An anachronism in its own time.

Sometimes information comes along that is tickles the trivia bone. While the information is of no great importance, it is still interesting.

I had known the song "Penetration" by the Pyramids for years. My oldest brother had recorded it off of the radio but I had no idea of the name of the song or the name of the group. All I knew was that it was a surf instrumental that sounded like someone took the staves from "Pipeline," turned them upside down, and played it.
I found out the name of the tune in about 1980 when I found a copy of the 45 while searching through the store room of the radio station where I worked.

From a musical history perspective it is a very interesting song. Much of what I now know about the song I have learned since my recent post about Digitally Extracted Stereo.
I had heard a long time ago that this was the last surf instrumental to hit high (number 18) on the Billboard chart on March 14, 1964 -- seven weeks after "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" hit number 1 and one week before "She Loves You" hit the top spot.

That Beatles connection is significant. While this video is not very clear, you can't help but noticing something about the members of the band. They seem to be the antithesis of the "long haired" Beatles. Their heads are shaved.



There is another thing about this video that may not seem of great significance today. Notice the rhythm guitar player, Willie Glover, second from the left. Surfing, and surf music, in California was a pretty lily-white affair. Glover is black. Again, nothing of great significance here, but some social-musical-historical perspective that, while of no great importance, is an ingredient of where we are today.

Hope you get a kick out of this information as much as I did.