<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In August of 1964, the kids who worked as volunteer crossing guards for the Marquette Area Public Schools were rewarded with a trip to the Upper Peninsula State Fair in Escanaba.\u00a0 We were told to wear our iconic Safety Patrol belts to gain free entry to the fair, but it seemed unnecessary as we arrived all together in a school bus.\u00a0 Strolling the midway, some kids wore them like they did when on duty but most of us kept the belts rolled up and hanging from our regular belts.\u00a0 All during the previous year, the daily ritual was to tromp off to my duty station a block west of Whitman Elementary School (the corner of Waldo and Lincoln).\u00a0 We were instructed to take our job conducting students safely across Lincoln seriously, so we were all business.\u00a0 When the final bell rang on the playground, we were given an extra five minutes to get to class (a little late – and admittedly, we took full advantage of our little bit of comp time from the normal schedule).\u00a0 We learned to tuck and fold our SP belt as we headed back to school so it could be stashed in our desk until the end of the day. \u00a0 We would get released five minutes before the final bell to repeat our daily duties.\u00a0 Rain or shine, wind or snow, if we were in school, we were at our posts.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Two remarkable things took place on our reward trip to the State Fair.\u00a0 The first was me missing an opportunity to see a rising star perform on the grandstand stage.\u00a0 I saw his picture on the posters and heard some of his show filtering out to the noisy midway, but it would be several years before it hit me that seeing Roy Orbinson could have been my first famous live concert.\u00a0 I passed it up in order to make a couple of more rounds to my favorite rides.\u00a0 The second event was me being mesmerized by a song that had been a big hit on the radio.\u00a0 I can\u2019t recall hearing <\/span>Wipe Out<\/span><\/i> by the Surfaris before the fair trip, but I heard it plenty that day on the midway.\u00a0 What burned it into my head?\u00a0 The way it was used on a ride (if my memory hasn\u2019t failed me) called The Bubble Bouncer.\u00a0 The BB was a rotating platform with oval seats.\u00a0 At the center of each cup-like seat was a round handhold resembling a large valve like one would see on a pipeline or a compartment door on a submarine.\u00a0 The riders would hold on to this handle and use it to control whether or not the seat would spin as it rode around on the large circular platform to which it was attached.\u00a0 Every so often, the ride operator would stomp on a lever that caused the entire rotating platform to tilt up about thirty or forty degrees accompanied by the same kind of \u2018whoosh\u2019 one hears from air brakes on a large truck.\u00a0 It was loud, fast, and scary and as the Scrambler or Tilt-a-Whirl were my rides of choice, I was a little surprised that the music convinced me to ride the BB.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0The ride operator must have liked <\/span>Wipe Out<\/span><\/i> a lot because this was the song he played most often when the ride was operating.\u00a0 It took awhile for me to realize that he was timing the sudden upward tilting of the ride to the accents in the song.\u00a0 When I finally mustered up the courage to get on the ride, I had already figured out when to expect the big \u2018whoosh – tilt\u2019 from watching the operator\u2019s M.O.\u00a0 If he wasn\u2019t getting a good enough reaction from these \u2018surprise\u2019 bounces, he would call out on a speaker, \u201cLet me hear you scream!\u201d before triggering the next one.\u00a0 This was still a good eighteen months before I would own a drum set and almost three years before I would actually learn to play <\/span>Wipe Out<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0 The melding of the music with the ride was the main story I repeated over and over whenever the topic of the State Fair came up.\u00a0 Bob Berryhill, a guitarist in The Surfaris, gave an interview to the Songwriters Hall of Fame <\/span>Backstage <\/span><\/i>series that reminded me about the fair trip.\u00a0 It turns out that <\/span>Wipe Out<\/span><\/i> wasn\u2019t the song that they thought would be their claim to fame.\u00a0 In fact, when they made their first recording (<\/span>Surfer Joe<\/span><\/i>) in late 1962, they hadn\u2019t even written a second song to put on the flip side of their first 45 rpm disk.