Rest in Peace: Dick Dale--King of the Surf Guitar

Dick passed away today.

Story: californiarocker.com...


It is a sad day on my planet

a reply to: TheTruthRocks

I didn't know his name but I know this song, I just don't where from.



RIP Dick Dale

ETA Was it a Quentin Tarantino movie that used this song?

That tune was used by Quentin Tarantino in the soundtrack of his film Pulp Fiction.

I belive it was a pulp fiction.
Rip DD.
That peace of music is priceless.

a reply to: TheTruthRocks

Interesting.
Looks like he played as a lefty with a left handed guitar restrung upside down.
He must have learn to play on a right handed guitar.

That's right.

There are quite a lot of leftys that play like this (plain strings on top and fat strings at the bottom).

A few names you may recognize that play guitars strung in this manner include Albert King, Bobby Womack, Otis Rush, Coco Montoya, Glen Burtnick, and Doyle Bramhall II. Bassist Jimmy Haslip plays bass like this too.

a reply to: TheTruthRocks

That was my mistake in teaching myself the guitar. I picked up a guitar book and the images that it had, showing which strings and frets to use was pointed vertically. Being left handed I took it and put my fingers from my right hand on the strings and tipped the guitar to the right instead of the left. This seemed a natural thing to do as I had no real coordination or strumming ability in my right are as I did in my left, being left handed.

I got pretty good but after about three years realized that I had basically my thumb and pointer finger to play the high notes or where the melody would be played and basically wasted three fingers down on the bottom where only one or two would be used regularly.

It's not a mistake!

You can play a guitar any way you like.

If you know about altered tunings--many players use them exclusively, so a typical chord diagram doesn't work for them at all.


I've always wanted to learn left-handed piano

a reply to: TheTruthRocks

I lived in 29 Palms and used to see him around the town getting gas with his wife/manager. Shook his hand more than once. Cool guy. Awesome guitarist

originally posted by: LightSpeedDriver
a reply to: TheTruthRocks

I didn't know his name but I know this song, I just don't where from.

RIP Dick Dale

ETA Was it a Quentin Tarantino movie that used this song?

The band at my high school used to play this song during games ages ago.

RIP sir

a reply to: TheTruthRocks

Much respect to Mr. Dale! You will be missed. There are people out there that don't even realize that they have been influenced by his style. Such a bad ass guitarist.

originally posted by: Tundra
a reply to: TheTruthRocks

Much respect to Mr. Dale! You will be missed. There are people out there that don't even realize that they have been influenced by his style. Such a bad ass guitarist.

Count me among those lol. Listening to it, just realized it has been part of my life's background music and it is amazing. I was just not aware at the time but those sounds are magical < 3

An original to say the least.

One James Marshall Hendrix also played lefty on a right handed guitar. That is whycome people can play Jimi's music and not sound like him.

Dick Dale you will be missed! What an awesome pick hand he displayed! Oft imitated but nobody was like Dick Dale!!

If Dick Dale is compared to many modern players, he was not nearly as technically proficient.

But we have to remember the 1950s/1960s were a different time: the electric guitar was still a fairly new thing in popular music and people were inventing new sounds and new applications. Django Reinhardt, Les Paul and Mary Ford, Dick Dale, The Ventures, and Link Wray (among a few others) were the first guitar heroes. When you saw them with a guitar hanging from their shoulder, you wanted to BE them.

Link Wray was not very technically proficient, but what he lacked in speed and articulation--he more than compensated for that in attitude and groove. Wray paced the stage like a caged leopard and could wring sounds out of his guitar that were wonderful and scary at the same time.

True rock and roll is not about how-many-notes-per-minute. It's an attitude and lifestyle. It's about breaking the mold. You can play a single note and be a total badass. Wray is the Godfather of Punk Guitar.

Another perfect example of this is Jimmy Wilsey, guitarist on Chris Isaak's tune Wicked Game: he was the king of "slow" and he was a real badass. He passed away three weeks ago ( R.I.P. Jimmy

Dick Dale was a huge influence in the development and popularization of the 'surf sound'. He also worked closely with Leo Fender to develop larger, louder amplifiers (the Fender Showman and Dual Showman) in the days when a 20-watt amp was considered loud. This was years before Jim Marshall would copy the Fender Bassman, flip it upside down, add two more power tubes and beefier transformers, and establish The British Sound of rock and roll.

And the rest is history.

THANK YOU Dick Dale for all the wonderful music.

So sad. A good friend of mine played in his band for years. Dick Dale spanned generations and made music that will endure for many years to come. Exactly in his time & ahead of his time all wrapped up in one. A true visionary.