Dick Dale, a pioneer of the surf-rock craze whose track Misirlou found a whole new audience as the soundtrack to the opening titles of Pulp Fiction and thus became a staple of nineties culture, has died at the age of 81.
Guitarists are already hailing Dale as a true inspiration; Brian May one who has left a particularly long tribute on social media in which the Queen man said ‘we all owe you’.
“Look how his guitar is strung,” he continues. “He’s left handed, but plays essentially a right handed guitar – except for the controls and ‘horns’. So his heavy bass-end strings are at the lower edge of the fretboard. This means his fingers could never fall in the same shapes as the rest of us. Maybe this led him to use those low notes more often and more forcefully than everyone around him.”
His former bandmate Dusty Watson was one of the first to break the news which was later confirmed by The Guardian. “The legend and king of surf guitar has passed,” he wrote on Facebook. “Condolences to family and friends and all those who were touched by your undeniable presence. Rest In Peace friend.”