Somewhere around 1960, the film Gidget had made it's rounds and found it's way into baby boom psyche, Southern California was swept by a tidal wave of surfing culture. An indigenous music emerged that would become known as Surf Music and has grown into a global phenomenon.
"Sound Of The Surf" celebrates the story of Surf Music and will soon be available on DVD. For more information visit www.soundofthesurf.com
This is the video I show to people when first introducing them to surf rock guitar. I wish I could like this more than once. Total badassery going on here!
I lived it...Hot rods and surfing... Beach Bunnies and bikini hunnies, it was the best time to alive and free... California was the place to be... Newport Beach, the wedge... Huntington Beach (aka, Surf City).... surf culture, tiki island... the music was fun and totally represented my generation.
It was great to find this video of Dick Dale in his later years, and to finally learn more about the history of the Rendevouz Ballroom. I started surfing the Newport / HB area in 1959 and was lucky enough to be a regular at the Rendezvouz, saw Dick and the DelTones play every weekend and was really bummed out when it later burned down. When he was playing at Harmony Park, I used to tell my parents I was going to “Youth Fellowship” at our church, then we would drive to Harmony to hear him play. As I recall, Harmony was a much more uptight "inlander" crowd, with drunken fights in the parking lot. I was told that Dick and Jimi Hendrix did the early testing on the first Fender electric guitars, and that they both played their instruments upside down and backwards! Dick would occasionally surf with us at Dana Point, before the harbor was built. It was a wonderful time and place to grow up!
Even garage bands that I played with did surf music on the east coast.If you have Sirius XM they have a surf music channel which proves surf music is not dead. Rip Dick Dale.
I grew up thinking that The Beach Boys were real “surf music”. It wasn’t until I was a young adult that a friend from Santa Cruz educated me on what real surf music was! These dudes shred!
Just getting into Dick Dale. Been playing music and rock all my life, various bands, drums, piano. I find his story incredible. -moves to California at 17 -Middle Eastern musical background, which introduced middle eastern scales to rock -the most awkward, unorthodox guitar setup I've ever heard- Heavy "coathanger" strings plucked repeatedly furiously on an upside down guitar because he was left-handed. Now, you hear this about Hendrix, but Hendrix would restring the strings in the correct order. Dale...did not. -Worked with THE Leo Fender in coming up with louder sounding amps. -Reading between the lines- the blown amps, the wildly popular "stomps" they held, it must've been an explosion. "I wanted to convey the power I felt surfing through the music I played." I'd say mission accomplished, Dale. I've never been on a board, but your songs impart real, creative energy. Thank you!
It's true, he had a middle eastern complexion, slicked back hair and did not look like a typical surfer but when we heard him play songs like Miserlou and Hava Nagila, it cemented his reputation as the King of amazing surf music.
Who needs a board , body surfer , flippers and hand pads in storm swells later I had waist belt for float in chaos type water . Manasquan pocket, Sea Girt wall , Merrick board to pickup the birds when water too mellow. 1973-1984 Jackson Ave
Does anyone remember that Dickie owned The Rendezvous in Garden Grove in about 1980? I loved it. His wife at the time also performed there. She was very talented but had nowhere near the warmth of Dick
