‘King of the Surf Guitar’ Dick Dale’s ‘Best Of’ album kicks off with the familiar strains of ‘Miserlou’, which was reintroduced to the world in the 90’s when included in the Pulp Fiction soundtrack. More recently, The Black Eyed Peas sampled it for their hit ‘Pump It’. This album takes you through hits such as ‘Let’s go Tripping’ and ‘Surf Beat’ as well as some more obscure tracks and a collaboration with Stevie Ray Vaughan. The CD also includes the coolest version of Hava Nagila I’ve ever heard!
The songs are so short (rarely reaching 3 minutes) that even thought it’s a mainly instrumental album it holds your interest. Some of the ad-lib lyrics are very cool – the vocal on Shake N’ Stomp sounds like Cheech from the Cheech and Chong movies. The music of Dick Dale is very positive and fun. The recordings have a real grit to them; the guitars are sometimes slightly out of tune, the drums have a great live sixties funky psychedelia groove to them and there are some really dirty brass sounds. The more modern ‘HMFIC’ lacks this feel and has a colder sound to it to my ears, although I am in no doubt that it works well live. There is some really furious energy on tracks like ‘Nitro’ which makes me want to pick up my guitar and crank it up! The artwork shows an old photo of Dale in a sharp 60’s suit. Nowadays, with his black leathers and headband, he looks like a bad guy from a Tarantino movie!
On ‘Third Stone From the Sun’, Dale pays homage to Jimi Hendrix (they both played left handed, upside down strung Fender Stratocasters); “Jimi. I’m still here. Wish you were.” Dale’s first Strat’ was given to him by Leo Fender himself, along with a series of 49 amps which Dale proceeded to destroy by consistently pushing them beyond their limits. Eventually Fender produced an amp so powerful it could withstand Dale’s punishment. The enormous sound he produced earned him the title ‘Father of Heavy Metal’. Part of his big sound is the ridiculously heavy strings he uses: 16p, 18p, 20p. 38w, 48w, 58w...they use to be 39w, 49w, 60w.....he says he's getting lazy now. Dale is also a martial arts expert, pilot, archer and exotic animal trainer! A real original, may he tour the UK soon.
The CD is released on Shout Factory on Monday, 14th March 2011.
www.dickdale.com
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