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Ailing Surf Guitar Legend Dick Dale Is Touring to Stay Alive -- Literally
Billboard ^ | August 13, 2015 | Chris Willman

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.

(Excerpt) Read more at billboard.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat; History; Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: dickdale; misirlou
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Wikipedia
1 posted on 08/17/2015 1:19:30 PM PDT by EveningStar
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To: 5th MEB; AgThorn; al baby; BAW; bboop; BenLurkin; Bob J; Bon of Babble; BunnySlippers; bunster; ...

ping


2 posted on 08/17/2015 1:19:57 PM PDT by EveningStar (The enemy of our enemy is not always our friend.)
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To: EveningStar

My 19 year old daughter went to see him at a local establishment. Said it was a lot of fun.


3 posted on 08/17/2015 1:23:43 PM PDT by mmichaels1970
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To: EveningStar

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.

...

Those who joined the 27 club don’t have that problem.


4 posted on 08/17/2015 1:24:06 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: EveningStar
The reference to a tune by older metal band Scorpions was pretty cool, too. \m/\m/
5 posted on 08/17/2015 1:28:09 PM PDT by Blue Jays (Rock Hard, Ride Free)
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To: EveningStar

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!


6 posted on 08/17/2015 1:29:07 PM PDT by keving (We get the government we vote for)
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To: mmichaels1970

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.


7 posted on 08/17/2015 1:30:28 PM PDT by MarchonDC09122009 (When is our next march on DC? When have we had enough?)
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To: EveningStar

Direct Youtube link...from article vid...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwx2pephwKU#t=62


8 posted on 08/17/2015 1:33:33 PM PDT by Jane Long ("And when thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, LORD, will I seek")
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To: EveningStar

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.


9 posted on 08/17/2015 1:34:41 PM PDT by truth_seeker (come with the outlws.)
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To: EveningStar
Niterider 6 - I'm still shocked every time the Beggar's Banquet USA inaugural guest promo CD I've had up on eBay multiple times can't even manage to get a penny bid.

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.

10 posted on 08/17/2015 1:38:22 PM PDT by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
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To: EveningStar

Wow he’s in tough shape (incontinent + colostomy) but continuing to rock on.
Good post, thanks, found it inspirational.


11 posted on 08/17/2015 1:40:32 PM PDT by nascarnation (Impeach, convict, deport)
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To: keving
He'd also make more money if he used one of the many digital sites (CDBaby or the like) to sell the one original recording he's made in the last 25 years...

Even the CDs he guests on are extremely rare to find and were never put up for digital download.

12 posted on 08/17/2015 1:40:40 PM PDT by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
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To: EveningStar
Dick played on Glen Campbell's "In My Arms" single a few years ago. Here's the youtube video

Same old Dick Dale!

13 posted on 08/17/2015 1:50:55 PM PDT by FlJoePa
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To: EveningStar

bttt - Keep on rockin’ Dick Dale!


14 posted on 08/17/2015 2:02:17 PM PDT by Liberty Valance (Keep a Simple Manner for a Happy Life :o)
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To: EveningStar
Misirlou (Egyptian girl)--Tetos Demetriades (1927)

Misirlou--Dick Dale & the Deltones (1963)

15 posted on 08/17/2015 2:36:50 PM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: EveningStar

Dick Dale and the Deltones, remember him well. He was left handed, strung his guitar upside down so he could use it.


16 posted on 08/17/2015 2:44:39 PM PDT by TruthWillWin (The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other peoples money.)
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To: EveningStar

Dick Dale, Duane Eddy, etc. Oh, the memories of them with their “six-string razors.”


17 posted on 08/17/2015 2:48:12 PM PDT by ought-six (1u)
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To: EveningStar; Jack Hydrazine; Norm Lenhart; Salamander; TheOldLady; spyone; To Hell With Poverty; ...

This is the Modern Music Ping List. Our topic is music from the 20th and 21st century, from Ravel and Shostakovich through to the Synth Pioneers and beyond.

Topic suggestions are always welcome, and pings to music-related threads are appreciated.

FReepmail or reply to this post to be added to or removed from this list.

18 posted on 08/17/2015 3:03:45 PM PDT by Squawk 8888 (I don't run; if you see me running, you should run too.)
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To: EveningStar

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.)


19 posted on 08/17/2015 8:45:39 PM PDT by driftless2
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To: TruthWillWin

“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”.


20 posted on 08/17/2015 11:52:12 PM PDT by rikkir (You can lead a horde to knowledge but you can't make them think. (TnkU ctdonath2))
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