Nokie Edwards gone....

[Ritchie200]

Nokie Edwards, whose guitar playing in the Ventures helped define surf rock and earned the group a place in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, died on Monday. He was 82 years old.

"Nokie Edwards passed away today after several months battling an infection after hip surgery this past December," says a statement on the band's website. "The Ventures family feels this loss very deeply: Nokie has been part of the Ventures' history for almost six decades and helped to shape the early Ventures' sound and the success of their career."

The Ventures hit Number Two in 1960 with the propulsive classic, "Walk Don't Run." Even though the single was an instrumental, it was so successful that the band recorded a new version in 1964 that also became a top 10 hit. The band scored another major hit four years later when their brassy theme for the police procedural Hawaii Five-O reached Number Four. The Ventures released three gold-certified albums – The Ventures Play Telstar and the Lonely Bull, Golden Greats and Hawaii Five-O –and at one point they had five albums in the top 100 simultaneously.

Edwards was born in 1935 in Lahoma, Oklahoma. He began playing a variety of stringed instruments at a young age. He connected with Bob Bogle and Don Wilson in Tacoma, Washington in 1958 and they went on to form the Impacts. This band eventually morphed into the Ventures. Edwards, who started as the group's bass player, took over as lead guitarist in 1961.

Through the rapidly shifting pop landscape of the Sixties, the Ventures persevered and released multiple albums a year. Edwards tried his hand at a solo career, but rejoined the group in 1973 before leaving again in 1984. His contributions to the Light Crust Doughboys' 20th Century Gospel and Southern Meets Soul albums earned him Grammy nominations in 2005 and 2006.

In addition to his music career, Edwards had an occasional sideline as an actor, appearing in the HBO drama, Deadwood. Edwards also wrote "Surf Rider," which reached a new audience when Quentin Tarantino used the Lively Ones' version of the song in his classic film, Pulp Fiction.

Edwards' guitar work influenced a generation of players, including John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival, who inducted the group into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. "It is my honor to introduce the Ventures," Fogerty said in 2008, "and every guitar player on this planet knows what I'm talking about."

Rolling Stone

 

[DummyLoad]

RIP. 

[sluckey]

Sad to hear that. The Ventures were a major influence on my humble music experience.

[tubenit]

I have good memories of listening to a Ventures vinyl LP that I had in the early teen years.  I don't think it was even stereo but was hi-fidelity?

Jeff

[Platefire]

Oh My! Spent a many hours by a record player with my guitar in hand replaying the guitar parts over and over until I got it. All my Venture albums were skipping because of that. One Big early influence that got me excited about guitar. Thanks Nokie and fellow Ventures! Platefire

[sluckey]

Oh My! Spent a many hours by a record player with my guitar in hand replaying the guitar parts over and over until I got it. All my Venture albums were skipping because of that. One Big early influence that got me excited about guitar. Thanks Nokie and fellow Ventures! Platefire

Me too!

[EL34]

Yeah, sad day

Nokie was a awesome player

The Ventures were not really a surf band, but they did do a few surf tunes

I classify them more as just a guitar instrumental band
They could play a bunch of different styles of music
And invented some style

The Ventures in space album had some really cool stuff that does not fit into any category
The ventures is where I got most of my love for guitar instrumental tunes

My parents belonged to the RCA record club and had a bunch of Ventures albums
They were always blasting away on our big stand alone tube amp console record player

[shooter]

All my Venture albums were skipping because of that

I didn't play, but their music just resonated so much with me I wore out albums doing homework, day-dreaming.....

[Platefire]

This warrants a little reflection. Now days I almost forget how engrossed in the Ventures I was back in the early 60's. I eventually started pulling away in the late 60's with the British Invasion and I started playing more with other musicians but----they had a permanent influence that carries on to this day.

I recall spending a whole summer out of school summer break, not working but hanging around the house alone with the Ventures "Surfing" album in a Louisiana backwoods small town dreaming of being on the beach, girls and guitars---wasn't to sure about surfing:>) Had a Mongomery Ward Guitar(see Pix) running through a Silvertone 1482 amp.

The Album "The Ventures" I use to look at that cover of those guitars and dreamed of the day that I would be rid of my Mongomery Ward Guitar and have a real Fender guitar and amp. So that is the main reason I have a 50's RI strat(see pic) very much like the one on the front of that album. Funny the first good guitar/amp I got was actually a Jazzmaster(just like on the cover) and a Gretch Variety amp.

So yeah, Nokies death brings back a lot of fond memories and big dreams rolling through my head back then. The Lord finally brought me just where I need to be
and I'm thankful for that. Platefire