Posted on 08/17/2015 1:19:30 PM PDT by EveningStar
Rock's original legends are aging into their 70s and 80s, but you rarely hear about the severity of their health issues, since an ongoing touring career involves maintaining the appearance of physical vitality, if not eternal youth. Count Dick Dale as the exception: The "king of the surf guitar" may just do for real talk about senior maladies what he did for reverb and amps in the early 1960s, being perhaps the one seminal musician of his generation who's eager to rock you like a hurricane and talk about extreme renal failure.
Dale's health concerns have become an unlikely viral sensation following the wide dissemination of a July 29 interview for the Pittsburgh City Paper that had the guitar hero declaring: "I can't stop touring because I will die. Physically and literally, I will die." The 78-year-old's road regimen has less to do with the love of satisfying oldies hounds and Quentin Tarantino fans (1962's "Misirlou" having found a second life as the theme to 1994's Pulp Fiction) than with paying medical bills involving diabetes, post-cancer treatment and other debilitating conditions. Suddenly, he's the poster child for a generation that's not too sick to work, but too sick to retire.
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My 19 year old daughter went to see him at a local establishment. Said it was a lot of fun.
The 78-year-old’s road regimen has less to do with the love of satisfying oldies hounds and Quentin Tarantino fans (1962’s “Misirlou” having found a second life as the theme to 1994’s Pulp Fiction) than with paying medical bills involving diabetes, post-cancer treatment and other debilitating conditions. Suddenly, he’s the poster child for a generation that’s not too sick to work, but too sick to retire.
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Those who joined the 27 club don’t have that problem.
He would make more money if he actually had an iTunes link on his website so interested people like me could buy his songs. Love that sound!
I agree!
I saw him play at an LA club a few years ago.
His son was on drums. The performance was Excellent and great time.
In high school, I used to hitch hike down Euclid Avenue to Anaheim, to see Dick Dale and the Deltones perform at the Harmony Park Ballroom.
That was during a period of a few years when “surf instrumental” style music flourished in SoCal. And a few groups outside the area did it, too.
Several local venues hosted weekend concerts for teens, including Retail Clerks Hall in Buena Park, the Rendezvous Ballroom in Newport, etc.
I saw Dick Dale live at Huntington Beach HS about 22 years ago, and he still rocked with the best that day. I think in the late 60s and 70s he lived in the fast lane, but today as a senior citizen he’s a sane, sober dude.
Too many people just don't realize how much fantastic talent has been suppressed by awful contract choices. Unlike many in his bracket, Dick Dale hasn't been making his own releases to sell, just licensing the existing tracks back and issuing his own compilations.
But hey, if you can find him at a show, ask what CDs he has on him. Occasionally, he still manages to find his 2001 release ‘Special Distortion’, the one ‘new’ recording he's made. Smile as you hand him $50 bucks for an excellent CD.
Wow he’s in tough shape (incontinent + colostomy) but continuing to rock on.
Good post, thanks, found it inspirational.
Even the CDs he guests on are extremely rare to find and were never put up for digital download.
Same old Dick Dale!
bttt - Keep on rockin’ Dick Dale!
Dick Dale and the Deltones, remember him well. He was left handed, strung his guitar upside down so he could use it.
Dick Dale, Duane Eddy, etc. Oh, the memories of them with their “six-string razors.”
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Playing Dale’s vibrato-picked version of tunes is not an easy task. But if you can do it, it gives a tune a real special sound. Not easy though. His Dick Dale vibrato version of “Ghost Riders” is one of my favorites on my MP3 player. (no, I don’t have a smart phone.)
“He was left handed, strung his guitar upside down so he could use it.”
Hendrix did the same thing IIRC.
I always referred to it as “playing upside down and backwards”.
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