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0According to Berryhill, \u201cThe producer hit the \u2018talkback\u2019 button from the control room (and I learned what that was) and said, \u2018Okay boys, now you need another song for the other side.\u00a0 You could put <\/span>Surfer Joe<\/span><\/i> on both sides or write another song.\u2019\u00a0 We didn\u2019t have another song yet.\u00a0 [Drummer] Ronnie began playing the drum part [Berryhill pounds out the iconic drum fill on the table top in front of him] – he was a phenomenal cadence marching band drummer and could play anything\u201d.\u00a0 The drum part sounded a lot like the drummer\u2019s high school marching cadence sped up and may also have been influenced by Preston Epps\u2019 1959 release <\/span>Bongo Rock.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 Berryhill continued:\u00a0 \u201cWe said, \u2018Okay, cool, we have the drum break.\u00a0 We better put some guitar chords with that or it will end up a drum solo.\u2019\u00a0 I decided to use something in the key of \u2018B\u2019 because everything else we played was in \u2018A\u2019 or \u2018E\u2019 – I slid up to \u2018B\u2019 because I love big barr chords and started to play along with Ronnie.\u00a0 The bass player began to find a part and eventually Jim Fuller began playing the main riff off of that.\u00a0 We built it up from there.\u00a0 Finally, we got it all put together and it sounded pretty good.\u00a0 When we got it down, the engineer said, \u2018Okay – what are you going to call it?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Berryhill again:\u00a0 \u201cFuller had recently been to Tijuana where he had bought a switchblade.\u00a0 He comes up to the mic, flicked it open and says, \u2018Switchblade\u2019, but the engineer said the sound wasn\u2019t very identifiable.\u00a0 My dad [Berryhill\u2019s] went out to the alley behind the studio and brought back a piece of thin plywood.\u00a0 The bass player broke it over the mic and said, \u2018Hey, that sounds just like a busted surfboard.\u2019\u00a0 The trouble is, there was already a song out there called <\/span>Busting Surfboards<\/span><\/i> so we couldn\u2019t use that.\u00a0 It sounded like Goofy going over a waterfall and getting his board broken, so while we were trying to think, \u2018What would make a board break like that?\u2019 Dale Smallin, the band\u2019s manager, came out of the control room.\u00a0 We walked up to the same mic and went, \u2018Ha ha ha ha, Wipe Out\u2019 and it went on the record just like that:\u00a0 the crashing sound, the laugh, and then into the drum intro.\u00a0 Two weeks later, we have a record.\u00a0 In January of 1963, we each had 25 copies and started to take them around because we wanted to be on radio.\u00a0 Nobody liked it.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Finally, Berryhill got the record in the hands of a Hollywood record producer from Robinhood Records who did like it and put the song out on the Princess label.\u00a0 Singles of the day were always supposed to be between two and three minutes so the new label cut two verses of <\/span>Surfer Joe<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Wipe Out<\/span><\/i> and released them both clocking in at two minutes and twenty seconds.\u00a0 The record got a little action, but nothing big happened. \u00a0 One day at lunch in North Hollywood, a waitress asked the producers what they did.\u00a0 They explained they were record producers.\u00a0 She said, \u201cI have a friend named Johnny Hyde who is a DJ in Fresno.\u00a0 Do you have any good records I could send him?\u201d\u00a0 They said, \u201cSure,\u201d and handed her a copy of <\/span>Surfer Joe\/Wipe Out.<\/span><\/i>\u00a0 Hyde would play new records at midnight in a \u2018make it or break it\u2019 segment and based on the response, put the \u2018made it\u2019 selections in his rotation.\u00a0 The first night, <\/span>Wipe Out<\/span><\/i> was rated the fifth best new song, the second night it was the third, and by the third night, it was number one on his show.\u00a0 Hyde in turn recommended the record to a representative of Dot Records who immediately signed it away from Princess.\u00a0 Berryhill said they had contracts in front of the band the next day with the band members earning $250 and their original label $750.\u00a0 Dot Records was great at promoting singles so they began pushing a wider release in March of 1963.\u00a0 By August, it was a big hit, but that was a full year before I heard it riding the Bubble Bouncer at the State Fair.\u00a0 Maybe the two minute and twenty second song was just the right length for the ride? \u00a0 In any event, the operator had probably been using the song for some time.