Skateboard Bill

This is the Skateboard Bill single by surfing icon Corky Carroll. He retired from the professional surfing circuit in 1972 at the age of 24, about the same time he began his recording career. The engineer on this session was none other than future Surf Punk and member of Johnny Rad’s house band, Dennis Dragon. Dennis handled soundtrack and audio effects in the early Bones Brigade videos. On top of that, he lives in Oregon now. I might go stalk him.

The b-side of this record is supposed to contain a track called Pocket Rocket, but the copy I received appeared to be a special promo copy in blue vinyl with two copies of the a side. As a result I don’t know if Pocket Rocket is skateboard related or not. The cover was illustrated by another iconic figure, Rick Griffin, most famous as a psychedelic rock poster illustrator, but also known as one of the underground comix artists. Griffin had comics published in surfing and skateboarding publications in the 60’s and 70’s as well. MC is has paid homage to him on a couple occasions. You’ll notice the Christian symbolism on the bottom of Skateboard Bill’s board. According to Wikipedia, Griffin experienced a life changing adoption of Christianity in 1970. This record was released in 1977.

So how does it sound. Well it’s like bad 70’s country top 40 exploitation that verges on Disco. It’s horrible.