long live the king of surf guitar

i love surf music.  i've been listening to it for as long as i've been listening to punk rock.  indeed, i came to know the heavy reverb & rapid fire pickings of dick dale thru another band, agent orange who covered dale's version of 'miserlou' on their lp living in darkness.  but then again, i discovered the ventures by another skate punk band, jfa, who covered 'walk don't run' on an early lp.  so what the hell. . .

however, but so it was dick dale who created the sound of surf music.  his guitar playing is legendary.  now the king is dead at the relatively late age of 81.  that's a nice run of time.  i wish it was more.  in fact, mi brother in this life & art, jonathan hayes, told me that dale was slated to play in santa cruz in august.  dale was a prolific performer.  he seemed to be always on tour. 

i got to see dick dale perform once.  a few years ago, at the california state fair dale was playing his guitar solo before a crowd of about a 100 people.  i am surprised his guitar didn't catch fire from the friction of his pick.  i bought a signed cd of his greatest hits. 

below is dale performing 'swingin' and a-surfin' a relatively rare song with dale on vocals.  it's not the greatest tune by dick dale but i love it because it is in one of my favorite genres of drive-in movies: beach films.  the movie is beach party [1963].  beach movies & surf music are of course a natural pair.  they go together like peanut butter & jelly. 

dig