"Dick
Dale don't surf no more, and that's that pal."
Dick
Dale is one of those guys that can comfortably fit into the
role of a legend. His guitar playing is so signature that
it can be easily picked out from the rest of the pack and
his music is usually synonymous with the surf culture of the
60's. I was actually surprised that he no longer surfs but
after he told me why I didn't blame him. A few years back
his leg became infected while surfing. After coming within
twelve hours of having his leg hacked off, he found out that
it was due to mercury and other poisons that are beginning
to dominate our oceans. Instead of surfing, Dick Dale and
his wife Jill are committed to snowboard as much as they possibly
can. Due to a hook up with Nitro, (he wrote a song with the
same name in honor of his wife's board) he should have no
problems this winter. Dale lives at his ranch in Twenty Nine
Palms, CA where he also maintains his own landing strip for
his airplane and takes care of his wide assortment of animals
which include horses to African lions and Bengalese tigers.
His philosophy on life ties in very closely with his relationship
to his animals, especially in regards to respect for nature
and the power that it can generate. Dale's training in the
martial arts injects an eastern philosophical bend on things
which is probably the reason why he left me with this nugget
'O' knowledge and discipline:
" To experience
is to know, to know is to understand, to understand is to
tolerate, to tolerate is to have peace."
As
Kung Fu as this may sound, if a lot more people could experience
different things they would understand and tolerate others
in a peaceful manner. Unfortunately this is not the case.
But that is a whole different can of worms...
To
see Dick Dale live is a different experience. I had no idea
what to expect when I went. As I waited outside in the rain
there were all kinds of people trudging into the warm theater.
I saw the white picket fence families with the kids in tow
to the downtown types (I guess this acts as a label to avoid
using labels). Anyway, the show was fucking killer. There
was no big stage thing going on and there was definitely no
Hawaiian Punch flower shirt thing going on either, just a
four piece band (including his three year old son Jimmy "Stix"
Dale on a small drum set) that rocked with heavy reverb. Seeing
him play was so rad because his style is so unorthodox. He
plays left handed and keeps his strings (BIG FAT ONES) strung
as if it were still for a right hander. Fuck, he plays them
upside down. While he was playing I noticed that he kept giving
his picks out to the audience but I also noticed that the
picks were about shredded in half, sometimes within one song.
As I looked down at his feet I saw pieces of ground plastic
on the floor. I swear to god this guy was burning through
picks like fucking cord wood. When I asked him about this
curious phenomenon he told me that because his strings are
so large (14 gauge high E to 60 gauge low E) and his style
of playing is so hammering that it is not uncommon for pick
meltage. "Yeah, sometimes I'll look down at my strings and
they have a black and blue tint to them from heating up."
Pretty crazy shit.
Dick
Dale is a guy with a lot to say, definitely enough to fill
up a few pages which is why he also writes a column called
Pissed Off and Pissed On in a music rag called Music Confidential.
If you get a chance to see Dick Dale, check it out, it might
be a chance to see someone who can carry a some music history
and still dust off a lot of the younger acts out there today.
Dick
Dale is one of those guys that can comfortably fit into the
role of a legend. His guitar playing is so signature that
it can be easily picked out from the rest of the pack and
his music is usually synonymous with the surf culture of the
60's. I was actually surprised that he no longer surfs but
after he told me why I didn't blame him. A few years back
his leg became infected while surfing. After coming within
twelve hours of having his leg hacked off, he found out that
it was due to mercury and other poisons that are beginning
to dominate our oceans. Instead of surfing, Dick Dale and
his wife Jill are committed to snowboard as much as they possibly
can. Due to a hook up with Nitro, (he wrote a song with the
same name in honor of his wife's board) he should have no
problems this winter. Dale lives at his ranch in Twenty Nine
Palms, CA where he also maintains his own landing strip for
his airplane and takes care of his wide assortment of animals
which include horses to African lions and Bengalese tigers.
His philosophy on life ties in very closely with his relationship
to his animals, especially in regards to respect for nature
and the power that it can generate. Dale's training in the
martial arts injects an eastern philosophical bend on things
which is probably the reason why he left me with this nugget
'O' knowledge and discipline:
To
see Dick Dale live is a different experience. I had no idea
what to expect when I went. As I waited outside in the rain
there were all kinds of people trudging into the warm theater.
I saw the white picket fence families with the kids in tow
to the downtown types (I guess this acts as a label to avoid
using labels). Anyway, the show was fucking killer. There
was no big stage thing going on and there was definitely no
Hawaiian Punch flower shirt thing going on either, just a
four piece band (including his three year old son Jimmy "Stix"
Dale on a small drum set) that rocked with heavy reverb. Seeing
him play was so rad because his style is so unorthodox. He
plays left handed and keeps his strings (BIG FAT ONES) strung
as if it were still for a right hander. Fuck, he plays them
upside down. While he was playing I noticed that he kept giving
his picks out to the audience but I also noticed that the
picks were about shredded in half, sometimes within one song.
As I looked down at his feet I saw pieces of ground plastic
on the floor. I swear to god this guy was burning through
picks like fucking cord wood. When I asked him about this
curious phenomenon he told me that because his strings are
so large (14 gauge high E to 60 gauge low E) and his style
of playing is so hammering that it is not uncommon for pick
meltage. "Yeah, sometimes I'll look down at my strings and
they have a black and blue tint to them from heating up."
Pretty crazy shit.