Friday, March 06, 2015

Brian Carman, R. I. P.

The Orange County Register: You probably don’t know Brian Carman’s name today, if ever you did. But odds are good that you do know his most famous riff, that rapid-fire burst of sound that flew from Carman’s fingers and the strings of his guitar, turning the instrumental “Pipeline” into one of the most legendary hits of surf music and transforming the Chantays from five Santa Ana teenagers barely old enough to shave into the brightest stars of pop music for a brief period as 1963 arrived. 

Carman, who was 69, died Sunday, said Bob Spickard, who co-wrote the “Pipeline” with Carman and continued to play with him in the Chantays off and on until a year or two ago.

2 comments:

Fred Blosser said...

The trivia books say that "Pipeline" was written in 1962 and originally titled "Liberty's Whip," homage to Lee Marvin's quirt in "The Man who Shot Liberty Valance," until two of the members saw a surfing film. Peaked on Billboard at #4, April 6, 1963. Great music.

mybillcrider said...

Great trivia, too.