For me, it all started with Chuck Yeager, the King of Speed. Cars, planes, rockets and anything else that moved Chuck tried to make it go faster! The post war kids dug that jive, they wanted to be Chuck, or be like someone who wanted to be like Chuck. Anyway, car clubs sprang up all over the States and the hot rod kids would do anything to go -=faster. Hot rod songs became all the rage, with Rocket 88 by Jackie Brenston and his Delta Cats (actually Ike Turner and his Kings of Rhythm) being one of the first, it's also known as the first real rock and roll song, with it's tale of picking up chicks, popping speed and hitting the road in a hotted up Oldsmobile, setting the scene for thousands of songs to come. Rhythm and blues, country and rockabilly artists made hot rod and car songs a staple on the the hit parade and juke joints in every big and little town across the US.
Dick Dale, the King of the Surf Guitar invented a style of playing, based on his desire to make music that conjured up a feel of what it's like in the big surf. Dick was also no stranger to fast cars and the wild life and he included many hot rod tunes in his repertoire. DD was one of many musical cats on the scene putting down their interpretation of the sound of speed, though he inspired hundreds of instrumental bands to follow in his tracks. There was also solid stars like Lee Hazelwood Gary Usher and Bobby Fuller making new interpretations of the sound of the speedway and all sorts of car related hullabaloo.
Southern California in the early 60's hosted one of the hippest collections of musicians and music producers, hot rod designers, surf and skate board designers, cartoonists, TV and film makers and madcap characters on the planet. The sounds and images emanating out of LA and its surrounds had a major effect on the youth of the western world. Kids, like myself, grew up with Gidget, hot rod shows, slot car racing, bubble gum cards, comics, a never ending supply of stickers and decals, monster rings and flicker badges. Our bedrooms, skateboards and school books were adorned with Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth's Rat Fink, monster and hot rod images, racing flags and skulls with helmets, stickers quoting hipster language, or some Mad Magazine equivalent. Hours were spent replicating images of hot rods with nitro flames busting out the exhaust, monsters with their tongues flying out the side. It was a very groovy time to be a kid, the youth market was being invented and we were getting all sorts of fun things that have since been outlawed.
Dick Dale, the King of the Surf Guitar invented a style of playing, based on his desire to make music that conjured up a feel of what it's like in the big surf. Dick was also no stranger to fast cars and the wild life and he included many hot rod tunes in his repertoire. DD was one of many musical cats on the scene putting down their interpretation of the sound of speed, though he inspired hundreds of instrumental bands to follow in his tracks. There was also solid stars like Lee Hazelwood Gary Usher and Bobby Fuller making new interpretations of the sound of the speedway and all sorts of car related hullabaloo.
Southern California in the early 60's hosted one of the hippest collections of musicians and music producers, hot rod designers, surf and skate board designers, cartoonists, TV and film makers and madcap characters on the planet. The sounds and images emanating out of LA and its surrounds had a major effect on the youth of the western world. Kids, like myself, grew up with Gidget, hot rod shows, slot car racing, bubble gum cards, comics, a never ending supply of stickers and decals, monster rings and flicker badges. Our bedrooms, skateboards and school books were adorned with Ed 'Big Daddy' Roth's Rat Fink, monster and hot rod images, racing flags and skulls with helmets, stickers quoting hipster language, or some Mad Magazine equivalent. Hours were spent replicating images of hot rods with nitro flames busting out the exhaust, monsters with their tongues flying out the side. It was a very groovy time to be a kid, the youth market was being invented and we were getting all sorts of fun things that have since been outlawed.
L.A. at the time was known as Plastic City by cats from other happening places like NYC and San Fran. It was a place where dreams (and nightmares) were invented and manufactured. It was scorned as a place full of phonies, carpetbaggers and shysters. Well it was, and it wasn't, the dichotomy of the American story. The well worn story is that the studios would force bands to replace their members with studio hacks. The other side of the story is that some of the coolest (or hottest) writers, producers and musicians in the US made there way there: Phil Spector, Brian Wilson, Kim Fowley, Gary Usher, Van Dyke Parkes, Lee Hazelwood and Jack Nitzsche were there. Musicians like the Baptiste family from New Orleans, Dr John, Leon Russell, Earl Palmer, Glenn Campbell, Hal Blaine, Carol Kaye, Barney Kessel and Billy Strange, to name a few, filled out the ranks of what later became know as the Wrecking Crew, laying down some of the hottest sounds emanating from the planet at the time (except for Motown and then new British Invasion). Apart from working on the Ronnettes, the Beach Boys, the Byrds and a hundred other band's recordings they were cutting sides under pseudonymms such as The Knights, The Four Speeds the Young Cougars, The Hondells, The Superstocks and most notably Ed Gasser and the Weirdos, with their trio of Rat Fink related LPs.
