Hendrix's diss on the Beach Boys at Monterey

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"SURF MUSIC IS DEAD!"

― trappist monkey, Friday, 9 December 2005 18:42 (twenty years ago)

dud

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Friday, 9 December 2005 18:44 (twenty years ago)

Obviously didn't know what the fuck he was talking about.

― everything, Friday, 9 December 2005 18:53 (twenty years ago)

I was always confused by that, because he had said positive things about them around then as well, said Heroes and Villians was Psychedelic Barbershop Music or whatever. Maybe that wasn't a complement? Sounded like one to me!

Well I guess Brian only has one answer though doesn't he?

"Jimi Hendrix is Dead!"

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 9 December 2005 19:08 (twenty years ago)

was he saying his style was the polar opposite? was he just announcing his arrival then? i actually don't know any of the background on this.

― Susan Douglas (Susan Douglas), Friday, 9 December 2005 19:11 (twenty years ago)

I don't think the psychedelic barbershop comment was a compliment

― Dominique (dleone), Friday, 9 December 2005 19:16 (twenty years ago)

'You'll never hear surf music again' is apparently what he said, some believe it was a reference to Dick Dale who was on his deathbed at the time.

― mzui (mzui), Friday, 9 December 2005 19:17 (twenty years ago)

"finally, i have figured out how to make mature use of the whammy bar."

― dabnis coleman's ghost (dubplatestyle), Friday, 9 December 2005 19:21 (twenty years ago)

I thought it was the fact that the Beach Boys backed out of Montery Pop at the last possible minute, which to many hepsters and insiders made them look hopelessly out of fashion. The ironic thing is that it was the Beach Boys and some of their company folk who had something to do with getting the festival started.

It's Beach Boys conventional wisdom that had they performed at Montery, including much of the great music they were releasing around then, they may have avoided the popular notion then that they were out of touch, which caused them to practically go underground for a dozen years, put out some of their best records, all the while having zero cred. Jokes on Jimi and his flowers-in-their-hair followers of course.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 9 December 2005 19:24 (twenty years ago)

(x-post) Wha?! Dick Dale is alive and well!

But I remember Joe Carducci, in "Rock And The Pop Narcotic" half-joking, half-speculating something like "Hendrix saw Dick Dale play and was so intimidated by the fellow southpaw that he had to insult surf music on record."

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Friday, 9 December 2005 19:25 (twenty years ago)

Okay, well he was very sick with cancer and nearly didn't make it.

― mzui (mzui), Friday, 9 December 2005 19:30 (twenty years ago)

A line in the sand, as it were.

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 9 December 2005 19:33 (twenty years ago)

Seriously though -- you laugh but have you heard any surf music since that fateful night in Monterey?

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 9 December 2005 19:35 (twenty years ago)

Jokes on Jimi and his flowers-in-their-hair followers of course.

How so? I'm not going to dredge up sales figures or anything, but I think outside of the music crit and indie scene love that Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys "lost" in most senses. Hendrix is still somewhat of a pop culture icon with wide popularity, as obnoxious as the following may be, while Beach Boys attention is split between Wilson obsessives and the masses who think "Kokomo" is the greatest tune.

Of course I've heard surf music, its semi-ironic cachet makes it loved by Tarantino and the like.

― mike h. (mike h.), Friday, 9 December 2005 19:41 (twenty years ago)

Well, if the dig was directed at the Beach Boys, shouldn't the question be: have you heard any Beach Boys influenced music since Monterey?

Oh, and total dud.

― D. Bachyrycz, Friday, 9 December 2005 19:43 (twenty years ago)

Did he actually say this at Monterey? I used to have the live CD and don't remember it, but he does say "May you never hear surf music again" on the studio version of "Third Stone From The Sun." And even if he did say those words, how are we to know it was aimed at the Beach Boys? Maybe he just wasn't a big Surfaris fan.

― pdf (Phil Freeman), Friday, 9 December 2005 19:46 (twenty years ago)

Ironically, of course, Brian Wilson prob. would have agreed with him.

Also, The Beach Boys were supposed to headline the last(?) night of Monterey, but Brian went nuts and canceled.

