A groundbreaking rock'n'roll musician, Dick Dale made his electric guitar sound like an oud, the stringed instrument of the Near East. The tonalities of the Lebanese-American surf instrumentalist lead the way to pychedelia, but his emphasis on the power inherent in amplified guitars also pushed toward heavy metal.
Dale's latest reissue collection opens with his most familiar hit, “Miserlou,” an old Near Eastern folk melody revved up with an Eddie Cochrane rhythm and played in double time on Dale's guitar, whose moist sound suggested the bobbing waves of Santa Catalina. Guitar Legend collects a dozen tracks from the early ‘60s (including his blazing “Hava Nagila”), skips ahead to the 1987 tribute duet on “Pipeline” with blues guitar master Stevie Ray Vaughan, and concludes with a few tracks from the ‘90s and ‘00s showing that Dale's sound had grown heavier but no less nimble with time.
