HIP CHECK: The King of the Surf Guitar
As mentioned in my previous post, I attended the Dick Dale show at the Viper Room on June 2. Simply. Blown. Away. The man is 81 years old and can still bring it. Here is video I took of his opening number, polished up a bit. Notice how he overcomes an out-of-tune guitar with notable musical grace. I’d see him again in a heartbeat!
That night’s set included these songs, though because of my bad memory (and no notes), they are not listed in order:
- The Wedge
- Miserloo
- Let’s Go Tripping
- House of the Rising Sun
- OutSurfers Stomp
- Amazing Grace
- Ghost Riders
- Fever
- When the Saints Go Marching In
- Java Nagila
- Nitro
- The Eliminator
Among a great many other topics, Dick talked that night about meeting Jimi Hendrix back in the day. He said Hendrix was very humble when they met and that he was a good guy “till he fell in with the wrong crowd.”
Dale noted that Colonel Tom Parker expressed an interest in managing him and the DelTones but that Parker worried that it would take time away from Elvis.
He talked about his guitar rig a bit (almost too much inside baseball) and that Leo Fender was “like a second father” to him.
While in Vegas once, backstage at the Golden Nugget, Liberace told Dale’s father that “your son’’s going to be famous someday.”
He noted that for a brief while, Buddy Holly actually opened for him (that totally blew my mind).
He’s self taught in harmonica, trumpet, guitar, piano and bass, and that Don, the bass player for the evening, was the last surviving member of the DelTones.
He mentioned playing the Whisky early after it first opened and the space now called the Viper Room back when it was a hangout for LA mobsters.
At one point an audience member shouted out a request for the song “The Wedge,” about the famous Huntington Beach surf spot. Dale thought about it for a few seconds and then said, “I’m gonna rehearse it real quick right here then I’m gonna play the shit out of it!” He softly worked out the chords and did indeed play it as described.
Should you be interested, I’ve found that the ENTIRE SHOW from that night is available on YouTube. Go figure.