Dick Dale
Dick Dale
Dick Daleis an American surf rock guitarist, known as The King of the Surf Guitar. He pioneered the surf music style, drawing on Eastern musical scales and experimenting with reverberation. He worked closely with Fender to produce custom made amplifiers, including the first-ever 100-watt guitar amplifier. He pushed the limits of electric amplification technology, helping to develop new equipment that was capable of producing distorted, "thick, clearly defined tones" at "previously undreamed-of volumes." The "breakneck speed of his single-note staccato...
ProfessionGuitarist
Date of Birth4 May 1937
CityBoston, MA
You know, music is sex. It's a sensual driving mode that affects people if it's played a certain way.
Music is an attitude. It's a sensation to the average person, to the human being. And keep it simple, stupid. That's always been my theory.
People just loved the sound because I kept it simple.
My son now is 22 months old, he's been playing since he was 12 months old and he gets standing ovations on the drums. He's been with us since he was 10 weeks old, he's been on the drums. He's got blisters on his fingers before he can even talk.
I'm constantly being influenced by the soul that's directly in front of me.
When I start playing I'm just a rollercoaster of sound. I don't know what's coming next, I never do, and I sit and sign and talk to the people afterwards.
I became stereotyped.
I'll never die. I'll just explode, right there before your eyes, onstage.
I always felt people should live with animals.
I almost had to have my leg amputated because of an infection.
I met Leo Fender, who is the guru of all amplifiers, and he gave me a Stratocaster. He became a second father to me.
I can play every instrument there is, every horn, I've played all the saxes and trumpets and everything and keyboards.
Every time I went into the studio some engineer tried to impress me with how they're going to capture my sound with all kinds of tricks. But they limited the sound and never allowed me to play how I felt.
Every song is like a painting.