Jeff's "More Enthusiasm Than Talent - Full Length Tunes" Page

Jeff's
"More Enthusiasm Than Talent" Page

My Recordings

*The "Studio" The recording engineer is taking a break on the futon.*

These are full length mp3 files, a high speed connection, or a little patience is required

Walk - Don't Run
1050k Bass and Drums tracks were taken from a midi file found at John Walker's Ventures midi file web page. The Rhythm and lead tracks are performed by me. Editing and mixing were performed with Pro Tools Free from Digidesign. The orginal version was written by jazz guitarist Johnny Smith in 1955. The Ventures 1960 version was based on Chet Atkin's rendition.
The Ventures co-founder, Don Wilson (left), and me

Harlem Nocturne
883k All instrument tracks, except the melody track (played by me), were taken from a midi file found at John Walker's Ventures midi file web page. I edited out a key change, to shorten the overall length. Editing and mixing were performed with Pro Tools Free from Digidesign. The orginal jazz version was written by Earle Hagen in 1940.

Apache
1510k The drums, bass and arrow sounds were taken from a midi file found at John Walker's Venture's midi file web page. All the guitar parts are performed by me. I used my 12-string for the rhythm guitar part. Editing and mixing were performed with Pro Tools Free from Digidesign. Inspired by Burt Lancaster's 1954 movie of the same name, "Apache" was written by British composer, Jerry Lordan in 1960. The British band, The Shadows' version was an international hit except in the US, where the popular version was recorded by Danish guitarist Jorgen Ingmann. I hadn't played it since the 60's, but was inspired to relearn it after recently hearing "Surf Guitar" pioneer Paul Johnson play it with The Surfaris and acoustically with the The Chantays bass player, Gil Orr (The "Duo-Tones"").

The Wedge
1103k Paul Johnson has me hooked on "Surf Music". This is my cover of The Duo-Tones rendition of Dick Dale's "The Wedge", from their "Plugged in and Live" CD. The Duo-Tones are comprised of Paul Johnson (currently with The Surfaris (Wipeout)) and Gil Orr, currently with the The Chantays (Pipeline)). Together, they play the old "surf" hits without bass or drums, sometimes on acoustic guitars. I've been completely obsessed with learning this since I first heard them play it at a small house concert last summer. It's been a bear for me to learn and record.. I think it would take me 6 more months to get better at it, so here it is, with apoligies to (Paul, Gil, and Dick). Recording Info: I recorded this without an amp, using the Pro Tools Free multi-track recording/editing software, I played my Carvin Bolt guitar connected directly to the mixer section of my Tascam 414MkII Portastudio (with a Carvin FX-2 effects processor in the send/return loop), and the portastudio connected to my computer. There are 4 tracks: One rhythm, two lead (they are the same, but the second one fills in any notes I missed on the first one ;-) and one track with a few small fills. There was also initially a kind of funky percussion track that I use as a metronome for timing when I recorded the rhythm track, but I deleted if from the final mix.

Mr. Moto
1112k Getting this web page into the Cowabunga Web Ring, and seeing Paul and Gil perform last night has inspired me to record and upload "Mr. Moto". Paul Johnson wrote "Mr. Moto" when he was 14 years old. According to SurfHistory.com, "Mr. Moto" was the "first surf hit recorded by a surf band".

Paul Johnson (standing on the right) watching The Chantays perform "Mr. Moto".

True Detective
1513k This is not a surf tune, actually, I don't know what genre it falls into. One day I was playing some chords on my guitar, and I thought to myself, "this sounds familiar". I realized that it kind of sounded like an instrumental played by one of my favorite local guitarists, Pat O'Brien (not to be confused with the actor or broadcaster of the same name). I got out his CD, and found it was a tune written by him, called "True Detective". I figured out how to play the basic riff, but the rest of the tune was beyond me. Pat recently taught me how to play the rest of it. I really don't do it justice, but if I did, I'd have to change the name of my web page. The kind of quivering sound on my version is the result of accidentally having the "chorus" effect active on my effects processor ... it sort of "works", so I left it that way. The drum track was synthesized with the "Drumz Wizard" software.

