A Tribute to Dick Dale – Legendary “King of Surf Guitar”

A hero on guitar and a hero in life…
Once in a blue moon (or two), a guitarist comes along that not only has a profound impact on the way the instrument is perceived and enjoyed but also raises the bar. One such rarity was Dick Dale — an amazing lefty axman, deservedly known all over the globe as the “King of Surf Guitar.” Armed with a gold-painted Fender Strat, a deft talent for creating catchy, high-octane Middle Eastern–flavored staccato riffs and licks, and a (very!) healthy dose of cranked reverb, Dick raised the aforementioned bar high — very high.
Sadly, Mr. Dale left us for the pipeline in the sky on Saturday night, March 16, 2019. He was 81 years young.
Dick was born in 1937 in Boston, Massachusetts, as Richard Anthony Monsour. In 1954, his family relocated to Orange County, California, where the musical teenager began surfing. “There was a tremendous amount of power I felt while surfing and that feeling of power was simply transferred into my guitar,” Dick later revealed. Surf culture aside, there were three other pivotal influences on his unique, game-changing 6-string style:

First is the fact that his father’s family was Lebanese: a heritage that introduced him to the sound of Middle Eastern music and the Arabian scales, which infused his instantly recognizable playing.
Second, in addition to playing a number of instruments as a youngster, Dale was a percussionist. His uncle taught him to play the tarabaki — a Middle Eastern goblet (shaped) drum. And the energetic, staccato style of the skin-beating jazz giant drummer Gene Krupa had a profound impact on Dick’s often fast ‘n’ furious rhythmic approach to playing guitar. “Rocket-attack, Gene Krupa rhythm on the guitar” is how our late, great subject once described his rapid-fire picking style to NPR (National Public Radio).
Last and certainly not least, the left-handed youngster taught himself how to play an upside-down right-handed guitar without restringing it for a lefty. As a result, he literally played with the strings the wrong way around — so the low E string (the thickest one) was nearest the floor. As Dick later revealed, nobody told him he “was holding it wrong!” So that’s how he learned to master the instrument, and it was definitely a major factor in the creation of his signature 6-string style.

In the early 1960s, Dick started putting on popular “surf stomp” * shows in Newport Beach, California, and his first album, Surfers’ Choice, was self-released on his own Deltone label in 1962. Capitol Records was quick to pick the record up for national distribution, and Dick’s so-called “signature-single,” a short, sharp, fiery, reverb-drenched instrumental entitled “Misirlou,” quickly created quite a wave (awful pun intended!).

*Trivia Note 1: According to Matt Warshaw’s The Encyclopedia of Surfing, the Surfer Stomp is an up-tempo, “irresistible foot-stomping dance step created in 1960, almost certainly at Dick Dale’s early ‘surf stomp’ shows.”

The mesmerizing melody of “Misirlou” ** was Dick’s high-voltage, up-tempo interpretation of an old Middle Eastern song of the same name that one of his Lebanese uncles used to play on an Arabic lute-like instrument called the oud.

**Trivia Note 2: According to reliable sources found via “The Googles” (© Henry Rollins), “Misirlou” is a Greek pronunciation of the Turkish word “Misirli,” which apparently means “Egyptian girl.”

In 1963, Dick’s second album was released by Capitol, and it was titled King of the Surf Guitar, in honor of the nickname his growing multitude of fans had crowned him with.

In addition to being the father of surf guitar, Dick’s penchant for combining aggressive picking, thick strings, and cranked-to-the-max amps caused some folks to dub him the Father of Heavy Metal too. He also blew up many amps as a result of his high-decibel demands. In fact, in his foreword to John Blair’s book, The Illustrated Discography of Surf Music, Dick penned the following: “…I blew up and destroyed countless amplifiers and speakers, which ultimately led to the creation of the 100 watt [Fender] Dual Showman [amp]. Leo [Fender] would always say to [Fender amp designer] Freddie [Tavares]: ‘If it can withstand Dick Dale’s barrage of punishment, it is ready for human consumption.’”
Sadly, at the height of his success, Dick was diagnosed with cancer in the mid ’60s. He fought it and won. After that battle, he had to combat other health issues and financial misfortune too. In fact, when he collaborated with the late, great Stevie Ray Vaughan in 1987 on a Grammy-nominated version of the Chantays surf rock classic “Pipeline,” he was reduced to living in an RV parked at his parents’ place.

Being the trooper he was, though, Dale persevered and continued to play. Then in 1994, both his career and fame were upped considerably when “Misirlou” was used during the opening credits of Quentin Tarantino’s huge hit movie: the classic, Pulp Fiction.

Two decades after his first battle with cancer, it returned, but Dale continued to fight and perform with plainspoken openness and inspirational optimism. He revealed in the press that due to the high cost of both medical supplies and insurance, he literally had to continually perform shows in order to finance his survival. As he told a newspaper in 2015: “I can’t stop touring because I will die. Physically and literally, I will die…I have to perform to save my life.”
In keeping with his uplifting drive, Dick had several concerts already scheduled for this summer at the time of his passing…
Not surprisingly, when Dick Dale passed this weekend, there was a tremendous outpouring of love, reverence, and respect from fans and peers the world over. Perhaps the most pertinent star salute came from one Dr. Brian May, guitarist of Queen, who penned the following: “RIP Dick Dale — Father of the Surf Guitar. We all owe you. Rock on. Bri.”

Dick Dale will not only be remembered and revered for his ferocious, fiery fretwork but also for his fearless fight against one of life’s most fearsome foes — a deadly disease. To that end, he was a true hero both on and off the stage.
Sweetwater’s sincerest condolences are with Dick’s family, loved ones, friends, and countless fans all over the world.
Rest in peace, Mr. Dale. Thank you for your pipeline of groundbreaking guitar.
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