Pipetruck

by Don Redondo

Take one:

If you don't surf, you may not really know what the old song "Pipeline" is all about. It is a surfing spot on the north shore of Oahu Hawaii that is STILL known as one of the heaviest waves on earth. First named the "Banzai Pipeline" by Mike Diffenderfer in the late 50's or early 60's; it used to be considered too gnarly to ride. Huge waves break over a shallow, and really sharp, reef forming really hollow, almost perfect, cylinders (hence the name pipeline). Even though the other spots on the north shore were being challenged and even ripped on the old long boards by the early 60's...Pipeline was considered too hollow and dangerous to ride. Finally a guy named Phil Edwards rode it, but the first guy to really rip it was Butch VanArstdalen from La Jolla California...known for a few gnarly reefs of its own.

Well, you cannot really appreciate a song, without knowing where it came from so there is 1/3 the story. Pipeline was first recorded by the Chantays in the 60's and remains one of the all time classic surf songs.

Fast forward to the early 80's where my friend Nick was showing me some songs on the guitar. After picking up on some wierder unknowns like "Andy Warhol" by David Bowie Nick could not figure out how I did not know how to play Pipeline. "Jeez, everybody knows that one, and you surf for chrissakes! It's simple - here, let me show ya..."

Take 2:

When we first started JFA, one of my favorite bands was(and still is)the Dead Kennedys. I listened to "Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegtables" over and over. About that same time, there was a single out called Police Truck. Well, Police Truck sounds a lot like Pipeline except there are way gnarly lyrics and some cool single note guitar fills with an Echoplex (echo effect for the guitar). More than just the song, there is a mental image I have of being in Frisco (they hate it when you call it that) in the early 80's and hearing stories of police abuse. You would see the white plice vans all over, and according to my friends, you did not want to be a hooker, bum, punk or skater in those days. Nothing like getting whisked off the street and getting the crap beat out of you. Listen to some old Kennedys some day; I highly reccomend it!

Take 3:

When I first moved to Arizona in '79, I was driving down the Interstate 10 (in the middle of nowehere) and saw these huge pipe sections right next to the road! This was the holy grail of skate spots! I have skated bigger pipes since (turns out there is a size limit to how big you can make the sections so the biggeest tubes are formed in the ground) but there was something magical about those sections. It reminded me of the old photos I had seen of skaters riding the sections and then the assembled downhill runs that they formed. In those old articles there was a picture and some text of a giant pipe mover that would drive inside the individual sections and pick its middle up, supporting the pipe, and move it into position in line with the others. Believe it or not, these giant pipes will collapse under their own weight unless handled/moved properly. I never personally saw one of the trucks, but I knew they were huge and they were out there somewhere lumbering around like some giant insect.

Take 4:

The first song JFA ever played back in May '81 was a song called Pipetruck. We combined Pipeline with some of the guitar parts in Police Truck and most importantly played it really fast with a tight stop/break/start. The other versions of Pipeline I have heard since then are more distorted and/or somewhat true to the original (thinking Johnny Thunders/Agent Orange). My idea was either blow the doors off...or take all of the distortion out of the amp and play it clean with a ton of reverb. For this particular song...we went the "blow the doors" route. Funny thing, since we always credited the writer, even when we mashed two songs together, I always thought the words were Jello Biafra and the music was East Bay Ray. Turns out Jello wrote the whole thing...cool song Jello!