Dick Dale "Miserlou" YouTube/1962 TV Clip

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by dgsinner, Jan 31, 2007.

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  1. dgsinner

    dgsinner New Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Far East
    Very, very cool if you ask me.

    My question is, could his playing actually be live, played against a backup tape? The camera never pans down to catch a wire from the guitar, but if it's not live, it sure looks like Dale has coordinated his air guitar with the actual recording nearly perfectly. Also, it's not quite the same arrangement as the hit 45...Dale started improvising it a bit during the couple of years immediately after he had a hit with Miserlou. The Surfaris ended up doing a studio version in 1964 of the arrangement Dale is doing here on their Fun City Lp IIRC.

    Enjoy.

    FIXED BY SH:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mmajn6N2Wc

    Here's another clip...check out the wild Deltones choreography! They're flat ready to burst into flames! Guess it's that twistin' blonde gettin' 'em goin'...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZIU0RMV_II8
     
  2. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    He's playing live.
     
  3. rhkwon

    rhkwon Forum Resident

    Location:
    Houston, TX USA
    I did'nt know he was left handed.
     
  4. Laservampire

    Laservampire Down with this sort of thing

    Great clips, thanks for sharing! :righton:

    It's so surreal to see him picking low notes where the high E should be.... :eek:

    So has anyone picked up the Sundazed reissue of his first album yet?
     
  5. dgsinner

    dgsinner New Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Far East
    I'd be interested in that...except that I'd always heard that "Miserlou" was lamely rerecorded with backing strings...hope they included the single mix as a bonus or something.

    Dale
     
  6. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Remember, no tape exists of the first album or the single.

    Seek out the best DELTONE 45's.
     
  7. TeacFan

    TeacFan Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    Arcadia, Ca.
    The man puts on a great live show. Saw him 2 years ago in a small setting with his son & were great. He is a bit grumpy, figuring the R&R world has forgotten him. Maybe they have. No Hall Of Fame for Dick :realmad: Go see him. :goodie:
     
  8. Laservampire

    Laservampire Down with this sort of thing

    Here's a link to the album on the Sundazed website. Miserlou is one of the bonus tracks.

    No tape?! :eek: I wonder why Sundazed is saying master tape then? :confused:
     
  9. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    The Capitol LP master is on tape. Clearly sez right on there "dubbed from metal mother".

    Unless of course they unearthed it recently. If they didn't have it when Capitol bought Deltone I doubt it would suddenly just show up...
     
  10. Another Side

    Another Side Senior Member

    Location:
    San Francisco
  11. Steve Hoffman

    Steve Hoffman Your host Your Host

    Same thing, better video tape quality.

    I'll fix the first post..
     
  12. dgsinner

    dgsinner New Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Far East
    So if this is with Surfin' & Swingin' on an Ed Sullivan broadcast, it would have to have been '64 or '65, right? The reason I ask is I've always wondered about the Miserlou improvs...whether Dale developed them on his own or whether he might have gotten a cue from the Surfaris, if that's possible, or likely...The Surfaris Fun City I cited above was released in the second half of 1964 IIRC...

    Dale
     
  13. ROLO46

    ROLO46 Forum Resident

    He is most certainly live on this clip, he almost falls over a cable a the start !
    The strat is plugged in and he is wearing an RCA neck mic.
    Great performance for such a lame show.
    Roger.
     
  14. Simon A

    Simon A Arrr!

    Thanks for sharing Dale! You've just jumpstarted my day! Now I'm going to put on Steve's Beach Classics! :D
     
  15. Emberglow

    Emberglow Senior Member

    Location:
    Waterford, Ireland
    I didn't know that either. He's playing a left-handed Strat but it looks to me that it's strung for a right-handed player and Dick is playing it upside down :confused:
     
  16. Ed Hughes

    Ed Hughes Senior Member

    Location:
    phila.pa.
    Very cool.:righton:
     
  17. puns

    puns New Member

    Location:
    India
    wow , awesome video ... thanks :)
     
  18. dgsinner

    dgsinner New Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Far East
    That's what he's doing. Here's some info from Wikipedia:

    "He was born to a Lebanese father and a Polish mother, and soon learned to play the drums, the ukulele, the trumpet and finally the guitar. Among his early musical influences was his uncle, an oud player performing belly dance music. Much of his early music shows a middle eastern influence; Dale is often credited as one of the first electric guitarist to employ exotic scales in his playing. Dale himself was an expert surfer and wanted his music to reflect the sounds he heard in his mind while surfing. While he is primarily known for introducing the use of guitar reverb, which has since become a staple of the surf sound, it was Dale's fast staccato picking that was his trademark. Since Dale was left-handed he was initially forced to play a right-handed model, much like later guitarist Jimi Hendrix would do years later. However, he did so without restringing the guitar, leading him to effectively play the guitar upside-down (while Hendrix would restring his guitar) and often plays by reaching over the fretboard rather than wrap his fingers up from underneath. Even after he acquired a proper left-handed guitar, Dale continued to use his reverse stringing. Dale is also noted for playing his percussive, heavy bending style while using what are, for most guitarists, extremely heavy gauge string sets.(for example, a standard electric guitar string set will start with a .009 - .011 high E string; Dale's high E is strung with a .017 gauge string)

    With his backing band, The Del-Tones, Dale's live performances became huge local draws. 1961's "Let's Go Trippin'" is often regarded as the first surf rock song. This was followed by more locally-released songs, including "Jungle Fever" and "Surf Beat" on his own Deltone label. His first full-length album was Surfers' Choice in 1962. The album was picked up by Capitol Records and distributed nationally, and Dale soon began appearing on the Ed Sullivan Show and in films. His second album was named after his performing nickname, King of the Surf Guitar."

    I've absolutely dug Dick Dale since the first time I heard a 45 of Miserlou in 1971. Dale is without a doubt a seminal, yet mostly unrecognized influence on so much rock, most centrally mid sixties psych and later hard rock. He, for the most part, invented hard rock lead guitar. Punters: let me head you off. Yes, Link Wray, but really, I think Dale's the more central one. Wray started the ball with the volume, distortion and some of the technique. But Dale had the staccato, and when he followed up with developing the reverb with Fender combined with his heavy string playing, who could touch him? All the others were proteges of Dale. And, when you get right down to it, come on...where did that electric rock guitar glissando come from? And how weird is it, after Dale, you didn't hear it until the early 70s, when, after The Who, every hard rock and glam band just had to do it. Man, Dale is what the 30s and 40s bluesmen were: the forgotten originator of a style, maybe a genre (apologies to Bo--you're the originator of the beat).

    Dale
     
  19. Drawer L

    Drawer L Forum Resident In Memoriam

    Location:
    Long Island
    No.It's '63.The Angels did "My Boyfriend's Back" on the same episode.
     
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