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an article from the ashbury park press:
WORLD ACCORDING TO DICK DALE
Published in the Asbury Park Press 05/20/05
BY MARK VOGER
STAFF WRITER
When you speak with Dick Dale or, more to the point, when
you listen to Dale speak you're going to hear passionate
diatribes on a variety of topics, from politics to
philosophy to capital punishment to martial arts to the
joys of being drug-free.
On occasion, you might even hear about music.
Dale is the so-called "King of the Surf Guitar," whose
career-making, frenetic '60s instrumental "Miserlou" was
heard in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction."
According to Dale, the best part of his job is connecting
with fans.
Said the guitarist: "Managers used to say, "Don't associate
with your fans, because you can no longer be the mysterious
thing, and you will no longer be the heavy draw. Because if
they know what you're all about, then they go onto the next
one.'
"That's true, as far as marketing goes. But I believe in
sitting and talking with them and signing when I get
through playing. Because how long have I got left on this
Earth?"
Dale, 68, believes he has much in common with his fans.
"I'm playing to the grass-roots people because I'm
grass-roots," he said.
"I've always fought the system and I always will fight the
system. That's the reason why I'm not Mr. Big
Millionaire-Trillionaire. Because I won't go to bed with
those bastards.
"To me, there are only two pure things on this Earth, and
that's a baby child and a baby animal. And then what
happens to them both is what we do to them and what the
system does to them."
Dale's "system" is to talk to fans after his shows."
"I'll play for an hour and a half," the guitarist said.
"Every night when I get off the stage at night after two
and a half hours of signing, I go back to the hotel and I'm
up 'til about 5:30 in the morning answering e-mail."
Not every performer is so accommodating to fans, Dale
believes.
"The fans are the people who made them (the performers),
not the hundred musicians who think they're musicians,"
Dale said.
"It's the 10,000 people who are working for $5 an hour who
fill up that stadium. That's the reason why I try to tell
young (performers): Don't try to impress people. It ain't
how fast you play it's what you play. B.B. King plays one
note, and he says two paragraphs."
Still, Dale's fan base is not without a contingent of
guitar aficionados.
"People start getting technical with me," Dale said, "but
I'll leave that to Stevie Vai. I'll leave that to Eddie Van
Halen. These people are masters in what they play. I play
every instrument that there is. I'm a jack of all trades,
master of none. Can't read music. Never could read music.
Oh, I can go: (musical progression) "E G B D F.' And I
know: "F A C E.' But if you gave me a million dollars and
said, "Play the scale now without making a mistake,' I
would never get it."
Not that Dale cares to. The musician says he does
everything by feel something his critics never
understood.
Said Dale: "When I play, they say, "You can't do that.'
Then they go, "Why are you going there?' Then when I'm all
done, I come out right at the end of the tunnel or out of
the tube or out of the lion's mouth and they go, "Holy
(expletive). He did it! He went in and he came out! How did
he do it?'
"Well, that's because I don't know what I'm doing. And I
don't plan it. And I'm not about to start now."
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Cool article DP!
Thanks,
BN
And Happy Birthday!!! And many more!
--- In , DP <noetical1@y...> wrote:
> an article from the ashbury park press:
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