Pat performs with his trio, "The Priests of Love", Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at the First Cabin in Arcadia, California, just east of Pasadena. I highly recommend stopping in to see a show.

Rumble
1183k "He is the King; if it hadn't been for Link Wray and Rumble, I would have never picked up a guitar." -- Pete Townsend (The Who).

Like "Walk Don't Run" and "Harlem Nocturne", this is not a surf tune, but it's played by many surf bands. When I heard it played by "The Duo-Tones" at David Zink's house concert, I thought I was hearing it for the first time, yet it sounded familiar. Probably because this simple tune can be found on several movie sound tracks, including Pulp Fiction and Independence Day. It came into being in 1958, when Link Wray was performing at a dance. Someone requested that he play a "stroll" (a line dance popular at the time). He didn't know any, so he improvised the tune that was to become known as "Rumble", so named because the record producer's daughter said it reminded her of the gang war scene in West Side Story. The tune was banned from air play in several markets because it was thought to glorify gang warfare. At the time it was recorded, guitar amplifiers were designed to sound very clean. In order to give "Rumble" a distorted sound, Link poked pencil holes in his amp's speakers. No speakers were harmed for my recording. The drums and bass tracks in my recording were taken from John Walker's Ventures midi file web page.

I took these pictures of Link Wray performing at the City Of Glendale, CA Cruise Night Street Fair - 7/16/05

Link passed away on November 5, 2005. The Glendale peformance was his last.
I took a short video of him playing Rumble that night, and put it on a page I'm developing for my video clips.
You can link to it here.

Pipeline
2148k

Pipeline
785k
Shorter, more
compressed
version
for dial-up I had to record this to go along with the picture below :-)
Learning to play this 1963 Surf tune was once a rite of passage for young aspiring rock guitar players. Pipeline was written by two (then) 17 year old high school students, Bob Spickard and Brian Carmen of the Chantays. I play all the guitar parts in my recording, and the drums were again "borrowed" from John Walker's Ventures midi file web page.
I made the organ sounding chords by playing my 12-string through a flanger pedal.

This is a big file. If you have a dial-up connection, you might want to download the shorter Lo-Fi version.
Me (left), and "Pipeline" creator, Bob Spickard, of The Chantays

An obviously much cooler picture taken a year later

Nokie's Tune aka Spudnik aka Surfrider
1625k
This tune was written by Nokie Edwards, best known as a member of the instrumental group, The Ventures. They referred to it as "Nokie's Tune". When it was recorded for the The Ventures album, "Mashed Potatoes And Gravy" it was recorded as "Spudnik" (Yes "SPUD" like a potato ). The tune was later covered by Jim Masoner, and his surf band, The Lively Ones. They called it "Surfrider". This is the version that is played during the closing credits of the movie Pulp Fiction. This is the name that stuck, and even The Ventures renamed it "Surfrider" on later albums. "Mashed Potatoes And Gravy" was renamed "The Ventures Beach Party".
In my rendition, I "borrowed" the bass and drum tracks from a midi file sequenced by Don Walker. I play the rhythm and lead.

Nokie Edwards (left), and me

Me and Jim Masoner (right)

Penetration
2046k
Penetration, covered by many surf bands, was orginally recorded by The Pyramids, one of the last surf groups of the 60's.
Once again, I "borrowed" the bass and drum tracks from a midi file sequenced by John Walker. I play all the other parts.

You can read more about The Pyramids, and the band member that missed the Penetration recording session here.

Journey To The Stars
2373k
Journey to the Stars is a Ventures tune that was popular with surf bands in the 60's.

Once again, the bass and drum tracks are courtesy of John Walker.
The Shuttle launch is courtesy of NASA
I play everything else.

