Checkered Flag was Dick Dale and His Del-Tones’ third studio album, and second in 1963 alone. It was also his first foray into “hotrod rock,” a theme fellow SoCal surf-rockers (and rivals to Dale) the Beach Boys were dabbling in. They released Little Deuce Coupe at the same time as Checkered Flag, and that album marked the third record that year, for the Brothers Wilson, and the second in just two months’ time. Wave after wave (pun completely intended) of surf and car music coming out of Los Angeles in the early 60s meant just one thing—record executives knew how fickle the young intended audiences’ tastes were and they wanted to get records sold as fast as possible before the next trend arrived. Teenagers of the early 60s were making money for themselves and were looking to spend it on the goods made just for them.

October of 1963 is the high water mark of the age of optimism and promise for the United States that followed World War II.  Within two months John F. Kennedy, the young president who embodied the hope for the 1960s, would be killed.  American involvement in Vietnam would escalate soon afterward, and that war would transform society and culture for years to come. On the pop culture front, Southern California, would soon be overshadowed by visitors from across the other US ocean.  Southern California had represented the upbeat, sunny feel of the decade and given the country its movies, TV shows, and Disneyland, as well as a soundtrack courtesy of the Beach Boys and Dick Dale.  All of these products of California would lose their spotlight thanks to the Beatles and the subsequent British Invasion.

Checkered Flag, therefore, is an indispensable last hurrah of an era.

-Eric Salmonsen, EPS