King of the Surf Guitar

Last week was a milestone for me. My son turned 40-years-old…gasp! How did this happen? I now have a child who has reached the forth fifth decade of his life and I swear, it happened in the blink of an eye.

When I spoke with him in the afternoon and he told me his plans for that evening, I had just about the same reaction his friend Nikol had on her face that night…

Your doing what? Your seeing who? Your kidding?

That is soooooo cool!

Friday, February 4, 2011

Venue: The Brixton Club in Redondo Beach, California

Dick Dale in Concert

Dick Dale at The Brixton. Photo credit: My son.

Yep, my son, along with friends and cousins went to see Dick Dale. For those who don't know, Dick Dale invented surf music in the early 60s and is the undisputed King of the Surf Guitar. Dale received the Guitar Legend award from Guitar Player Magazine, one of only three awarded in the last forty years. Yea, the man has some killer chops!

For those who weren't on the beach scene in the 60s, you'll probably know Dick Dale's hit Misirlou as the theme song for the movie Pulp Fiction (1994), starring John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson.

My daughter's favorite movie of all time, btw.

Now the last time I saw Dick Dale live was before my son was even born! Here's what the band looked and sounded like back in 1963 in the movie A Swingin' Affair…

Then…

Dick Dale's iconic album Surfers' Choice. The cover of this album was shot at
the San Clemente Pier by SURFER Founder John Severson.

and now…

Photo of Dick and Jimmy Dale at Fender guitar booth at the 2011 NAMM show in Anaheim.
Credit: Fender Musical Instruments Corp.

In a 2010 interview, Dick was ask: Can you speak more about the connection between music and surfing?

"The rhythm that you get is the same thing. The rhythm in that water – nothing comes close to that. Nothing. The rhythm of a beautiful glassy wave matches the rhythm of playing music on an instrument and not only that, but the ferocity of Mother Nature’s ocean is the same thing when you hear my guitar growl…The ferocity when you just get into a gnarly wave that just wants to chew you up and spit you out – that’s my guitar when it starts getting angry. So I tell people, I’m not a guitar player. I don’t know what an augmented ninth or thirteenth is, and I don’t give a shit. I make my guitar scream with pain or pleasure, and that’s what it does."

One of my favorite answers was to this question: If you could give your fans some advice, what would it be?

"If I could convince everybody to go surf, I would. Your body follows your mind…And I tell you, there’s nothing more exciting than dropping in on a glassy wave and seeing a school of fish or a porpoise following you. You can’t buy that. That’s better than any drug. Any bottle of booze."

You can read the entire interview at SurferMag.com.


So, as far as I'm concerned, I can handle having my son turn 40, when he celebrates by going to see someone who had such a huge influence on my life as a young beach gal and whose music brings back great memories of my youth.

Photo credit: Royce Degrie


Dick Dale the night he was inducted into The Musicians Hall of Fame
in Nashville on October 14, 2009.


Dick Dale — King of the Surf Guitar!