Tag: The Chantays

Saturday Matinee – The Chantays, The Ventures, Johnny Thunders & The Vaughan Brothers

The Chantays were from Santa Ana, California. The oldest was 17, the youngest 14, when they recorded their 1962 hit “Pipeline” (according to the liner notes on my LP.) I was a kid in the midwest when I first heard it, and I liked it, but I didn’t equate it with surfing. I imagined a rock n’ roll sludge pump.

According to Wiki, the Chantays originally called the song “Liberty’s Whip” but I have my doubts.

A year later, The Ventures co-opted the classic. Not sure if royalties were paid but their version didn’t make Billboard’s Top 100.

Johnny Thunders‘ (nee New York Dolls) take was kinda different. Clip is apparently from here, circa 1989(?).

Jimmy Vaughan taught his brother guitar IIRC, and SRV took it from there. Video above from New Orleans 1987.

https://youtu.be/i1xdgy7JHh4

Jimmy Vaughan is an unsung guitar hero IMO.

Have a great weekend, folks. Be back here tomorrow for more awesome than any human being can possibly handle.

Saturday Matinee – RIP JFK & 1963 Radio

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy by a communist named Lee Harvey Oswald. I was very young, but I remember understanding that something terrible had happened.

JFK was indisputably the last conservative democrat to hold the Office of the Presidency, and the loss still echoes.
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On a lighter note, in 1963 one of my prized possessions was a transistor radio that I listened to constantly, and I wasted a large number of batteries by falling asleep with the radio on my pillow.
Here are three favorites.

No. 10 in the Billboard rankings for 1963: The Impressions‘ “It’s All Right.” Curtis Mayfield was with the group from 1958 – 1970. The vid is from the TV show “Hollywood A-Go-Go” in 1965.

Martha & The Vandellas, live at The Apollo. Martha Reeve’s voice still blows me away.

The Chantays performed Pipeline live on The Lawrence Welk Show in 1963. According to the liner notes on their album, the oldest member of the band from Santa Ana California was 17 when they invented surf-rock.

This was the also the age of the “girl groups.” Before lil’ Bunk was in the double digits of age he liked girls, just couldn’t admit it to his buddies, and was secretly in love with Ronnie Spector, Skeeter Davis, Barbara Lewis and The Chiffons, but not Leslie Gore – what a whiner.

Have a great weekend, folks.