The Belairs”The Origins of Surf Music, 1960-1963”...

The Belairs

“The Origins of Surf Music, 1960-1963”

Iloki/Hepcat

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Dick Dale usually receives the singular credit for originating surf music, but while the King of the Surf Guitar is due all the praise he’s received and more, he wasn’t entirely alone. While he was Stratocaster surfing on the the Balboa Peninsula, the Belairs were arriving at their own version of surf music in the South Bay area.

The group’s Paul Johnson-penned “Mr. Moto” was actually released months before Dale’s first surfing record. This would warrant only the tiniest of footnotes were it not a great record, with a strong melody and arrangement, menacing one-note sax and a weird chordal intro that says reams about the boundless reach of teen-age invention. Johnson (see New Pick, above) and his band mates, including lead guitarist Eddie Bertrand and drummer Dick Dodd (both now longtime parts of the O.C. club scene), had a style reminiscent of the Ventures’ clean ‘n’ clever arrangements--which doesn’t mean they didn’t also drive home some nasty twanging on numbers such as “Squad Car,” “Rampage” and “Volcanic Action,” on which a crude “volcano” sound was achieved by kicking their reverb unit.

Johnson compiled this package, and it looks to be a true labor of love. It includes an enthusiastic but honest, detailed 72-page history of the band and the surf music scene. There are 26 tracks on the album, including those culled from tapes made in Johnson’s bedroom when he and Bertrand were still learning their way around on their shiny new electric guitars. These amateur 1960 recordings of two 14-year-old kids make for some powerfully evocative stuff.

This work, available in CD format only, can be found at Soest Guitar Repair in Orange or by mail for $16.50 postpaid, from Hepcat (at the address listed on page 5).