Click Here for More Of My Tunes

Gil Orr (left), Me (center), and Paul Johnson

Another treasured picture of me with Paul and Gil

Me and orginal Surfari, Jim Fuller (playing Wipeout on the right)

Home My Hard Rock Cafe Guitar Pins Guitar Stuff My Guitar Effects Pedalboard My Carvin Pickup Sound Samples jeff_leites@yahoo.com

Walk - Don't Run 1050k	Bass and Drums tracks were taken from a midi file found at John Walker's Ventures midi file web page. The Rhythm and lead tracks are performed by me. Editing and mixing were performed with Pro Tools Free from Digidesign. The orginal version was written by jazz guitarist Johnny Smith in 1955. The Ventures 1960 version was based on Chet Atkin's rendition. The Ventures co-founder, Don Wilson (left), and me
Harlem Nocturne 883k	All instrument tracks, except the melody track (played by me), were taken from a midi file found at John Walker's Ventures midi file web page. I edited out a key change, to shorten the overall length. Editing and mixing were performed with Pro Tools Free from Digidesign. The orginal jazz version was written by Earle Hagen in 1940.
Apache 1510k	The drums, bass and arrow sounds were taken from a midi file found at John Walker's Venture's midi file web page. All the guitar parts are performed by me. I used my 12-string for the rhythm guitar part. Editing and mixing were performed with Pro Tools Free from Digidesign. Inspired by Burt Lancaster's 1954 movie of the same name, "Apache" was written by British composer, Jerry Lordan in 1960. The British band, The Shadows' version was an international hit except in the US, where the popular version was recorded by Danish guitarist Jorgen Ingmann. I hadn't played it since the 60's, but was inspired to relearn it after recently hearing "Surf Guitar" pioneer Paul Johnson play it with The Surfaris and acoustically with the The Chantays bass player, Gil Orr (The "Duo-Tones"").
The Wedge 1103k	Paul Johnson has me hooked on "Surf Music". This is my cover of The Duo-Tones rendition of Dick Dale's "The Wedge", from their "Plugged in and Live" CD. The Duo-Tones are comprised of Paul Johnson (currently with The Surfaris (Wipeout)) and Gil Orr, currently with the The Chantays (Pipeline)). Together, they play the old "surf" hits without bass or drums, sometimes on acoustic guitars. I've been completely obsessed with learning this since I first heard them play it at a small house concert last summer. It's been a bear for me to learn and record.. I think it would take me 6 more months to get better at it, so here it is, with apoligies to (Paul, Gil, and Dick). Recording Info: I recorded this without an amp, using the Pro Tools Free multi-track recording/editing software, I played my Carvin Bolt guitar connected directly to the mixer section of my Tascam 414MkII Portastudio (with a Carvin FX-2 effects processor in the send/return loop), and the portastudio connected to my computer. There are 4 tracks: One rhythm, two lead (they are the same, but the second one fills in any notes I missed on the first one ;-) and one track with a few small fills. There was also initially a kind of funky percussion track that I use as a metronome for timing when I recorded the rhythm track, but I deleted if from the final mix.
Mr. Moto 1112k	Getting this web page into the Cowabunga Web Ring, and seeing Paul and Gil perform last night has inspired me to record and upload "Mr. Moto". Paul Johnson wrote "Mr. Moto" when he was 14 years old. According to SurfHistory.com, "Mr. Moto" was the "first surf hit recorded by a surf band". Paul Johnson (standing on the right) watching The Chantays perform "Mr. Moto".
True Detective 1513k	This is not a surf tune, actually, I don't know what genre it falls into. One day I was playing some chords on my guitar, and I thought to myself, "this sounds familiar". I realized that it kind of sounded like an instrumental played by one of my favorite local guitarists, Pat O'Brien (not to be confused with the actor or broadcaster of the same name). I got out his CD, and found it was a tune written by him, called "True Detective". I figured out how to play the basic riff, but the rest of the tune was beyond me. Pat recently taught me how to play the rest of it. I really don't do it justice, but if I did, I'd have to change the name of my web page. The kind of quivering sound on my version is the result of accidentally having the "chorus" effect active on my effects processor ... it sort of "works", so I left it that way. The drum track was synthesized with the "Drumz Wizard" software. Pat performs with his trio, "The Priests of Love", Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at the First Cabin in Arcadia, California, just east of Pasadena. I highly recommend stopping in to see a show.
