As baby boomers grew up in the 1950's, they were fascinated by the experiences of their older siblings. The ones who were too young to go to war, yet, because of the war, had a very unusual childhood & adolescence.
The post war period saw these new "Young Adults" adopting new lifestyles - the original Hippies and modern music; either Jazz or Folk. Basically rebelling against the previous generation.
So, while we were still teenagers, the life style that became known as the west coast lifestyle was something we aspired to; even we in Britain. Maybe I am stretching it too far to say Britain, it was probably more a case of being centred in London.
It began with Surfing and Surfin' music then the marketers needed to move up an age cohort and looked to Drag racing and muscle cars. Both of these interests were reflected in our musical fancies:
Surfin' Safari; Wipe-out; lots more surf based themes, then, Little Deuce Coupe; Shut Down; Hey. Little Cobra. (Mind you, there was nothing little about the Cobra. It was a beast of a motor. If you had kept your 1965 AC Cobra, you could probably get $2 Million for it now!)
Strangely enough, the record companies thought there was a market for albums of Drag Racing Sounds. The first one, "The Sounds of the Big Drags" actually sold over 100,000 copies! It led to follow ups specializing on the different Drag Racing categories, such as Nitro burning dragsters.
Above are some of the albums we were intrigued by in that era.
