Little Dead Surfer Girl

"Little Dead Surfer Girl"
(1972 Poison Ring Records)

From the LP "The Great Grizzly Bear Hunt"
a live studio recording (with a live audience)
by the Incredible Broadside Brass Bed Band.

Cardboard tab used in jukeboxes.
Little Dead Surfer Girl could actually be heard in your favorite all-night greasy spoon diner,
which serves to remind us that poor taste tends to collect in the same areas.

Album Credits

Side I

1) Bullfrog Blues (arr & lyrics) B. Comeau Poison Ring Prod. ASCAP
2) I Wish That I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate / Take It Slow And Easy Armand J Piron MCA, Inc. & J. Vogel Music Co. ASCAP / Jesse Fuller Contemporary Music BMI
3) I Dreamed I Saw St. Augustine B. Dylan Dwarf Music ASCAP
4) Don't Cry Lady, I'll Buy Your God-Damned Violets B. Comeau Poison Ring Prod. ASCAP
5) Coney Island Washboard Ned Nestor, Claude Shugart, Hampton Duramd, Jerry Adams American Academy of Music Inc. ASCAP
6) Little Dead Surfer Girl B. Comeau Poison Ring Prod. ASCAP

Side II

1) Cocaine Gary Davis Robbins Music ASCAP
2) Grizzly Bear (arr & lyrics) B. Comeau Poison Ring Prod. ASCAP
3) Mary Don't You Weep (arr) B. Comeau Poison Ring Prod. ASCAP

THE PLAYERS

BILL COMEAU: vocals, guitar, blues harp
PETE LEVIN: banjo, piano, kazoo
VINCENT dePAUL LINUS PASTERNAK: lead guitar, noises
JERRY DEVOKATIS: lead guitar (tracks 2,4,5)
MARK BIEBER: washboard, blues harp, random comments, water
CRAZY MAX: bass, bass frogaphone
PAUL OSSOLA: bass (track 6)
VICTOR BERNARDONI: drums
THELONIUS LIPSHITZ: bass skunk

engineering	BILL LOBB, DAN ZELLMAN
cover art	MARK BIEBER
photo	SEAN KERNAN
album layout	GENE GOGERTY
produced for Poison Ring Records by PETE LEVIN
executive producer	DOC CAVALIER
recorded live at	SYNCRON SOUND STUDIOS Wallingford, Connecticut

Song Lyrics

I went to the beach,
Me and my Rhonda.
Surfboard and six-pack,
On my madras Honda.

[Instrumental vamp while Bill Comeau raps]

I’m goin’ to do the sexy talkin’ part now ... where I talk over the music and get everybody turned on by the wonderful way I say the words.

We go to the beach,
Me and my Rhonda.
She was dressed in her madras bikini.
She was goin’ on her madras surfboard ...
Out 416 miles out into the ocean.
I called out to her, I said … I said …
"Rhonda, honey!"
( I always called her that ' Cause that was her name. She liked me to call her that.)
I said, "Rhonda! Rhonda honey; You know you can’t swim! Don’t you think you should take off my 40 pound high school ring? That’s hangin’ down there between your … two piece bathing suit?"

She never answered me.
And as the sun was settin’,
and as she was surfin’,
Rhonda was sinkin’.

I’ll never forget, honey, I’ll never forget those dying words she said to me.

" Urrghh gurgle gurgle gurgle!"

[* Mark Bieber gargling]

Tell me about it baby.

" Uuurgh gurgle urrrrrh gurgle!"

[Vocal chorus]
She’s my little dead,
dead surfing girl.

[Bill raps]

Yeah now, every night when the moon is full I go down to the seaside.
And when the tide flows in, so does Rhonda.
A little bit at a time, she comes floatin’ home to me.
With the whale bites in her body, and the seaweed all wrapped around that 40 lb. high school ring that’s been draggin’ on the bottom all this time.

[Vocal chorus]
She’s my little dead,
dead surfing girl.

Little dead ...

"Urrghh gurgle gurgle gurgle!"

surfing,

"Urrghh gurgle gurgle gurgle!"

girl.

