Orange County's Endless Summer Podcast: Dick Dale Transcript

Legendary guitar slinger Dick Dale spends much of his escapist time aboard his yacht in Southern California's Newport Beach, not far from the Rendezvous Ballroom where the "King of the Surf Guitar" first made waves in the music world. Dick Dale's sound has come to capture the essence of the Orange County endless summer lifestyle. The pent up engergy Dale released with his guitar crashed down upon SoCal like a giant wave. It's power, beauty and influence, not to be denied, became the soundtrack of a surf movement and pop culture phenomenon. After a dazzling, informative and varied six-minute guitar display Dale talks about his influence on the electric guitar, his creation of surf music, the origins of "Misirlou," life, spirituality, "the Biz" and just about anything else that comes to his introspective mind.

Dick Dale guitar intro to stringing and strumming.

Dick Dale:

That is the feeling of … like you can get like the Latino, you can go (Latin guitar strumming ensues).
You can get, that’s the Latino kind of a feeling but then when I go into a Dick Dale, the slides that I created, which was, almost imitated the sounds of my animals. But actually, it started with Gene Cooper using rhythm, so where you were actually going, you were going (thumping sounds on guitar) taka taka taka taka taka ta.
In the Shaolin temple in the martial arts they never allow you to touch the skin of a drum for five years ‘til you can tongue what you’re going to play. So when you do on a drum and you do a fill on a drum, you go, starting with the snare and then the tom, rack toms and the floor toms, and you know the cymbal and the kick drums, you would go
one, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four,
one,
so you would go
one, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four,
one, two, three, four,
one
Then you would go tiki taka taka taka taka ta
You would hear the pulsation of the one.
And people are not trained that way today anymore. Cause it goes all the way back to the conductor with the baton going one, two, three four, one, two, three, four, with the baton. So Gene Cooper was smart enough to go and study the natives and their dances, their fertility rite dances and they would keep a rhythm going tiki tiki taki tiki ta. See, but this is what I would do with the string. I would go like this. Tiki Tiki Ta (stringing).
You can hear that. Tiki Tiki Ta. 
Then I would go (more stringing).
So that’s the kind of rhythms that I would play. So I’d get this, I’d go that Tiki Tiki Ta (illustrating while stringing).
That’s utilizing that Tiki Tiki Ta. But of course I love the romantic sound when I do a song like Latino, I go (strings a Latino-style solo).
Then you can get this (going into a different solo sound). That sound see (continuing). The Dick Dale pumping strum. So there’s a mixture of all different styles that you just got through hearing. Then of course you can go, you know, country music, which I cut my teeth on. In fact, I just wrote a song called “Special One,” being a part of life, you know, like for instance … it goes …

Lyrics:
Do you think
I will ever find the one?
Dick Dale: (see it matches with everybody)
And walk holding hands in the sun
Well I pray, I dream of her smile and her golden hair
And she looks at me I will know she really cares

And there’s more to that song with the words like about what has happened to us in life but it’s really a beautiful song called “My Special One” and I’m going to be recording that like on a flavor of Hank Williams.

AOCVCB:

Well in case you haven’t guessed we are talking with Dick Dale. It’s an amazing thing to sit and listen to Dick Dale talk about the business and his life and purpose because so much of Dick Dale’s life is about purpose and of course, we’re talking to him because he is not only almost an icon in surfing culture and his creation of surf music and the guitar, the electric guitar especially, probably one of the most influential people in the evolution of the electric guitar in America. But he lives on a yacht in Newport Bay. And how great is that?

Dick Dale:
I hide on my yacht. I live up at the ranch but I come down and I hide down here (laughing).

AOCVCB:

So here we are sitting with this incredible view of Newport Bay with really a legend and I hate to say legend because it makes you seem old and you’re not. So since I’m basically a contemporary of yours I’m going to say I grew up with the sound of Dick Dale and it’s an amazing thing to meet you but also to find out just how much you’ve contributed to this world because though your concerts and through your efforts with kids and helping them through life-threatening crisis and things like that. It’s a very moving thing. You’re obviously someone who has gained a lot from the music business, from your profession and yet, you’ve brought to it a great sense of humanity.

Dick Dale:
Well, thank very much for all of what you have, that you have, for of your thoughts and your words.  The main thing is that music, whether it is music or there is art, whether you are a writer, whatever you do, whatever talent you have, we all have talents, it’s just to find the ones that we enjoy doing. These are just modes of, methods of pleasing people. What we should do is we should please others, and by doing that you end up pleasing yourself when you see that smile on their face. So what we do with this music is then how do we use it to be able to help someone else. And it could be like when I get through performing and playing I will sit and sign autographs and talk with people about their lives. They’ll tell me all about, you know, their children. They bring their children to see me. We’ll share, we’ll share these different things. I just had a man who’s been seeing me for the last eleven years in one city in the state and he was in tears and he said his sweetheart wouldn’t be with him because he just lost his wife and I pulled him out of the line and brought him in the corner for a moment and put my arms around him and said words that there are no words to take away the pain of a lost, of a loved one. When we got through with each other, sharing that grief together, he said thank you Dick, he said, you’re medicine to me. So then I went back to signing again. So what we’re doing is we’re just, it’s like, it’s like going every day I’m with these people you know. Here’s what I can say. I hate the word “fans.” I like the people that say, “I’m a Dick Dale music lover” so here’s what I say. What is my family? The people I play for. That is my family.

AOCVCB:

Rock music owes everything to Dick Dale. And Orange County because he was surfing here and one day picked up a guitar and met Leo Fender and played at the Rendezvous Ballroom and that all happened right here. So if your kids want to get into a garage band and you’re worried about the sound. Remember you have Dick Dale to thank for that.

Dick Dale:
Yeah, email Dick Dale at dick@dickdale.com and then if you want to know what Dick is doing, go to my web page dickdale.com or just go to google or youtube and hit Dick Dale and watch what happens. You’ll get on a ride on that one.

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