Born Richard Anthony Monsour on May 4, 1937, in Boston, guitarist Dick Dale pushed the limits of what was possible with his instrument. Pioneering surf music and working with Leo Fender to develop entirely new equipment, his style left a mark on everyone from the Beach Boys to Jimi Hendrix to Pete Townshend of the Who. Sadly, Dale died on this day (March 16) in 2019 at age 81. Today, we’re taking a look at his far-reaching influence on the rock world.
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Dick Dale Denied He Was a Guitar Player
Growing up in Quincy, Massachusetts, Dick Dale learned piano, trumpet, and ukulele before buying his first guitar from a friend.
Of Lebanese descent on his father’s side, Dale also learned the tarabaki — or “goblet drum”, commonly featured in traditional music from North Africa and the Middle East — from his uncle. That instrument influenced his distinctive guitar playing style, particularly his famous rapid alternate picking technique, which he called “the pulsation.”
Ahead of his senior year of high school, Dale moved with his family to Orange County, California. There, he discovered his second love, surfing, and he would build his legacy at the intersection of the two.
In a 2010 interview, Dale compared the ocean’s “ferocity” to the “growl” of his instrument. “So I tell people, I’m not a guitar player,” he said. “I don’t know what an augmented ninth or thirteenth is, and I don’t give a s—. I make my guitar scream with pain or pleasure, and that’s what it does.”
[RELATED: 3 Eternal Classic Surf-Rock Songs]
“Bringing the Music to the People”
Dick Dale also made history for his collaborations with Leo Fender. The two worked together to develop new equipment capable of producing the “fat, thick, deep sound” Dale sought, including the the first-ever 100-watt amplifier. “[The] thicker the wood, the purer the sound,” he told NPR’s Fresh Air in 1993.
He is most famous for “Miserlou”, his surf-rock twist on an Arabic folk song he had learned from his own Lebanese uncles. The song gained new life after Quentin Tarantino used it in the opening credits of his 1994 film Pulp Fiction, with the soundtrack selling more than 3 million copies and landing him a 1996 Warped Tour booking.
“Every note I play is to address the people I’m playing to,” Dale said in a 2015 interview. “There’s no better feeling than bringing the music to the people.”
Featured image by Hayley Madden/Redferns
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