\u00a0 It is also possible that it could have been the version The Ventures put out not long after The Surfaris\u2019 <\/span>Wipe Out<\/span><\/i> first cracked the airwaves.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Once I started practicing on my own drum set in the spring of 1966, <\/span>Wipe Out<\/span><\/i> was already a golden oldie in the pop music world.\u00a0 I got my first dose of playing music with a live band at the Christmas Party my sister hosted in our basement near the end of 1966.\u00a0 A group of her friends played together and when they saw my drums in the corner of the basement, they dragged me downstairs to play with them (much to my sister\u2019s annoyment.\u00a0 She was less annoyed when her party was deemed \u2018cool\u2019 because it had live music).\u00a0 I kept woodshedding on my own, playing along with records, but from that point on, there were no illusions about me being in a band.\u00a0 The live music bug took a big bite out of me that night.\u00a0 The only thing missing was the right opportunity.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Early in 1967, I got a call from a guitarist named Ron Phillips.\u00a0 My next door neighbor knew Ron and had taken me along to hear his band rehearse the summer before.\u00a0 Ron had remembered Harold introducing me as a new drummer, which is no doubt why he called.\u00a0 \u201cHey, our drummer just lost his drums and I was wondering, would you like to try out for our band?\u201d\u00a0 When I said, \u201cSure\u201d, Ron told me they would be over at 7 PM then next night to try me out.\u00a0 What he didn\u2019t say was they were bringing all their gear and \u2018try me out\u2019 meant having me run through songs with them.\u00a0 At the appointed time, they carted their stuff into the basement, got things set up and off we went.\u00a0 I never did find out how the drummer \u2018lost his drums\u2019 but it made me nervous because a) they were all in high school versus me being in eighth grade and b) the old drummer was also their lead singer.\u00a0 For my audition, he was just singing and Ron said that if they found a drummer, the \u2018lost his drums\u2019 drummer would be playing organ as well.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Most of the stuff we ran through was Top Forty radio stuff I knew so the more we played, the better it felt.\u00a0 Out of the blue, Ron asked \u201cDo you know <\/span>Wipe Out<\/span><\/i>?\u201d\u00a0 I replied that it was a song I had never played.\u00a0 With the old drummer watching, Ron the guitar player sat down at my drums and showed me how to play the tom tom intro to the song.\u00a0 Once he was satisfied I could play the drum break, he said, \u201cYou start, when the guitar comes in, go to ride cymbal and snare, then when we come out of the verse, I will point at you to go back to the tom tom part.\u201d\u00a0 We played it all the way through and when Ron said, \u201cAlright, that was good!\u201d it sounded like they were happy with what they heard.\u00a0 They departed with, \u201cWe will let you know,\u201d but I never heard from them again.\u00a0 It was the first and last time I had to audition for a band but the lesson stuck:\u00a0 any time we auditioned a new band member, they got a call one way or the other instead of the silent treatment.<\/span><\/p>\n I always respected how Ron ran his bands and thoroughly enjoyed having The Twig (my high school band) play a double bill dance with Ron\u2019s Sweat Equity several years later.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As the weeks ticked by, it became apparent they were not going to call so I replayed the audition over in my head.\u00a0 What kept jumping out at me was the question the rhythm guitarist asked as they were packing up:\u00a0 \u201cHey, I heard there is a state bull (State Trooper) that lives in this neighborhood.\u00a0 Do you know him?\u201d\u00a0 I pointed my drumstick to the ceiling and said, \u201cYeah, he\u2019s my dad.\u201d\u00a0 I wondered if that had anything to do with it, but in the end, it was just as well because<\/span><\/p>\n I wasn\u2019t ready to be rehearsing and gigging regularly.\u00a0 For Ron, it was his job and he worked his band hard.\u00a0 I got to know the drummer they did hire (Ted Thomas by name) and he was a much better fit with their group.\u00a0 When the next summer rolled around, I was getting a lot of practice in as a rehearsal drummer for my sister\u2019s Christmas party group of friends.\u00a0 It was not in the cards for me to become a member of The Self Winding Grapefruit, either, but one of the moments that stood out for me occurred just before their drummer figured out that he was in danger of being replaced.