Dick Dale, the guitar player and singer-songwriter known as “the King of the Surf Guitar,” has died. Dale’s live bassist Sam Bolle confirmed the news to The Guardian. He was 81. A rocker whose career bloomed in the early 1960s, Dale toured into the end of his life despite “excruciating” pain stemming from numerous health problems (including rectal cancer, kidney failure, diabetes, and damaged vertebrae). He had tour dates planned throughout 2019.
Dale was born Richard Monsour in Boston to a Polish mother and Lebanese father. In the late 1950s, he picked up surfing and subsequently decided to create a guitar sound that invoked the feeling of the sport. Dale’s staccato picking technique, use of reverb, and implementation of Middle Eastern and Eastern European melodies defined his sound.
He’s widely credited for inventing the surf guitar genre. Dale also worked with Leo Fender to develop the first 100-watt amplifier—a necessity given how many amplifiers he destroyed from playing at excessively high volumes. Dale’s most famous work was the song “Misirlou,” which director Quentin Tarantino famously used in the opening credits of Pulp Fiction.
Dale once said in an interview that he wanted to die “onstage in an explosion of body parts.” He continued:
