The Ventures: still rocking after 50 years

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Inevitably, as more Japanese pop artists adopted electricinstruments and started incorporating Western music ideas, theysought the group out, some more tentatively than others. Wilsonrecalls superstar Kayama showing up in their dressing room before aconcert just to say hello. They had no idea who this very politeyoung man was, but they knew he was a star. "The girls who wereserving us, their jaws just dropped to the floor."
Terauchi would seek the band out whenever they toured. "He foundout what train we were traveling on," says Wilson, "and in thosedays it took six hours to get somewhere that today would only take90 minutes. He would bring his guitar and sit with Nokie the wholetime, asking him how to do this and how to do that."
More significantly, the group started writing music for verypopular singers such as Oyan Fifi, Yuko Nagisa and Chiyo Okumura.Among the group's 20 No. 1 hits in Japan were at least five sung byfemale artists, all of which have become pop standards.
"We got the feel for enka (Japanese folk ballads) when we first got here," says Wilson. "Sowe started writing in that vein, but just a little bit away fromit. Then the girls who recorded our melodies put Japanese words tothem."
"We often do interviews with younger Japanese," adds Spalding, "andwhen we tell them we wrote 'Kyoto no Koi' and 'Futari no Ginza'they say, 'Really?' They know the songs but they don't know wewrote them."
Five such Japanese happen to be members of the idol group SMAP, onwhose TV show "SMAP x SMAP" The Ventures appeared last year. Whenthey found out that the band had written songs for some of their daisenpai (seniors) they asked if The Ventures would write one for them."We're still working on it," Wilson insists.
Spalding believes something elemental in The Ventures' music makesit easier for them to write and play in a Japanese pop idiom. "Oneof the characteristics of our early songs was that muffled rhythmwithin a minor key, and if you take that sound and place it in adifferent context, like traditional Japanese music played on ashamisen, it fits. There's also that plucky quality, and thephrasing is similar, too."
But while the Ventures sound is immediately recognizable, it'sdifficult to pin down. The vast bulk of the group's repertoire ismade up of other people's songs that the group has, as Wilson putsit, "Venturized." Most of the songs are rock and R&B classicsfrom the '50s and '60s, but they also tackle jazz and Fine YoungCannibals.
"We play a lot of things," says Wilson, "so when I read that TheVentures are the pioneers of surf music, I go 'What?' We were nevera surf group."
"I think the only person in the band who has ever surfed is me,"says Taylor, "and that was when I was a teen."
The band's following in its native America has never been quitewhat it is in Japan, but that could change. Last March, they wereinducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, exactly 50 yearsafter Wilson and Bogle formed the group.
"We'd been eligible 22 years," says Wilson. "This was the firsttime we were nominated."
"It was Madonna's first time to get nominated, too," adds Taylor,"and she also got in."
Since the induction, the band have been busier than ever, playingsold-out shows at Disneyland in California and a festival inQuebec, where they performed for 30,000 people. Wilson says thatbetween the band's U.S. and Japan obligations, they have no time totour Europe, where they are also in demand. They are cited more andmore by younger musicians who learned how to play by listening toVentures records — and not just on guitar.
"Billy Joel was backstage at the Hall of Fame ceremony," saysWilson, "and he told me that one of the very first songs he learned on the piano was 'Walk Don't Run.' "
As the Black Ship that opened Japan to American rock, The Venturesare owed a lot by artists who have since become frequent visitors.And because The Ventures spend so much time here, paths inevitablycross. Some years ago, they were waiting for a train in Nagoya whenWilson noticed a group of foreigners on the same platform.
"One of them comes up to me and says, 'Are you The Ventures?' And Isay, 'Yeah.' And he asks, 'Can I have my picture taken with you?' "
Wilson assented, and the man, guitarist Joe Perry, who was touringJapan with his band Aerosmith, gestured to his manager. "Come onover here and get in this picture," he yelled. "This is history."