King of the Surf Guitar

Dick Dale and His Del-Tones

album cover

Riding the Waves

The rapid-fire staccato blasts and careening slides that electrify these songs were not in the guitar vocabulary until a surfer kid of Polish and Lebanese descent, Richard Monsour, put them there. Monsour, rechristened Dick Dale by a music-biz impresario, created the first surf-guitar instrumental in 1961 ("Let's Go Trippin'") and during the subsequent "craze" proved to be the key trailblazer in terms of tricks and techniques to make the guitar go zoom. His repertoire of sounds and crazy wipeouts have been emulated by guitarists ever since.

Dale got his start in California, playing at a Newport Beach ball-room, the Rendezvous, after his father obtained the proper permits to allow teens to congregate and dance (one stipulation: the boys had to wear ties). The guitarist acquired a reputation for playing at extreme volumes, and putting on a show that drove kids crazy. Dale was an avid wave rider, and when he began to connect those passions—writing music that emulated the charging rush of waves in motion—he hit upon a sound that, along with the songs of the Beach Boys, mythologized surf culture.

This collection begins with Dale's early trailblazing singles, as well as adaptations that are far from surf music. Using half-step melodies and exotic Middle Eastern scales that he heard growing up, the guitarist and his band, the Del-Tones, conjure a world where everything, even "Hava nagila," can be amped way up. Country fans won't want to miss his treatment of "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky," while any-one who loves a good chase should seek out "Miserlou," Dale's galloping masterpiece.

Genre: Rock
Released: 1995, Rhino
Key Tracks: "Miserlou," "Let's Go Trippin'," "Surf Beat"
Catalog Choice: Surfer's Choice
Next Stop: The Ventures: Walk, Don't Run: The Best of . . .
After That: Jan & Dean: The Little Old Lady from Pasadena
Book Pages: 202–203