FRIDAYS FAMOUS PERSON ON A MOTORCYCLE This Friday’s Famous Person on A Motorcycle is the god of surf guitar, Mr Dick Dale. Dale moved from Massachusetts to Southern California in 1954 at the age of 17. By the following year, he’d immersed himself in surfing and also co-founded a motorcycle and car club called the Sultans of Southwest LA. He was also a budding musician and, as a south paw, played a right hand necked guitar upside down and backwards. Leo Fender took him under his wing and he worked closely with Fender to produce custom made amplifiers – Dale blew up more than 50 – helping to develop the first-ever 100w guitar amp. Dick Dale and His Del-Tones were also the first act to have more than one record in the Top Ten at once, and the first to have five songs from a single album on the charts at the same time. Dale has won countless awards, been inducted into every musical hall of fame you can think of, and is credited as been an influence on many guitarists, including Jimi Hendrix His love of motorcycles extended not only to Harleys like the ’41 Flathead here, but to Triumphs and he owned several Bonnevilles. Awards Motors in Costa Mesa carried out much of the servicing on his bikes, even after one of their mechanics slung one of Dale’s custom bikes down the road while testing it. Dick Dale just calmly said, ‘Can you fix it?’ and let them do just that. Dick Dale lives in 29 Palms, California, where there’s not much surfing to be had, but he’s still touring. Blue
Posted on: Fri, 22 Aug 2014 14:23:16 +0000