, or a jam? I'm not saying they had to RELEASE it - not until Anthology 2 , but at least dip your toes in. Remember Pinwheel Twist?

 

I think they avoided it just to spite. They decided it was better and more "grown up" to record Drive My Car or Yesterday rather than beach music everyone else was doing. I personall don't care if a MILLION bands record surf music, hearing the BEATLES do it is guaraneed Top 10.

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LucyInTheSkyWithHackneyDiamonds said
I agree, but considering it was all the rage in 1964/65, why not record a demo, or a jam? I'm not saying they had to RELEASE it - not until Anthology 2 , but at least dip your toes in. Remember Pinwheel Twist?

I think they avoided it just to spite. They decided it was better and more "grown up" to record Drive My Car or Yesterday rather than beach music everyone else was doing. I personall don't care if a MILLION bands record surf music, hearing the BEATLES do it is guaraneed Top 10.

  

Well, as the Wikipedia article on "surf music" explains, the term is applied interchangeably between two related but different strains of music: the instrumental variety exemplified by Dick Dale and His Del-tones; and the later variation which added vocals and lyrics, of which The Beach Boys might be the most famous - even though Brian Wilson denied that they were a "surf band". But both varieties were already becoming passé by the time the Beatles exploded; and more importantly, surfing and lounging on the beach weren't really a part of the Beatles' culture at all, they weren't Californian. I could certainly see them recording a surf throwback or two as a parody in their later years (and indeed "Back In The USSR " had a bit of that), but parody and humour weren't at all a part of the Beatles' music before "Yellow Submarine ".

And as for "Remember 'Pinwheel Twist'" - well, none of us can "remember" it, obviously, since none of us have heard it! (I daresay nobody on this forum mentions that title as often as you do, Lucy!)

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18 May 2025
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Certainly... If they chatted just half the time about their music in India, McCartney and Brian Wilson would have rubbed off on each other and ended up recording for sake of experimentation; Paul does surf, Brian does Pepper.

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Back In The USSR comes closest to a surf-sounding song -- parts of it almost sound like a parody of the Beach Boys .

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18 May 2025
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Sea Belt said
Back In The USSR comes closest to a surf-sounding song -- parts of it almost sound like a parody of the Beach Boys .

  

I never thought of it that way... a-hard-days-night-paul-7

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LucyInTheSkyWithHackneyDiamonds said

 

I never thought of it that way... a-hard-days-night-paul-7

  

LOL, I literally just mentioned it three posts above! It specifically plays off "California Girls", at the suggestion of Mike Love.

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18 May 2025
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Honestly there is not any Beatles song to play at the beach.. except Another Girl . I think a beach-playable song is close to being a surf song, if it's not already.

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The Beatles didn't surf, there wasn't much of that music when they were working the scene and they played music that influenced them. They also didn't just buck to a trend simply because it was in at that moment. And thankfully so. Most of the surf music is pretty dire when listened to nowadays, and that includes the Beach Boys material. 

The influence of the Beach Boys was more the harmonies, Brian's song writing etc.

Wasn't 'Pinwheel Twist' meant to be quite awful or corny? Considering the Beatles forgot about that song by the time they got to EMI it clearly wasn't that great.

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meanmistermustard said
 

Wasn't 'Pinwheel Twist' meant to be quite awful or corny? Considering the Beatles forgot about that song by the time they got to EMI it clearly wasn't that great.

  

Where did you hear that? Don't knock the Pinwheel. It was whittled off by Brian Epstein for Decca, so at most I think they took his advice or said "what the hell- we have hundreds more to do". 

And Back In The USSR is not surf. Period.

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Von Bontee said
surfing and lounging on the beach weren't really a part of the Beatles' culture at all, they weren't Californian. I could certainly see them recording a surf throwback or two as a parody in their later years (and indeed "Back In The USSR " had a bit of that), but parody and humour weren't at all a part of the Beatles' music before "Yellow Submarine ". 

Von Bontee said 

  LOL, I literally just mentioned it three posts above! It specifically plays off "California Girls", at the suggestion of Mike Love.

  

Crossed with Chuck Berry's "Back in the USA."

Did any British groups play surf music as such at that time?

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LucyInTheSkyWithHackneyDiamonds said

meanmistermustard said

 

Wasn't 'Pinwheel Twist' meant to be quite awful or corny? Considering the Beatles forgot about that song by the time they got to EMI it clearly wasn't that great.

  

Where did you hear that? Don't knock the Pinwheel. It was whittled off by Brian Epstein for Decca, so at most I think they took his advice or said "what the hell- we have hundreds more to do". 

And Back In The USSR is not surf. Period.

  

I'm sure I read that 'Pinwheel Twist' was a pretty poor song, maybe in 'Tune In. Here calls the lyrics average but it went down well - tho in the Cavern I think the foursome could have sang the recipe for liver triffle and it would have been well received. 

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23 May 2025
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I still maintain that "Cry For A Shadow" is very close to surf music in its (original) instrumental form, notwithstanding that the Beatles nor The Shadows wouldn't have called it as such, having likely not have heard of the term, since it was a fairly recent niche sound. 

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