“I'll never die. I'll just explode, right there before your eyes, onstage.”
- Dick Dale
Today was the birthday of rock pioneer guitarist, Dick Dale, born in 1937. He died in 2019. Dale has been called the “King of the Surf Guitar” and “The Father of Heavy Metal” for his buzzsaw, staccato style of playing. He also popularized the use of reverb and along with Leo Fender, designed and develop guitar amplifiers capable of generating spine-rattling volume.
Dale's style influenced not only surfer bands like The Beach Boys and Jan and Dean, but many guitar players now considered gods - Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend, Eddie Van Halen and Brian May. Average folks probably don't know his name or care much about his playing style, but they might recognize one of his songs, Misirlou, which played over the opening credits of Quentin Tarintino's 1994 masterwork, Pulp Fiction. For any musician, the inclusion of one of their songs in an iconic movie like that is a gift beyond calculating.
Speaking of Pulp Fiction, let's talk about that. If someone asked you your favorite movie, could you name just one? To me it's like naming your favorite song or band or book - impossible to do, really. That's why Top-10 lists are popular, they offer some wiggle room.
But for a long time, if I were pressed, gun to my head, to name just one movie as my favorite, I would have said Pulp Fiction. It's the only movie I ever walked out of when it was over, walked around, bought another ticket and went back in and watched it again. I was captivated by it's audacity, its interwoven storylines and slight-of-hand plot, the characters and dialogue--- everything about it. It was nothing I'd ever seen or experienced. It was my equivalent of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan, Neil Armstrong walking on the moon and hearing Smells Like Teen Spirit for the first time. It was a seismic shift in my reality.
I became evangelical about it, thinking everyone I knew should experience its genius. I passionately recommended it to many, but not everyone appreciated its unique magic. Tastes differ, I already knew, but I had it reconfirmed more than a couple of times.
Since then, Pulp Fiction has gone on to be imbedded in our culture consciousness. References to it show up everywhere and thanks to it, Dick Dale lives on.