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Dick Dale

DICK DALE
 
 
Dick Dale  (born Richard Anthony Monsour on May 4, 1937) is an American surf rock guitarist, known as The King of the Surf Guitar.  He pioneered the surf music style, drawing on Eastern musical scales and experimenting with reverberation.  He worked closely with Fender to produce custom made amplifiers, including the first-ever 100-watt guitar amplifier.  The “breakneck speed of his single-note staccato picking technique” as well as his showmanship with the guitar is considered a precursor to heavy metal music, influencing guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen.  (More from Wikipedia)
 
 
One of the albums that caught my eye was The Piltdown Men by the Piltdown Men, an instrumental rock band from a full half-century ago.  Hallmarks of their recordings are twin saxophones, booming kettle drums, and real nice guitar figures that range from Duane Eddy-style “twang” to early surf guitar a la Dick Dale.  The recordings are still highly enjoyable, having a playful flavor without being juvenile at all.
 
(October 2010)
 
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Back in junior high, I was really enamored with Jan & Dean (not so much with the Beach Boys, but I liked them also), and the various other one-hit wonder surf rock bands of that time period.  I loved the hot rod songs and the surfing songs and all the cool lingo about woodies, shooting the curl, shutting someone down, etc.  I didn’t know about the harder edged surf rock that was out there – e.g., Dick Dale – and it might have held my interest better if I had.  But in retrospect, the surf music that I knew then was nothing but fun, and I have a lot of fond memories of it all.
 
(July 2011)
 
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The back cover of The Silencers by the Silencers shows a flame-encircled dragster with the quote:  “Link Wray & the Ventures rolled into one big ball and heaved through Dick Dale’s living room window!!!”  Referring to that quote, Richie Unterberger in Allmusic says:  “It’s not as mind-bending as that description would have you believe, but it’s a very respectable 1990’s surf revival effort, with excellent chops and a good sense of menace.  Of their three cited influences, Dick Dale is definitely the biggest, as Eric Toth’s banzai guitar leads amply demonstrate.” 

 

(December 2014)