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Here's my take on seeing Dick Dale Live. I agree with Klas and
Brian on many points, and if I had my choice of seeing the new D.D.
or D.D. circa 1962, I'd rather see 1962 D.D. BUT... since that
aint gonna happen unless I get that time machine from Napoleon
Dynamite working, I'll be happy seeing the newer version. I go and
see him every year (since '94 - 10 years now) just for the few
moments when you can hear what it used to be like. I'd rather hear
him play Miserlou like the record, but I'll take it in a medley with
Surf Beat and Let's go Trippin'. The man has some serious power
when he plays, and to see it in person is still a thrill, even
after all these years. He's still a carismatic performer, and
still commands the audiences attention at all times. Last year, he
stripped his set down to less vocals, more older instro stuff, and
it was really great. Almost two hours of the closest thing to the
1962 D.D. I've ever seen.
We all give him a hard time because he talks a big game, but I
think it takes a personality like that to do some of the things he
did. He was the first with that tone, and to play like that way in
the early sixties had to take someone with that type of personality
to say to hell with what people think, I'm doing it my way.
Chris
P.S. - I LIKE the way he and SRV did Pipeline - it was new and fresh
when it came out, I thought.
