From:   "Dik de Heer" 
Date:  Sat May 4, 2002  2:47 am
Subject:  Born To Be With You : Dick Dale
 
DICK DALE (By Shaun Mather)

Born Richard Monsour, 4 May 1937, Boston, Massachusetts

A beach version of Link Wray, Dick Dale was the king of the surf guitar
whose music has been given a new lease of life thanks to its use in movie
soundtracks (Pulp Fiction, Space Jam), national commercials (Domino's Pizza,
Mountain Dew) and on tv (Friends, Star Trek Voyager). His music was an
eclectic mix of driving rock (thanks to oodles of reverb) and Latin rhythms.
He hit with Miserlou and Let's Go Trippin' (# 60) and other highlights are
Peppermint Man and The Scavenger. Recent times have seen him back in the
limelight thanks to the soundtracks and a well organised re-issue programme
of his back catalogue. He played a right handed guitar, left handed, years
before Jimi Hendrix, and it's told nicely on the offical DD website, "He
met Leo Fender the guitar and amplifier Guru and Leo asked Dale to play his
newly creation, the Fender Stratocaster Electric Guitar. The minute Dale
picked up the guitar, Leo Fender broke into uncontrolled laughter and
disbelief, he was watching Dale play a right handed guitar upside down and
backwards, Dale was playing a right handed guitar left handed and changing
the chords in his head then transposing the chords to his hands to create a
sound never heard before."

Recommended listening:
King of the Surf Guitar: The Best of Dick Dale - Rhino
Website: http://www.dickdale.com