Surf’s Up! Grab Your Guitar, Soldier!: ITOW with Ralph Fatello

Ralph Fatello began his 75th birthday in July by going surfing. Then he celebrated at an outdoor Hampton restaurant
with at least a hundred of his family and friends. That’s how many copies of his autobiography he sold at the Snack Shack that day. 

When the line to sign copies finally slowed down, Fatello said a few words and then strapped on a guitar to play Jimi Hendrix’s “Little Wing” and a few other songs. His outfit included a T-shirt promoting the book: “Don’t Ever Buy a F-ing Monkey.”

The Marine veteran briefly owned a monkey named JoJo, an epic fail in Fatello’s bid to befriend the hip crowd upon his return from Vietnam. Fatello bookends his massive tome with stories about the unpredictable primate, with a cliffhanger chapter in the middle.

Along the way, Fatello recalls his extraordinary journey, beginning with his childhood in Massachusetts, including the time his dad called him from outside to watch a surfer on TV — an image in 1963 almost as alien to Fatello as seeing a man walk on the moon.

Ralph Fatello signs copies of his book at the Snack Shack in Hampton in July. Photo by Martha Lardent

“Seeing surfing for the first time set me on a course that would change my life, much like hearing the Beatles for the first time, and seeing John Wayne in the ‘Sands of Iwo Jima’ did,” Fatello writes. “I knew from that moment on I was going to be a surfer. And a rock ‘n’ roller. And a Marine.”

From watching “Bewitched,” Fatello also knew he wanted to be a commercial artist like that show’s character, Darrin Stevens.

He would become all of those things, as well as a husband and a father of three children. You can’t blame Fatello for taking 600 pages to tell you his life story: Every chapter is another adventure. From 1974 to 2023, he led three Boston-based rock bands, beginning with Vinny, which released four singles and a full-length album co-produced by Cars drummer David Robinson. Vinny opened for a number of national acts, including The Police, but never broke out beyond New England. Meanwhile, with his wife, Cory, the Art Institute of Boston graduate supported his family — which would grow to include a son and two daughters — by creating Adlantic, an advertising agency. He did most of his rock band gigs at night.

Fatello’s love of surfing extends to photography and painting. His Hampton home features a gallery of images created by both him and his friends. Some feature Fatello riding a big one. (There are no selfies in surfing.) He also is an avid upland bird hunter, a sport that involves pointing dogs.

Fatello recalls the chilly reception veterans received when they returned from Vietnam in the early 1970s, and he has long supported programs to help fellow veterans. Through the annual Hit the Beach, Fatello has taught wounded veterans how to surf. He served for 13 years as commander of American Legion Post 35, leading an effort to erect the Global War on Terrorism monument in Hampton to honor New Hampshire’s fallen heroes.

For “Don’t Ever Buy a F-ing Monkey,” Fatello culled from his long-running surf blog, “Ralph’s Pic of the Week,” launched in 2004. Over the years, the weekly entry at ralphspic.com has morphed into a venue for Fatello to write about his many passions and to promote local events. (In a recent post, Fatello says he has attended the Hampton Beach Comedy Festival every year since comedian Jimmy Dunn founded it 17 years ago.)

In December, Fatello will serve as the grand marshal for the Hampton Christmas parade, an honor he also received 20 years ago. 

During a recent visit, we got to check out Fatello’s music room, where drums and guitars were waiting for the next jam or songwriting session. But that only happens when the waves aren’t calling him to the beach. And around here, those moments are precious.

“When it happens, you have to be able to drop everything,” he says. “If you’re a surfer in New England, you have to have a flexible and understanding boss and an understanding wife or husband. It’s such a short window.”

New Hampshire Magazine: Surfer. Guitar player. Bird hunter. Photographer. Painter. Graphic designer. You have a lot of interests and skills. How do you draw your identity from all of that? 

Ralph Fatello performs with his nephew, Jesse Joseph, during the book signing event. Photo by Martha Lardent

Ralph Fatello: Of all the things I do, I think photography and writing. I’ve had a blog for 22 years. Sam George, who was the editor of Surfer Magazine, the bible of surfing, is a good friend of mine. He said, ‘Ralph, you have the longest running surf blog in the world. Nobody is doing what you’re doing with this surf blog.’ 

NHM: Tell me about the title of the book and why, of all the things in your life, you chose to lead with that one.  

RF: I’m in the advertising business … and being a songwriter, I know a hook when I see one, when I write one. The monkey was seven months out of my life, just seven months. But I thought it was a great title.

NHM: How long did you take to work on the book when you decided you were going to write it?  

RF: Over the last 22 years, I wrote a lot of stuff in blog posts, so I could draw from them. What took me so long when I finally decided I’m going to write this book was I went through every blog for 20 years. That took me a year, two years, alone.

NHM: This the first time I’ve ever heard of a book that is heavier and longer in paperback than it is in hardcover. You had to shave some pages out. Did you just take out blogs or did you just go through it and trim?  

RF: I was trimming with a chainsaw. It was hard going from 1,300 pages to 600 pages (for the original softcover edition). And then it was going from 600 pages to 500.

NHM: Was that cost-driven or format-driven?  

RF: As a writer, you go back and you read your stuff, and you read it and read it and read it. Then some things start popping out. Who cares about this? You know, take this out. Some people would care, but not the general audience. If I were to rerelease it, I would go to 400 pages. I would take out more. 

But I’m genuinely surprised when people write to me — and I’ve gotten a lot of people texting me from all over the country, all over the world, people in Ireland and people in Canada, that are reading it — and saying how much they enjoy it. 

And they get it … the funny, the humorous, the intense stuff of the Marine Corps and Parris Island and Vietnam … the monkey stuff is both funny and terrorizing … and they get the emotional stuff.  I wear my heart on my sleeve when I lose a friend or lose a loved one.

NHM: You’re playing Skee-Ball, and you won a whole bunch of tickets. They have high-end prizes. You can choose a surfboard or a guitar.   

RF: That’s a tough one. I’d probably grab the guitar. I’ve been playing the guitar since 1963. I still write songs. I wrote a song this week about Cory called “I’m Glad I Found You.” I thought that was a great title. It’s this love song.