Merrell Fankhauser is one of the most important and unheralded musicians in America today. For thirty years Merrell has been composing music and releasing lots of records, both on his own and with various groups such as the Impacts, the Exiles, Fapardokly, HMS Bounty, MU and Fankhauser/ Cassidy Band.

Merrell has had a hand in defining nearly every style of rock music from surf, folk-rock and country-rock to psychedelic and alternative. Merrell is also the originator of a little surfin’ song you may have heard, named “Wipe Out”. Yep, his group the Impacts recorded their version way before the Surfaris did. Today, Merrell continues to record and play live. His new album is titled RETURN TO MU and is available directly through Merrell's Website. This interview was conducted in January of 2000 for my upcoming book, The Time It Is Today: L.A. and the Birth of Rock Music (1965-68).

JP: From what I’ve been able to ascertain, your introduction to the L.A. music scene came via the Impacts and surf music. What was your relationship with the other West Coast surfing groups of the time? Was it a close-knit scene?

MF: We played on double and triple bills with many surf bands at shows and dances. Name a band and we probably played a gig with them. The Impacts were the house band at the Rose Garden Ballroom from ‘62 to ’63. It was the biggest auditorium on the Central California Coast, right in between L.A. and San Francisco. Every band you can think of played there. It held about 1,500 and was packed every weekend! I once got a guitar lesson from Nokie Edwards of the Ventures. We backed Jan and Dean, Brenda Lee, the Isley Brothers, the Coasters and many others. Some surf bands were friendly, others were not.

JP: Many L.A. musicians of the era cite the release of the movie A HARD DAY’S NIGHT as a pivotal juncture in the way rock music and rock musicians were perceived. What was its impact on you at the time?

MF: A HARD DAY’S NIGHT and the Beatles changed everything. All of a sudden in 1964 surf music wasn’t cool anymore. You had to change styles or sink!

JP: How did your involvement with the Impacts evolve into the Exiles and then Fapardokly? Did your progression from surf to a more folk-rock sound mirror other groups like the Surfaris?

MF: I don’t think the Surfaris ever progressed. (Ed. note-- They did, briefly, and were actually the first L.A. band to record “Hey Joe” in a version they gleaned from David Crosby.) I quit the Impacts near the end of ‘63 and moved to the desert area of Lancaster (CA) where I met a young 14-year old guitar player named Jeff Cotton, and we formed the Exiles and put out several singles from 1964 to 1966. Then Jeff joined Captain Beefheart’s band. We recorded at a little studio in Palmdale and lots of tracks with various musicians ended up on the shelf. The desert area was a hotbed of music where bands like Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart, the Exiles and later Fapardokly originated. Most of the members of those bands were constantly playing musical chairs. When I was young I lived in Louisville, Kentucky, where I experienced first hand a lot of raw Delta style blues, and in California a lot of country and folk. I always sang, so by ‘65 I had my own blend of styles.

JP: I have yet to hear it, but by all accounts the Fapardokly album was incredibly far-out by 1966 standards. How did your record company react to the album when it was submitted initially?

MF: I wouldn’t say the Fapardokly LP is “far-out” like a lot of sixties’ psychedelic records that were really exercises in extended guitar solos. The Fapardokly has a deep and ahead-of-its-time song styling, drawing on many things from different eras and melding styles that hadn’t been done yet! It has an undefinable charm that is very unique. The tracks were put together from ‘64 - ’66 which shows the thread that leads from one style to another... I didn’t even realize how different it was till almost twenty years later I listened to it and it blew my mind! The record company just took the tracks off the shelf from the tiny studio, thought they were very interesting and put it out, not really knowing what they had! Good thing, because if they had thought about it, it may have not gotten released.

JP: What is the meaning of/ behind Fapardokly?

MF: Fapardokly was taken from the first initials of the last names of the band members at the time. FA- Fankhauser, PAR- Parrish, DO- Dodd, KLY- Dick Lee.

JP: Who were your friends in the music scene at this time? You mentioned knowing Zappa from the high desert...

MF: There were many musician friends from the desert: Jeff Cotton, Randy Wimer, Don Van Vilete (Captain Beefheart), Zappa, Greg Hampton, Don Aldridge, Mark Thompson, Jeff Parker and many more.

JP: Around the end of 1967 when H.M.S. Bounty first started playing gigs, you got a job writing tunes for a publishing company working alongside Harry Nilsson. What’s your recollection of this experience? Did you get any songs recorded by other acts?

MF: Yes, I worked in a little office near Vine Street in Hollywood writing songs. I met Harry Nilsson through an arranger George Tipton who arranged Harry’s songs and many other rock bands’. I got songs recorded by the Copa Cabana Trio (“Things”) and some by a group called the Spats and one by Spanky and Our Gang, but I don’t think it came out. I was around when the Beatles first called up Harry Nilsson and told him how they admired him! He got this call late one night from Paul McCartney. Harry didn’t believe it was him and hung up! Then a few minutes later he got a call, and the voice said “This is John Lennon. Don’t hang up!” The next thing we knew, Harry was off to London visiting the Beatles, and as they say the rest is history.

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