By When the discussion of the greatest guitar players ever arises, the same names always dominate the conversation: Hendrix. Clapton. Page. Richards. Beck. Those five rightfully sit atop Rolling Stone’s list of the best, and any discussion with a white man above the age of 40 will yield similar results. Certainly the influence of those guitarists can be felt through several decades of rock ‘n roll, and the tone and sound of those players colliding with the technical proficiency they displayed make them obvious candidates to study and mythologize (in this house, we have nothing but respect for Keith Richards).
But if you go further back in most of these lists (#74 for Rolling Stone) you’ll find Dick Dale, the “King of Surf Guitar,” who just passed away at the age of 81. While Hendrix and Clapton were widely influential, it’s hard to overstate how much Dale’s work literally defined a segment of guitar music, influencing everything from The Surfaris’ massive hit “Wipe Out” to modern beach punk like Wavves and Shannon and the Clams—I’ve even used his name as a descriptor when writing about Say Sue Me’s excellent album WHERE WE WERE TOGETHER just last year, that’s how fundamental he was to surf rock.
Running through Dale’s initial output in the 1950s quickly showcases the landscape of music at that time: rock-around-the-clock soul jams that lacked the kind of gnarly speed that he would later be known for. One of his early singles, “We’ll Never Hear The End Of It,” recalls The Platters’ soulful doo-wop, and that was a sound that he simply fell into. But with 1961’s “Let’s Go Trippin’,” often considered the first surf rock instrumental, he literally stumbled upon a sound that would change the landscape of music, creating an entire genre. The scuzzy bend in the song’s opening guitar line, and the raw funkiness of everything that followed, would go on to be the stuff of legend.
Dick Dale and His Del-Tones’ 1962 album SURFER’S CHOICE is the holy grail of surf rock. “I wanted my guitar to sound like Gene Krupa’s drums,” Dale has been quoted as saying, and that thesis is apparent from the jump, with opener “Surf Beat” frequently burying its actual drums so far back in the mix that they disappear and force Dale’s signature guitar tone to act as the actual driving force. The entire album is a collection of sounds that would go on to define surf culture until this very day—listen to “Take It Off” or “Shake ‘n’ Stomp” and recollect all the times you’ve heard that sound mimicked or parodied in displays of surfer pop culture or 1960s worship. Or do this experiment: sing the guitar part of “Miserlou Twist” out loud to someone. If you’re halfway decent at doing it, they’ll recognize it.
SURFER’S CHOICE is the blueprint. The chuga-chuga drums in “Surfing Drums,” the muddy crawl of “Death of a Gremmie,” even their take on “Sloop John B,” all cemented Dale as the architect of a west coast sound that would impact middle America in a major way (just months later he’d declare himself the best on 1963’s KING OF THE SURF GUITAR). But this was all a far cry from the ‘50s doo-wop he was upending—just compare his vocal styles on those tracks to something like “Peppermint Man,” where his imperfect, snarling howl is aggressive and passionate. Those vocals are, in many ways, Dale’s secret weapon, leading to songs that are grimier and more jagged than the Beach Boys’ perfect melodies ever were.
The sequencing on SURFER’S CHOICE is nearly perfect, a 12-song album that correctly interweaves interludes and what would become cultural hits, avoiding ever feeling stale, a kind of miraculous feat given the limited nature of the style—closing with “Let’s Go Trippin’” sends the record out on not only a high note, but acts as the sonic thesis of Dale’s career. Even though it’s now considered almost a novelty because its legacy is so comically huge, SURFER’S CHOICE was one of the best albums of the 1960s, full stop. As much as Hendrix’s sound is rightfully the stuff of legend, it’s not buried in the subconscious of an entire subculture. From SPONGEBOB to PULP FICTION, Best Coast to The Mummies, Burger Records to Islands Restaurants, Dale’s presence still rightfully looms very large—just try and listen to SURFER’S CHOICE and tell me otherwise.
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