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Though most people don't know them, Eddie and the Showmen were one of the most popular and talented of the instrumental surf groups. As most people know by now the instrumental surf bands were the "real" surf music to those who were actually part of the scene. They didn't like the vocal surf music that followed later largely because they saw the band members as non-surfing interlopers. I like both, which I think is the current general view, but in its day it was fiercely contested. Instrumental surf arose out of rock'n'roll party instrumentals like Moondog, Wild Weekend and the influence of guitarists like Duane Eddy. The earlier pieces are more like old rock'n'roll with the sax being the really hot instrument. But surf music became uniquely important in the development of the electric guitar and more powerful amps. Major surf guitarists like Dick Dale and Eddie Bertrand worked directly with Leo Fender in this area until the guitar became the dominant instrument of surf music. This also set the stage for all the vocal guitar bands that followed in the 60's and 70's.
The unfortunate thing about the instrumental surf music scene is that it happened early and none of the record companies believed in it. Unlike many dub record business decisions it's at least somewhat understandable that they didn't see any potential for surf music to become popular except in areas where people surfed, which at that time was Southern California and Hawaii. So it became a regional scene with its own hits which people in other parts of the country never heard. By the time it began to break nationally in 1962-63 many good tracks were already over with and the vocal music took over as instrumentals were never a very big thing on the charts and were usually novelties. Nationally there vere only four really big surf instrumental hits: Surfers' Stomp -The Mar-Ketts; Wipe Out-The Surfaris; Pipeline-The Chantays and Penetration-The Pyramids. It's a real shame that some of the best bsnds like Dick Dale & the Del Tones, The Lively Ones, The Belairs, The Challengers and yes, Eddie and the Showmen never had a national hit.
Eddie was originally a member of the Belairs who had Mr. Moto in 1961. Eddie's take on surf music was that it needed to be loud and fast with a very strong lead guitar. In this he was in agreement with Dick Dale. Eddie usually worked with six or seven members of his band, The Showmen, named for Fender's Showman amp. This included bass and rhythm guitarists, two or three saxophones and a drummer. With the bass usually providing a big sound of its own, Eddie would play in a fast-picking style that was dazzling in its execution. I'm surprised he didn't incorporate Dick dale's power slide as many other surf guitarists did, but perhaps he felt it was dale's trademark move. The saxes mostly provided extra depth in the background and didn't have the solos they usually had in old rock'n'roll or in other surf bands. The only exception here is on the rare vocal Showmen Stomp, kind of a retro, Eddie Cochran kind of song.
The sound gets really powerful on tracks like Squad Car, Movin' and Mr. Rebel in a way that was so far from the sound of early 60's pop that it was practically the heavy metal of its day. This will possibly be difficult for those who weren't around then to appreciate. There are a couple mellow tracks like We Are the Young and Young and Lonely, the first a bit jazzy and the second a bit folk-sounding. They also liked to do the surf band thing of taking unexpected songs and doing a surf take on them. Here they include far Away Places, Wayward Wind, Then He Kissed Me and Dark Eyes. They also did the Southern California thing of adding some Mexican-flavored tunes with Border Town and Las Olas.
Another problem Eddie and the Showmen had was that they signed with Liberty Records. Liberty was basically an easy listening label whose success was based on Julie London and The Chipmunks, and they never really understood rock. Jan & Dean were forever at loggerheads with them: Liberty didn't think they should even record Surf City. So of course they didn't do much for Eddie. They put out a few singles with little promotion and that was it. Believe it or not, THEY DIDN"T EVEN LET THEM PUT OUT AN ALBUM! For real! This CD by EMI/Capitol (who eventually acquired Liberty) is their only album-length release. It contains all their single A's and B's and some previously unreleased material.
As one reviewer noted, this disc has been going for "collector's prices" since it went out of print. I've seen it from sixty to over one hundred dollars. It was on my list a long time. But like a couple pages of titles on my list it eventually was offered at a reasonable price and I got it instantly. If you're patient and willing to check regularly, these discs usually will be found at a lower price. This still means twenty to thirty dollars - you'll never find them really cheap - but they will turn up.
This disc is a must for surf instrumental fans.
