Talk about a guitar hero!
The 78-year-old “King of Surf Guitar” will rock out on a Williamsburg stage on Aug. 21. Guitar legend Dick Dale, who pioneered the surf rock genre, has hung ten at Brooklyn Bowl before, and he expects this show to be as crowded as Coney Island during the Mermaid Parade.
“Every time we came in there, it’s packed all the way to the walls,” Dale said. “It’s strictly a Dick Dale listening audience.”
The crowd coming to see the show is not limited to local surf rock fans.
“People are flying in from Ireland, England, Greenland,” he said. “I guess they want to see me before they think I’m going to die.”
The septuagenarian shredder stays active, noting that “at 78, I’m still bouncing around like a maniac.” But he is also battling severe health issues, including rectal cancer, renal failure, diabetes and vertebrae damage. Dale says that he keeps touring in order to pay for his medical bills.
His wife Lana serves as his agent and manager as well as taking care of his health, despite having her own medical problems.
“We’re a couple of sickies taking care of each other,” said Dale. “We’re inseparable.”
Dale’s surf rock reached the peak of its popularity in the 1960s, after playing two songs for the film “Beach Party,” and he made regular appearances on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” He has performed steadily ever since then, working with Stevie Ray Vaughan in the parody movie “Back To The Beach,” and gaining a whole new audience after Quentin Tarantino used his song “Misirlou” as the opening music to the film “Pulp Fiction.”
Dale remembers Tarantino coming to a concert in Amsterdam and asking for permission to use the song. He recalls the director saying: “I’ve been listening to your music since time began. I want to complement the masterpiece of your music playing and make a masterpiece of a movie.”
Dale says that his philosophy is to take things one day at a time.
“I don’t live for yesterday,” he said. “I could be dead in 30 seconds, so why worry about tomorrow?”
Dick Dale at Brooklyn Bowl [61 Wythe Ave. between N. 11th and N. 12th streets in Williamsburg, (718) 963–3369, www.brook
