The other day I was waiting around in a doctor’s office for a check up after being exposed to several people who’d had strep throat. I figured that rather than waiting, I should simply head on up to the doc’s office and make sure I’m not gonna come down with strep as well. While I was in the waiting room, I flipped through a recent GQ magazine, and who should I see gracing one of the pages but Dick Dale himself!

Many people in this generation were exposed to Dick Dale’s music through the movie Pulp Fiction, and this helped bring surf rock of yesteryear back into the social consciousness. I simply thought now would be a great time to pay homage to the “King of Surf Guitar.”

The story of Dick Dale (aka Richard Anthony Monsour) is one of legend. He was an amateur surfer from California who wanted to recreate what he heard in his head while surfing. For those who’ve been fortunate enough to explore his catalog at length, this contribution helped change the face of music over the course of a generation.

Photo: Bigger Picture Images

Dale’s extensive use of reverb helped characterize the particularly wet sound of his guitar work and his playing style is quite unique as well. Because he was a left-handed player he was forced to play a right-handed guitar; however, he didn’t restring the guitar like other left-handed legends. He simply reaches over the fret board when he needs to hit a particular chord.

Some people call Dick Dale the “father of heavy metal” because of his use of high wattage amplification, heavy gauge strings, and his uncanny ability to set small amps on fire from overdriving them. Many may dispute this fact, but his early shows are most definitely the stuff of legend.

As Mr. Dale nears his seventy-second birthday, I suggest we all pay homage to this innovator whose popularity was cut short by the British Invasion in the early sixties. Pick up King of the Surf Guitar or any of his albums and give it a spin. You’ll be adrift in the sea of Dick Dale’s creativity and riding those cerebral waves in no time.

This post was contributed by Holly McCarthy, who writes on the subject of the fast paced online college. She invites your feedback at hollymccarthy12 at gmail dot com