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That was a work of art! Thanks Ivan...
Surf on, rick!
-----Original Message-----
From: ipongrac [mailto:]
Sent: Thursday, May 27, 2004 10:55 AM
To:
Subject: [SurfGuitar101] Dick Dale in Detroit - VERY LONG!
[Caution: very LONG! My apologies - I got carried away!]
Last Wednesday, Dane and Scott (drums and bass of both the
Troubadours and the Madeira) and myself went to see Dick Dale in
Detroit (Ferndale, to be more precise). I have seen DD at least six
or seven times by now ('93, '94, '95, '96, '98, '00), and each time I
enjoyed the show less and less, even walking out before the end
both '98 and '00. I swore I wouldn't ever go see him again back
in '98, and the only reason why I did in '00 is because the Space
Cossacks played a show with him (Rendezvous Ballroom Reunion in Costa
Mesa, CA). I've grown really tired of his routine, all the bullshit
how he's of the people, the Indians and the indigeneous, blah
blah blah', 'we're destroying the environment, blah blah blah,'
talking about all the things he's accomplished and how wonderful he
is, and speaking in third person. And, more importantly, I just
started getting really bored with the music. I got very tired of all
the jamming, something that he does not do well. And I hated the
heavy-metal rhythms in the classics that I still love.
Well, in light of all this, I fully expected never to go see him
again, but I found out he was coming to Detroit. Since the rest of
my band(s) never saw him, and since Dane the drummer is a huge fan of
Dusty, I thought, well, what the hell. I've known Sam since '97 and
Dusty since at least '98 (and we all played on the New World
Relampagos CD), and I hoped that we could get together before the
show. Both of those guys are princes among men, so I was looking
forward to that at least. Lo and behold, DD's show was probably the
best I'd ever seen! I was shocked to hell... A lot of it was due to
Dusty and Sam, who were pretty awesome.
The three of us (Dane, Scott and me) had dinner with Dusty, and hung
out with both him and Sam right before the show and for a while
after, which was pretty damn cool. Those guys are just fantastic,
and I really love being around them. Dusty freely shared drumming
insights with Dane, and gave us a lot of stories of rock'n'roll
excesses from his days with Lita Ford, and the multitudes of other
gigs he's had over the last couple of decades. Dick was running
pretty late, which was OK by me, since we were chatting away
backstage. His Strat (The Beast!) was just casually lying there on
the sofa, so I asked if I could play it, which they OK'd, as long as
DD doesn't see it! So, they kept a watch while I plucked and
strummed for a few minutes. This is the original Strat, given to
Dick by Leo Fender, back in '60 or '61. It was originally white with
a tortoiseshell pickguard, but around '64 he repainted it gold
sparkle, and put a white pickguard on it. As everybody knows by now,
the strings on it are huge. I've gotten really used to pretty heavy
strings (12-52), but these were definitely thicker than that (he
claims 15-60). He's got a pretty low action on the guitar, though,
so it felt comfortable to play the guitar. It's beat to hell,
though, it's in a really bad shape. The lower frets are TOTALLY
gauged out! There's no way he can play a note on the first few frets
and sustain it in tune. It just wouldn't happen. Also, the nut is
partially cracked. And four lower (I think) strings are strung the
wrong way around the tuning heads - instead of clockwise, they're
strung counterclockwise, so there isn't a straight pull from the nut
to the heads! Very weird! I pointed this out to Sam, who was
shocked to see it. He asked DD's guitar tech, and the guy told him
that Dick personally asked him to string it that way. I don't get
it... Sam also told me that two of the pickups in the guitar aren't
original - they were stolen when the guitar was in a shop in the
seventies, and the replacements are stock seventies Strat pickups -
the secret of DD's tone is finally revealed! :) Dick doesn't use the
backplate, and he's got five springs tightened to hell, and then a
wooden block wedged in between the bridge and the body, to ensure
that the bridge doesn't move one iota (I think Clapton's Strats are
set up the same way). The paint is in really bad shape, too,
especially where the arm rests on the body, where there is hardly any
paint left. The neck is quite worn, and the lacquer, where there is
any left, has turned brown. There are only bits and pieces left of
the Fender logo on the headstock, too. But, with all that, the
guitar has a very resonant and 'woody' sound when strummed
unplugged. It actually really sounded like his tone, even unplugged,
which was a bit surprising but cool. Like I said, because the action
was pretty low, it felt comfortable to play. And it's a very light
guitar, which is also quite nice. He's also got a prototype
pickguard on the guitar with a tuner built-in. One of the switches
on the guitar engages the tuner, and there are little LEDs on the
side facing his head so he can quickly tune.
Since I played Hank's original Strat (that Bruce Welch now owns and
which was used to record Apache, Man Of Mystery, and all the other
early hits) back in September at Shadowmania North America in
Toronto, and now DD's Strat, I feel very privileged. In fact, I'm in
disbelief that I played the guitars of the two guitar players who
probably influenced me more than anybody else! And funnily enough,
they're from the same era: Hank's Strat is a '59, one of the last pre-
CBS maple-necked Strats, while Dick's is from soon after that.
Fender really was making great guitars back then....