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 9 December 2005 19:46 (twenty years ago)

Really? Well, I learned something.

― Myonga Von Bontee (Myonga Von Bontee), Friday, 9 December 2005 19:46 (twenty years ago)

It's true that this no-show pretty much finished the Beach Boys as a credible rock act (even The Association played fergoodnessakes!), which considering they were already dead commercially by that time anyway (in the US I mean) looks like a bit of blunder on their part

― We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 9 December 2005 19:47 (twenty years ago)

That's the thing people forget, is just how square and unhip a lot of the music we like NOW from that 1967-69 period, when pop was becoming rock, was considered at the time. What did Pete Quaife call the late 60s Kinks' stuff? Bubblegum I think it was.

― We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 9 December 2005 19:49 (twenty years ago)

xpost

he says "may you never hear surf music agaaaain" and it's on the studio recording too (of third stone from the sun, which always sounds a bit like coronation street theme to me) so i don't think it had anything to do with monterrey or the Beach Boys... i think Carducci's more or less right - It's pretty enigmatic, but my guess is it was aimed at Dick Dale & The Ventures et al. because they were the hot-shit guitar guys before him, but they were also maybe kind of nerdy and asexual in Jimi's estimation?

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 9 December 2005 19:53 (twenty years ago)

How odd that Hendrix would insult Dick Dale.

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 9 December 2005 19:56 (twenty years ago)

I guess you could also argue that he's kind of putting a curse on the listener - that he would consider it a great loss to never hear surf music again?

alternate theory: he was really stoned and it sounds cool.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 9 December 2005 20:01 (twenty years ago)

I like the alternate theory best

― We Buy a Hammer For Dadaismus (Dada), Friday, 9 December 2005 20:03 (twenty years ago)

How so? I'm not going to dredge up sales figures or anything, but I think outside of the music crit and indie scene love that Brian Wilson and the Beach Boys "lost" in most senses.

I'm just saying in the realms of music crit and hipsterness and whatnot, the Beach Boys cred is higher then Jimi. I love them both. Actually, I love the Beach Boys more. I'm not arguing the BB are more popular, not really arguing anything, it was said somewhat jokingly.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 9 December 2005 20:03 (twenty years ago)

He may have been joking but sometimes jokes can be very hurtful. If you want to talk about a joke, let's hear Jimi sing lead on "In My Room." Now that would be a joke.

― Mark (MarkR), Friday, 9 December 2005 20:14 (twenty years ago)

alternate theory: he was really stoned and it sounds cool.

86% of hard rock lyrics explained.

― Cunga (Cunga), Friday, 9 December 2005 20:15 (twenty years ago)

Uh, I mean, wasn't surf already a pretty spent commercial force by this time anyway? Garage groups had largely picked up the baton by that point on the local band level, right?

― ZR (teenagequiet), Friday, 9 December 2005 20:20 (twenty years ago)

yeah nice one Jimi! Why not tell all the kids how the Charleston is like, history man.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 9 December 2005 20:25 (twenty years ago)

"YOUR PEOPLE I DO NOT UNDERSTAND
SO TO YOU I WISH TO PUT AND END
AND YOU'LL NEVER HEAR SURF MUSIC AGAIN"

So maybe it's just a commentary that everyone was on drugs and none of that surf (and/or) psychedelic culture would make sense to an alien.

― D.I.Y. U.N.K.L.E. (dave225.3), Friday, 9 December 2005 20:34 (twenty years ago)

his live introductions to 'machine gun' were often a kick.

'this next one is about _____,_______,____,____ and oh yeah the war in vietnam.

― kephm (kephm), Friday, 9 December 2005 20:49 (twenty years ago)

I love both the BBs and the JHE, and some of the kneejerk anti-rockist-Jimi sentiment on this thread has saddened me. Jimi's background was in blues/r'n'b etc., while Brian Wilson was a total preppy Four Freshman fan, stuff that must've sounded hopelessly square to a black head like Hendrix - after you've toured w/ Little Richard, the Beach Boys cldn't help but seem kinda sexless and unfunky, tho' that's not to say that he and Bri wldn't have met musically/socially together for some kind of oceanic bliss-out

And yes, the psychedelic barber shop comment was almost certainly not intended as a compliment. When David Crosby described the Grateful Dead as psychedelic dixieland, that was meant as a compliment.

