I seem to have surf music on my mind a lot these days. Perhaps I will get over it after this heat wave ends (assume it does end). But today, I bring you “Wipe Out” off The Surfaris’ first album, Wipe Out. Nominally written by the four original members of the band, it is almost exactly the same as Barrett Strong’s song “Money (That’s What I Want).” But that’s the way with blues, and you can’t copyright a chord structure.

What’s most notable about “Wipe Out” is the very energetic drumming by Ron Wilson. But I like the whole sound of it. Too often, music gets more boring the more complex it gets. But songs like “Wipe Out” and “Wild Thing” never lose the joyousness of their purity. Here is a video mashup of various live performance, with a single live track behind it. This band includes only one of the original members of the band, Bob Berryhill. That’s his wife on the bass. I’m not sure who the others are.

But see if you don’t find yourself singing, “The best things in life are free…”