Customer Reviews

The Lonely Surfer

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The Lonely Surfer is the album follow-up to Jack Nitzsche's only solo hit single, a top-ten instrumental from the early 'sixties. Made with a modest band of familiar Wall-of-Sound session players (Hal Blaine a standout on drums) it features several catchy originals with very strong tunes and unusual arrangements (French Horns in surf music!) as well as covers of some hits of the day ("More", "Stranger on the Shore" and so forth). Some of the cuts could have used more players or more tracking, reminders that this dates from the three-track days at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood.

There's only a hint here of the resourceful, sometimes brilliant orchestral composer that Nitzsche was to make of himself. For that you'll have to find the CD of "St. Giles Cripplegate", his self-produced calling card/audition as a "serious" composer, (a limited edition release from Rhino Records). Nor is there much evidence of the Oscar-winning songwriter ("Up Where We Belong") that was to come, though he had already written "Needles and Pins" with Jackie DeShannon.

Nitzsche's obits made much of his struggles with his personal demons, and they certainly helped to obscure the breadth of his achievements, keeping him a slightly marginal figure. This CD is really a record of a tremendously talented musician beginning his growth from a Spector side-man into a world-recognized film composer and music producer. And anyone who realized that "Da Doo Ron Ron" had potential as a ballad deserves a listen!

I came across this album quite a few years ago and it just looked like I needed to hear it.......I am so glad I did! After doing some reseach, I realized that I had been listening to this man for years and didn't even know it. He has played on some very impressive albums by some very impressive groups(Rolling Stones). This may not be for everyone,but if you like the first cut "the Lonely Surfer" with it's baritone guitar, you should dig this CD.....I do!

I learned who Nitsche was reading the liner notes to Neil Young's first album although I had heard his music as a child. It brings back memories for me, but I don't know why he called it surf music. I call it cowboy music since it was used in those Magnificient Seven movies and, I think, the Marlboro commercials. It has Mexican style horns that make it seem like the old west to me. Other than the memories, it is very relaxing and unusual orchestral pop music.

Producer, arranger, soundtrack composer and songwriter Jack Nitzsche had only brief chart fame under his own name, with the title track of this album having reached #39 on the singles chart in 1963. But it was under the names of the Crystals, Ronettes, Ike & Tina Turner, the Rolling Stones and dozens of others that his memorable arrangements, orchestrations, and in the case of the Seachers' "Needles and Pins," songs, had their most significant impact on the pop market. For his full album follow-up to the fluke hit single, Nitzsche penned a handful of original tunes and charted new orchestrations for pop standards and movie themes, including a swinging run at Elmer Bernstein's theme from "The Magnificent Seven" and a dramatic rendering of "More," the theme from Mondo Cane. He borrows his own hook from "Needles and Pins" for the Mexicali-tinged "Puerto Vallarta," and the string line of "Theme for a Broken Heart" seems to be drawn from Jagger & Richards' "Blue Turns to Grey." There's plenty of low twanging baritone guitar and tympani throughout, demonstrating Nitzsche's mastery of weaving together pop and orchestral elements. Apart from the title track, a cover of Lee Hazlewood's "Baja" (which was a contemporaneous hit for the Astronauts), and the bass-twanging "Beyond the Surf," there's nothing here that really even feints towards surf music. The album closes with a morose arrangement of "Da Doo Ron Ron" so deeply at odds with the joy of the Crystals' hit single as to be virtually unrecognizable. This is a pleasant album of orchestral pop, but other than the title track, not nearly as memorable as Nitzsche's arrangements for Spector and others. 3-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [©2011 hyperbolium dot com]

The Lonelu Surfer takes me back to a long time ago when surfers "rulled" so to speak.but not really. AN instrumental surfing song was sopmething to ekr=rhe rukes etc , however, it did and many people still have a copy. I still have mine and it takes pride of place in my 60"s collection, even better now as I have the album on CD as only the single on 45 was released here in Aussie in the 60's.

extremely satisfied with this product, only problem was that I received two (2) COPIES, order said two (2) unable to change