― Ward Fowler (Ward Fowler), Friday, 9 December 2005 20:53 (twenty years ago)

in any case, Beach Boys were already unhip by Monterey Pop. I think they might have recouped a *little* of their rep by appearing, but I think just as likely is that they get heckled

― Dominique (dleone), Friday, 9 December 2005 20:57 (twenty years ago)

I suppose maybe at the start, but have you seen/heard any of that Lei'd In Hawaii boot, Dom? S'pretty good stuff — mellow as all hell. I imagine it would've gone down pretty well w/ the flower power crowd...

― Naive Teen Idol (Naive Teen Idol), Friday, 9 December 2005 21:00 (twenty years ago)

no - but I want to! problem is, I think the B-Boy's main problem by 1967 was that they were *too* mellow, non-political and not even close to being a rock band. now, had you transported the 1973 Beach Boys touring band back to 1967, I bet they'd have gone over great

― Dominique (dleone), Friday, 9 December 2005 21:08 (twenty years ago)

yeah nice one Jimi! Why not tell all the kids how the Charleston is like, history man.
-- Dan Selzer (danselze...), December 9th, 2005. (later)

but Hendrix recorded the line in 1967! it's not like surf was ancient history then. It'd be like someone making fun of the first Strokes album right now.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 9 December 2005 21:11 (twenty years ago)

Noise music is a bunch of fat people.

― detoxyDancer (sexyDancer), Friday, 9 December 2005 21:12 (twenty years ago)

"may you never hear electroclash music again!"

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 9 December 2005 21:12 (twenty years ago)

I was responding to the preceeding comment that surf WAS ancient history then.

Was it? I dunno.

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 9 December 2005 21:13 (twenty years ago)

nah, i think surf was biggest around 62-63 (pre-Beatles), but it was hardly ancient by 67

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Friday, 9 December 2005 21:15 (twenty years ago)

jimi plays better guitar better than the bb's
bb's sing better than jimi

― howell huser (chaki), Friday, 9 December 2005 21:41 (twenty years ago)

it wasn't ancient history, but it was certainly pretty well out of the pop consciousness - i actually think your electroclash comment is a great comparison, except that i like surf music.

― ZR (teenagequiet), Friday, 9 December 2005 21:52 (twenty years ago)

but the electroclash revival is on its way...

― Dan Selzer (Dan Selzer), Friday, 9 December 2005 22:05 (twenty years ago)

now if it were an electro-surf revival...now there's something i'd be interested in.

wait, maybe that was just man or astro-man?

― ZR (teenagequiet), Friday, 9 December 2005 22:26 (twenty years ago)

"may you never hear grime music again!"???

― elgolfo (elgolfo), Friday, 9 December 2005 22:32 (twenty years ago)

Doesn't the "surf music" line play into his whole mystical/Atlantis vibe?

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Saturday, 10 December 2005 05:52 (twenty years ago)

He was saying "Serf music."

― Joseph McCombs (Joseph McCombs), Saturday, 10 December 2005 06:58 (twenty years ago)

four years pass...

Noise music is a bunch of fat people.

― detoxyDancer (sexyDancer)

― buzza, Sunday, 5 September 2010 07:29 (fifteen years ago)

hendrix was overrated, and a large part of his fame had to do with his race. clapton is better, despite era.

/runs

― lieutenant jimmy john (kelpolaris), Sunday, 5 September 2010 07:55 (fifteen years ago)

Fucking idiot child.

― Captain Ostensible (Scik Mouthy), Sunday, 5 September 2010 08:38 (fifteen years ago)

hahaha

― optimizing the emotional effects of Redneck Hoe by Insane Clown Posse (corey), Sunday, 5 September 2010 14:16 (fifteen years ago)

White people wanna play the blues BADLY.

And they do.

― funky brewster (San Te), Sunday, 5 September 2010 14:24 (fifteen years ago)

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Hendrix's diss on the Beach Boys at Monterey - c/d?