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King Of The Surf Guitar: The Best Of Dick Dale & His Del-Tones
Dick Dale & Del-Tones
King Of The Surf Guitar: The Best Of Dick Dale & His Del-Tones
Genres: Pop, Rock
 
  •  Track Listings (18) - Disc #1

This collection rightly concentrates on Dale's instrumental exploits as the Jimi Hendrix of surf music. Nineteen sixty-one's "Let's Go Trippin'" was the first real surf instrumental, although the pyrotechnic fretwork of la...  more »

     
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CD Details

All Artists: Dick Dale & Del-Tones
Title: King Of The Surf Guitar: The Best Of Dick Dale & His Del-Tones
Members Wishing: 1
Total Copies: 0
Label: Rhino / Wea
Original Release Date: 8/29/1989
Re-Release Date: 8/4/1989
Genres: Pop, Rock
Styles: Oldies, Oldies & Retro, Rock Guitarists
Number of Discs: 1
SwapaCD Credits: 1
UPCs: 081227575625, 081227007447

Synopsis

Amazon.com
This collection rightly concentrates on Dale's instrumental exploits as the Jimi Hendrix of surf music. Nineteen sixty-one's "Let's Go Trippin'" was the first real surf instrumental, although the pyrotechnic fretwork of later Dale records is largely absent. Those divebomb runs, reverb drenchings, and impossibly quick picking displays materialize on the next single, "Shake & Stomp," then bloom on the revved-up Middle-Eastern standard "Misirlou." Dale's instrumentals generally fell into two camps: standard-progression frat blasts ("Take It Off," "Night Rider," "Mr. Eliminator") and minor-key Middle-Eastern excursions ("The Wedge," the "Pipeline"-esque "Banzai Wipeout," "The Victor," even "Hava Nagila"--which Jewish purists must have regarded as a hora of Babylon), on which his blistering technique was more likely to find its spotlight Some of his best work is found on "King of the Surf Guitar," a Duane Eddy knockoff with great vocals by the Blossoms garnished by lightning flashes of boss guitar. With all the dazzling axe-work on display (also including a beautiful 1987 duet with Stevie Ray Vaughan on the Chantays' unearthly "Pipeline"), the coolest cut here may be the sole vocal, "Mr. Peppermint Man," on which Dale's rasp oozes a concupiscent slime over the murky tale of a lollipop Lothario who "carries a little sign that says, Have some dessert." Frat rock godhead. --Ken Barnes

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CD Reviews

You Don't Know Dick
John P. Morgan | Beautiful San Dimas, CA | 12/30/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)

"I've owned this particular CD for years, but I have been kind of reluctant to review it. Y'see, to me, Dick Dale is kind of like the Tao; "the Tao that is spoken about, is not the Tao..." The Dick dale that I speak about is not really Dick Dale.



Dick Dale needs to be experienced in order to be appreciated. I can't explain his music. It's kind of primal, kind of tribal, it's kind of raw and will gnaw at your gut for hours after listening to it. It takes a "different kind" of soul to not only listen to Dick Dale, but appreciate him. This isn't said out of arrogance, it's just said out of a knowing that not everybody will like him just like not everyone likes the Mills Brothers...



Shine little glow worm...



He is truly amazing. I saw him in concert a few times, but I remember one time he was playing so fast and so furious that he broke a guitar string in the middle of a jam session. Big deal you say? What would you say if I told you he changed that guitar string while he was playing it? He had a stage hand hold the guitar, while he changed the string with his left hand and played with his right. You wouldn't even believe how thunderous the applause was after that happened.



Every time I've seen him, I've been "deaf" for days. I've never left a Dick Dale concert without somehow changing in some way. He's like a Shaman, a wizard, an alchemist. He can transform the ordinary into something pure and golden. He is truly one of the world's greatest (and most overlooked) musicians.



He is the King.



So, buy this album. It's a great little starter and after you learn to appreciate this album, go to another, and another, until you'll finally be able to say, "Wow, I really do know Dick..."



Peace and Blessings, children"
Listen to the King of the Surf Guitar.
Johnny Heering | Bethel, CT United States | 05/05/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)

"Dick Dale is generally regarded as the "father" of surf music. This CD contains 18 of his semi-legendary performances (he didn't actually have any hits). "Let's Go Trippin'" is considered by many to be the first surf record. "Miserlou" is considered by me to be the best surf record. You also get some other great recordings like "Shake 'N' Stomp", "Surf Beat", "Hava Nagila" and "Riders in the Sky". There are also a few missteps, like the vocal songs "Mr. Peppermint Man" and "King of the Surf Guitar", but overall it's a good sampler of Dick Dale's work. Recommended to fans of surf music."
Defines a genre and a generation
Thomas E. Fry | Philadelphia, PA USA | 08/29/1998
(5 out of 5 stars)

"It doesn't seem to make sense if described in words: a Lebanese-Polish kid from Boston who creates the sound of the blond California beach culture at the dawn of the Sixties with a synthesis of Gene Krupa's big band beat, minor-keyed Middle Eastern folk tunes, and the sounds he hears in the water as a tube-surfing daredevil. Makes a machine gun of the guitar, playing it in the frenzied, staccato double-picking style of the mandolin, while drenching it in reverb, a technical innovation of the day. The Sound is something every rock & roll devotee will, at once, recognize and find utterly different than anything he's ever heard. Rhythm sections tighter than James Brown's, brass as bold as Herb Alpert. This compilation traces his development through the daring, gritty "Miserlou" to the infectious "Surf Beat" on to the glistening smoothness of "The Wedge" and beyond. If you thought there was only Motown and Brill Building pop after Elvis and before the Beatles, think again. An absolute must for every serious collector."