Anyway, onto the show. Dick finally showed up (and I quickly put the
guitar down before he came to the room J), and we went into the club,
which was packed - probably about 400+ people there. As I already
mentioned, Dusty and Sam are really kicking Dick into gear. I've
seen DD with Dusty twice, but now with Sam on bass, it was a
different beast altogether. The show benefitted by Dick keeping the
bullshit talking to a minimum, which made a big difference (though,
as a few people reported, he did at one point rub the guitar
violently on the cab, making it squeal and whatnot, only to then
say "that's how I treat my women" - oh brother...). I thought
he actually played pretty sloppy, made a lot of mistakes, especially
in the beginning of the show, but it didn't matter. They kept the
jamming bits pretty short, and stuck to mostly playing songs, which
Dusty and Sam pummeled into the ground. They opened with Nitro, and
played mostly
newer stuff: Bello Horizonte (which Dick introduced with a prolonged
dedication to women and how hot they are, how they can really dress
up to make him get all hot and bothered, blah blah blah), Third Stone
from the Sun (pretty boring), Smoke on the Water (even worse - just
the riff with a bunch of jamming in between), and bunch of other
songs that I don't know the names of. He also did several so-so
vocals: Fever, Bring It On Home To Me, Mr. Peppermint Man, a few
others. Of the oldies he played Miserlou (of course), Hava Nagila
(not double-picking all the way through like on the original, which
made it lose some power), Taco Wagon, Peter Gunn, and the Victor,
which Scott, the bass player for the Troubadours and the Madeira,
called out for. He was going to bullshit his way out of it, but
Dusty shouted out 'The Victor!!' (Thanks Dusty!), to which Dick was a
bit taken aback, but then started playing it. Sam claimed he didn't
know the song, but I sure as hell couldn't tell!! Dick was actually
asking `how does it go?' and Dusty sung out the intro for him! At
that point DD joked that Sam wasn't even born when he recorded the
song. It sounded great, though I think he got a bit lost in the
middle, and didn't do the stop and then the high part, but rather
went into a newer song that sounds very similar to The Victor, though
I can't remember the name of it now. He also played Let's Go
Trippin', and maybe a couple of other oldies, though I can't remember
them now. Not too many overall. The biggest surprise of the night
for me was Amazing Grace. I read a few reports that he was doing
this song for the troops, and though he didn't specifically mention
the troops or Iraq, he did say that they'll play the song
until `everybody returns home.' (Incidentally, he did have two or
three songs with the theme of coming home: Bring It On Home to Me, a
fifties or early sixties songs, can't remember by whom, and one or
two others - I wonder if that was intentional to tie in with the
theme of bringing the troops home?) But I expected that he would
sing it, which he didn't - it was an instrumental, and I gotta say
that it sounded very good. It was emotional and a bit grand. He
clearly borrowed the arrangement and feel of Third Stone from the
Sun, to which he seguewayed when the song was finished. It was very
cool.
A few more words on Dusty and Sam. Sam played like a punk machine
that he is, very aggressively and hyperactively and responsively,
obviously listening and responding to Dick's unexpected changes. A
few songs into the show he actually broke not one, but TWO bass
strings in one song!!! I've never seen such a thing, but that gives
you an idea of the intensity with which he plays. Dick and Dusty
finished up the song, while the roadie retrieved Sam's own old,
battered P-bass. I also found out that Sam's using the gold-sparkle
P-Bass that Fender's Custom Shop made for Dick's wife several years
ago, when they started the endorsement deal with him. Oh, on the
side note, Sam also said that the Toyota (is that right? can't
remember now) commercial with Dick has really started bringing a lot
more people to the shows again, it's had a big impact. And Dick made
a six-figure salary from it - not bad for one day's work! And on to
Dusty - he was the best I'd seen him yet with Dick. So fluid and
powerful. He even made Dick's metal rhythms swing, by subtly varying
them. He had several short solos, which were jaw-dropping, as
usual. The most impressive part was when Dick got on the drum set
behind Dusty, and they did the dueling drumming thing. I've seen
Dick do this every time, but usually it would just be Gene Krupa-
style tom stuff that was kinda boring, quite frankly. Not this time.
Dusty later told me that he's persuaded Dick to really go for it, and
the result was stunning: Dick can REALLY play! Holy shit, it was
amazing. They were like one person with four arms, with a lot of
rolls and accents, both on the snare and toms. It really blew me
away, even more so when Dusty told me that it was all pretty much
improvised. Dusty was going full out, and Dick was able to keep up,
which I couldn't believe. Dick really is a natural musician, and he
did a fair amount of trumpet playing at one point of the show, which
was fantastic, too. Dusty later told me that he's seen him play the
piano once where he just blew everybody away - saxophone, too. But
with all that musical talent, or maybe because of it, Dusty also told
me that in the seven years he's been playing and touring with Dick,
he's never once heard him actually LISTEN to any music. Incredible....
A few final remarks: though he was his usual sexist pig, there was
one VERY young looking girl (18-20), quite pretty, too, just in front
and to the side of me. Well, at several points of the show she just
went into this absolutely blissful state with a huge smile on her
face, even breaking out into laughter, seemingly caused by DD's music
and shenanigans - ooops, excuse me, I meant showmanship. And Dick
even started coming on to her and her friends at one point of the
show. I don't get it, quite frankly. Given that most surf music
doesn't draw many women, we must be doing something wrong, and Dick
something right! Maybe we should all start emulating him? Nahhh....
Afterwards, Sam and Dusty came out in the audience, and we chatted
until the club threw us out. DD was beset by adoring fans, but we
didn't actually even go say hi to him. I've met him enough times,
and he's always been nice enough, as long as the conversation was
about him. But we just had too much fun with Dusty and Sam. Anyway,
there you go. A memorable night. It's really nice to still have
Dick criss-crossing the country, with all his faults. As Frankie
Avalon told Annette in the eighties movie Back to the Beach when she
pointed out that "Dick Dale and at least two Del-Tones" are playing
at a club, "Honey, we could come back in year 2000, and Dick would
STILL be playing!" Well, he's way beyond that now, and still going
strong... Good for him - and us.
.
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