Zero to 180 has been working tirelessly to determine who recorded the final surf song of the original era and when.  Two previous posts (A and B) featured a pair of surf tunes from 1967 that seemed to spell the end of surf’s first wave.   But then I was recently startled to recall a 45 by The Turtles I had acquired a couple years ago – “Surfer Dan,” B-side of “Eleanor” from their concept album, The Turtles Present the Battle of the Bands:

This is undoubtedly the first surf song whose lyrics include the word “Maharishi.”

Is it possible that, in “Surfer Dan,” The Turtles have to come to bury surf music, not praise it?