Hard to believe, but the IBBBB recording was covered by other artists (which goes to show how widespread poor taste can get), among them,

Rob Carlson
* can't find any reviews, but we know Rob. He's a great singer and a very funny guy.
He still gets airplay with this on dementia stations.
King Uszniewicz and his Uszniewicztones
"You could blackmail people with tapes twice this good." - Down Home Music
"A bowling alley lounge band grinding out R&R favorites. There's nothing like it." - Kland und Klied music catalog
"Things don't come any offer key than this .... your average kindergarten combo let loose on a couple of guitars and a sax .... It's almost impossible to talk about worse and worst here" - Leen Wyndaele
"delivered with 3rd-rate Elvis imitator enthusiasm .... flagrant disregard for tempo or even remotely keeping
their instruments in tune .... His singing is passionate and involved, especially when he
strains his voice to hit notes that are totally out of his range." Cub Koda
Buzz Bomber & the M-80s
"Buzz Bomber & the M-80s sound like AC/DC backing up their tour bus over Weird Al Yankovich
on his moped down at the beach! - Notes From The Underground
* There used to be an audio version of this on the net. Their Surfer Girl page is down.

Links

Can you get a copy of it? Beats me! Certainly not from here, but try these links.

Trod Nossel Productions - the original production company at Poison Ring Records. Sounds like they're cleaning out the basement.
http://www.trod-nossel.com/tna/records/records.html

California Albums: old vinyl records (Are they still in business?)
http://www.eshoppinglink.com/music/calalbums/minor.htm

Borderline Books (Not sure what this is. Let me know if you figure it out.)
http://www.borderlinebooks.com/us6070s/i1z.html

Paisley Haze It says they buy and sell out of print records, and 99% of the stuff is in stock. Nothing there about taking credit cards - and I don't think they're going to make Tower Records nervous - but it looks interesting.
http://www.paisleyhaze.com/

Miscellaneous

A tribute page by Tom Levin (no relation to Pete) that even includes an MP3 of Surfer Girl. Now there's a man with too much free time! You'll find it on this site under "IMPORTANT BEER LINKS" (Exactly what I would have done!)
http://party.coldestbeer.com/

King Uszniewicz and his Uszniewicztones: another review
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Lounge/1936/critiq/A/Kingu.htm

At the Galax Fiddlers' Convention

(I have absolutely no clue what this is, but you'll undoubtedly note that A GUY WAS CROWNED KAZOO QUEEN. You know, I was thinking of going next year, but ...)

"On Saturday, the 15th annual Kazoo contest was held, and the Kazoo Queen was crowned. This is a tongue-in-cheek experience that must be seen in person to believe! A big Native American guy, known only as "Chief" was crowned queen, and the big Kazoo parade followed a rousing rendition of "Little Dead Surfer Girl," performed by a soon-to-be fellow thereminist and long term bizarre instrument maker who shall remain nameless.
http://www.korrnet.org/pipermail/levnet/1997-August/000642.html

We've never heard it, but the band "Buzzbomber and the M80s" actually had a cover of Surfer Girl. Their site seems to be in trouble, but here's the link anyway in case they get it fixed.
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Stage/7129/

Last year, Surfer Girl was on the playlist for the last show from 314 Main Street - sandwiched in between offerings by Deep Purple and Heart. Now, that's deep! We'd love to know exactly who was listening to this station - and are they blaming us for going off the air.
http://beakerstreet.com/jan2801.htm

The IBBBB got a listing and a mention in a book on garage bands from the 60s and early 70s. It's called "Fuzz, Acid & Flowers" and is apparently carried by Borderline Books. We were excited until we realized that it has nothing to do with the major chain, Border Books - but it felt good there for a second.
http://www.borderlinebooks.com/us6070s/fuzz.html

Yet another review of King Uszniewicz and his "bowling alley lounge band". Just in case this isn't strange enough, this site is all in German. Who is this guy, anyway???
http://www.klangundkleid.ch/katalog/detail.asp?ID=710&SID=18

And, this one's in Japanese. I'm sure it says something very nice.
http://www24.big.or.jp/~ker/log/yuccum.htm

I'd love to add to this link collection. Let me know if you find anything.

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