It's true that any craze was latched onto and marketed to death: JD, hot rod and surf related films and products boomed. Car model kits, toys, comics, cowboy and Indian outfits, complete with bows arrows guns and tee pees, as well as all the paraphernalia I mention before. Yes it's true LA was a craze town and hot rod fever was just one of many crazes, the hula hoop and the Yo-Yo spring to mind. So hot rod, juvenile delinquent films, music and related products were pumped out of the studios and factories of southern California tut sweet. The Wild Ride, Hot Rod Hell, The Blob, Hot Rod Gang, Hot Rod Hullabaloo and a host of other knock-off dramas of jive talking white kids with too much of their daddy's money, going all juvie in their hotted up Model T's. There's Jane Mansfield talking bout Mary J, speedsters playing Chicken, hot chicks fighting the loser chicks, Lucky Strikes and stolen beer, beach and house parties that always end in a barney. There's the eventual drag race, the unhappy ending, the good girl gone bad and then good again, the cop who trying to solve the delinquency problem, the cop who thinks all kids are BAD (highly recommended reading 'Seeing is Believing' Peter Biskind's journey into the politics of 50's movies and television).
Eventually hot rod culture, like surfing and skating were written off and demonised as outlaw culture, of course making it even hipper for outsider youth.
This mix has many of the elements of this here rave, from the sublime to the ridiculous. It features tracks from the aforementioned producers and far out bands like the Beach Boys to the great unknowns, with one sneaky inclusion of legendary 70's leather hipster Alan Vega. HRD also features bites and pieces from classic hot rod films and television.
I hope you dig these sounds the most
Now put your foot on the GAS !
1. The Four Speeds - RPM
2. Bobby Fuller Four - The Lonely Dragster
3. Chuck Berry - You Can’t Catch Me - Chess
4. Oscar McLollie and his Honey Jumpers - Roll, Hot Rod, Roll - Modern RPM
5. Dick Dale - Grudge Run - Capitol
6. Hal Singer - Hot Rod - Savoy
7. Richie Deram and The New Tones - A Girl and a Hot Rod - Pontiac
8. Mr Gasser and The Weirdos - The Fastest Shift Alive - Hot Rod Hootenanny - Capitol
9. Corvettes - Shaften - Bee Dee
10. Jimmy Carroll - Big Green Car - Fascination
2. Bobby Fuller Four - The Lonely Dragster
3. Chuck Berry - You Can’t Catch Me - Chess
4. Oscar McLollie and his Honey Jumpers - Roll, Hot Rod, Roll - Modern RPM
5. Dick Dale - Grudge Run - Capitol
6. Hal Singer - Hot Rod - Savoy
7. Richie Deram and The New Tones - A Girl and a Hot Rod - Pontiac
8. Mr Gasser and The Weirdos - The Fastest Shift Alive - Hot Rod Hootenanny - Capitol
9. Corvettes - Shaften - Bee Dee
10. Jimmy Carroll - Big Green Car - Fascination
11. Mr Gasser and The Weirdos - T.J.T. - Rods 'n Ratfinks - Capitol
12. Hal Blaine and the Young Cougars - Challenger II - Deuces Roadsters and Drums - RCA Victor
13. Beach Boys - Shut Down, part II - Capitol
14. The Knights - Hot Rod High - Capitol (of course it's the Beach Boys!)
15. Charlie Ryan - Hot Rod Lincon - 4 Star
16. The Du-Droppers - Speed King - Groove / RCA
17. Dick Dale - The Scavenger - Capitol
18. The Bobby Fuller Four - The Phantom Dragster - Mustang
19. Alan Vega - Speedway - Ze
20. Hal Blaine and the Young Cougars - Big "T" - Deuces Roadsters and Drums - RCA Victor
21. Richard Berry - Heaven On Wheels - Flip
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