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We were near the end of a two hour practice session when one of the Grapefruit guitar players asked if there were any songs I would like to play.\u00a0 For some reason, <\/span>Wipe Out<\/span><\/i> came out of my lips so he said, \u201cHit it.\u201d\u00a0 We ran through it in one take and I was smiling ear to ear when we finished.\u00a0 \u201cHey, that was fun,\u201d said the same guitar player, \u201cWe haven\u2019t played that one in a long time.\u201d\u00a0 They never asked why I suggested it and I never told them the story of learning the drum part from a guitar player.\u00a0 For them it was just an oldie they played once in a while.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I played with my high school and college bands (The Twig, Knockdown, and Sledgehammer, in that order), from 1969 through 1975.\u00a0 None of them had <\/span>Wipe Out <\/span><\/i>on the regular set list but I do remember playing it a couple of times with Knockdown at the NCO club at K.I. Sawyer Air Force Base.\u00a0 When a non-com requests a song, it gets played and if the band doesn\u2019t know it, then something similar gets the nod.\u00a0 At the time I joined Easy Money in Ontonagon (1976-1983), <\/span>Wipe Out<\/span><\/i> was covered regularly.\u00a0 In two of my other bands, drum solos were fit into The Twig\u2019s mash up of <\/span>Toad <\/span><\/i>(Cream) and <\/span>Born To Be Wild <\/span><\/i>(Steppenwolf), and Knockdown\u2019s <\/span>Get Ready <\/span><\/i>(Rare Earth).\u00a0 Because Easy Money did <\/span>Wipe Out<\/span><\/i> regularly, it ended up being the \u2018drum solo\u2019 song.\u00a0 I always managed to work in a few passages from Ron Bushy\u2019s iconic Iron Butterfly solo from <\/span>Inna Gadda Da Vidda <\/span><\/i>no matter what the main tune was.\u00a0 <\/span>Wipe Out <\/span><\/i>was probably the easiest to play a solo in because the recognizable drum line was easy to get back into no matter where the rest of the solo went.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0There is one thing that <\/span>Wipe Out<\/span><\/i> demands from a drummer.\u00a0 One does not stray too far from the original tom tom line without ruining the song\u2019s feel.\u00a0 If soloing, all bets are off, but when it comes to playing something as well known as <\/span>Wipe Out, <\/span><\/i>one better not get too creative.\u00a0 It better start and end with the familiar tom tom beat, otherwise, it just isn\u2019t <\/span>Wipe Out<\/span><\/i>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I can not say whether the State Fair still used the song in 1965 or if they still had the Bubble Bouncer ride.\u00a0 Just after Christmas of my sixth grade year, I showed up for my first day back from break and found an older gentleman wearing a blue uniform at my usual corner.\u00a0 He wore what looked like a patrolman\u2019s cap and had a small STOP sign on a stick in his hand.\u00a0 When he saw me coming, he answered my question before I could even ask it:\u00a0 \u201cHey kid, didn\u2019t they tell you?\u00a0 The school hired some retirees to take over crossing guard duties.\u201d\u00a0 Fired at age twelve!\u00a0 Nobody ever explained why we weren\u2019t told about this new development.\u00a0 Worse, there was no reward trip to the fair in 1965.\u00a0 They could take away my job, but not my first encounter with <\/span>Wipe Out.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Top Piece Video:\u00a0 Before\u00a0Smoke on the Water,\u00a0<\/em>just about every cover band had to do\u00a0Wipe Out.\u00a0\u00a0<\/em>Here is a mash up of many years of The Surfaris playing their iconic tune.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0In August of 1964, the kids who worked as volunteer crossing guards for the Marquette Area Public Schools were rewarded with a trip to the Upper Peninsula State Fair in Escanaba.\u00a0 We were told to wear our iconic Safety Patrol belts to gain free entry to the fair, but it seemed unnecessary as we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,11,8,12,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bands-musicians","category-education","category-from-the-vaults","category-humor","category-woas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1929"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1932,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929\/revisions\/1932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.woas-fm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}