Layers of Identity in the 1960s Surf Rock Icon Misirlou

Abstract

Misirlou1 is widely recognized as an icon of surf rock, a category that, together with surf pop, constitutes the surf music genre that emerged in 1961. Surf music reflected and gave expression to the rather short-lived idealistic and carefree existence of ‘white’ urban youth culture in Southern California before the social and political changes of the psychedelic, conscience-ridden counterculture era took hold. However, while Misirlou is an iconic example of a specific musical age and genre, it is also found in other ages and cultural traditions. It has been described as a Lebanese belly-dance melody, a popular Greek song, an Arabian serenade, a ‘Terkisher’ (Turkish piece) in Klezmer repertoire, and is now known to many as the theme from the film Pulp Fiction. In each case, the style and language of lyric (when there is one) adjusts to milieu, but the melody is always recognizably the same. The journey of Misirlou from folk music to the global surf rock idiom of the 1960s is in itself a narrative worth recounting, but the fact that this singular piece of music simultaneously inhabits more than one musical tradition also provides a springboard for exploring broader claims of musical identity.