Dick Dale, 'King of the Surf Guitar,' and keeper of his own place in surf music history
One of the things that defined surf rocker Dick Dale's music, career and his life was that he never held anything back.
It was true of his quest for a thundering sound that could replicate the exhilarating feeling he experienced surfing the powerful waves off beaches in Southern California, it was true of his take-no-prisoners live performances during which he would literally shred guitar picks as he unleashed flurries of machine-gun-like melodic runs on his Fender Stratocaster, and it was true of his immersion in the world of martial arts and Eastern philosophy.
It also was true of his rapport with music writers who followed and documented his career, myself included. A