Rumble 1183k	"He is the King; if it hadn't been for Link Wray and Rumble, I would have never picked up a guitar." -- Pete Townsend (The Who). Like "Walk Don't Run" and "Harlem Nocturne", this is not a surf tune, but it's played by many surf bands. When I heard it played by "The Duo-Tones" at David Zink's house concert, I thought I was hearing it for the first time, yet it sounded familiar. Probably because this simple tune can be found on several movie sound tracks, including Pulp Fiction and Independence Day. It came into being in 1958, when Link Wray was performing at a dance. Someone requested that he play a "stroll" (a line dance popular at the time). He didn't know any, so he improvised the tune that was to become known as "Rumble", so named because the record producer's daughter said it reminded her of the gang war scene in West Side Story. The tune was banned from air play in several markets because it was thought to glorify gang warfare. At the time it was recorded, guitar amplifiers were designed to sound very clean. In order to give "Rumble" a distorted sound, Link poked pencil holes in his amp's speakers. No speakers were harmed for my recording. The drums and bass tracks in my recording were taken from John Walker's Ventures midi file web page. I took these pictures of Link Wray performing at the City Of Glendale, CA Cruise Night Street Fair - 7/16/05 Link passed away on November 5, 2005. The Glendale peformance was his last. I took a short video of him playing Rumble that night, and put it on a page I'm developing for my video clips. You can link to it here.
Pipeline 2148k Pipeline 785k Shorter, more compressed version for dial-up	I had to record this to go along with the picture below :-) Learning to play this 1963 Surf tune was once a rite of passage for young aspiring rock guitar players. Pipeline was written by two (then) 17 year old high school students, Bob Spickard and Brian Carmen of the Chantays. I play all the guitar parts in my recording, and the drums were again "borrowed" from John Walker's Ventures midi file web page. I made the organ sounding chords by playing my 12-string through a flanger pedal. This is a big file. If you have a dial-up connection, you might want to download the shorter Lo-Fi version. Me (left), and "Pipeline" creator, Bob Spickard, of The Chantays An obviously much cooler picture taken a year later
Nokie's Tune aka Spudnik aka Surfrider 1625k	This tune was written by Nokie Edwards, best known as a member of the instrumental group, The Ventures. They referred to it as "Nokie's Tune". When it was recorded for the The Ventures album, "Mashed Potatoes And Gravy" it was recorded as "Spudnik" (Yes "SPUD" like a potato ). The tune was later covered by Jim Masoner, and his surf band, The Lively Ones. They called it "Surfrider". This is the version that is played during the closing credits of the movie Pulp Fiction. This is the name that stuck, and even The Ventures renamed it "Surfrider" on later albums. "Mashed Potatoes And Gravy" was renamed "The Ventures Beach Party". In my rendition, I "borrowed" the bass and drum tracks from a midi file sequenced by Don Walker. I play the rhythm and lead. Nokie Edwards (left), and me Me and Jim Masoner (right)
Penetration 2046k	Penetration, covered by many surf bands, was orginally recorded by The Pyramids, one of the last surf groups of the 60's. Once again, I "borrowed" the bass and drum tracks from a midi file sequenced by John Walker. I play all the other parts. You can read more about The Pyramids, and the band member that missed the Penetration recording session here.
Journey To The Stars 2373k	Journey to the Stars is a Ventures tune that was popular with surf bands in the 60's. Once again, the bass and drum tracks are courtesy of John Walker. The Shuttle launch is courtesy of NASA I play everything else.