Much more than ‘Pulp Fiction’: How the Arab world inspired the pioneering sound of Dick Dale
Dick Dale’s importance to the development of modern guitar playing is nothing short of monumental. Hailed as ‘The King of the Surf Guitar’, while the title is demonstrative of his eminence, it doesn’t account for the real significance of his triumphs. Adding to this, Dale’s timeless 1962 track ‘Miserlou’ is much more noteworthy than just the one that made Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction tick.
During the early 1960s, Dale was at the peak of his powers. His efforts were so groundbreaking that they would influence most of the leading acts in surf music, including The Beach Boys, The Trashmen and Jan and Dean. Notably, these artists would sometimes even include covers of Dale’s pieces in their albums. After this heady period, the likes of Jimi Hendrix, Pete Townshend and Eddie Van Halen would cite him as a defining influence on their craft.
So, why was Dick Dale so impactful? His seminal work in surf rock came via his experiments with reverb, but more importantly, Middle Eastern music scales. Born Richard Monsour, he was a Lebanese-American. His grandparents were immigrants from Beirut. He grew up around the sounds of his native culture and looked to incorporate them into rock. This proved to be his ultimate masterstroke.
Dale’s work was directly informed by the Arabic music he listened to as a child. “My music comes from the rhythm of Arab songs,” Dale told George Baramki Azar in 1998. “The darbukkah, along with the wailing style of Arab singing, especially the way they use the throat, creates a very powerful force.”
While Dale’s use of reverb was transformative, it was the way he applied the effect to non-Western scales that effectively breathed new life into guitar playing and rock music. Everything from psychedelia to metal would follow, positioning him as a crucial component in the musical explosion of the 1960s.
Then we come to ‘Miserlou’. It has long been regarded as one of the tracks that epitomise the era of rock and roll, drive-in cinemas and diners – all ostensibly American concepts, and employed by directors like Quentin Tarantino to bring this period to life. However, it originated in the Eastern Mediterranean region as ‘Misirlou’. As is the case with almost all traditional folk songs, the original author is unknown, but Arabic, Greek, and Jewish musicians were all playing it by the 1920s.
The earliest recorded version is a Greek one from 1927. It was performed in the rebetiko style, a mixture of traditional Greek music, Orthodox chanting and the Ottoman songs popularised during the country’s occupation.
Interestingly, Dick Dale’s version of the song was not the first to be a hit in America. In 1946, the pianist and xylophonist Jan August found success with his “one-man piano duet” of it. However, it was Dale who brought it to the masses in an alternative new guise. He would later explain that his version was influenced by an Arabic rendition performed on the oud, a Persian stringed instrument, underpinning the global flavour to the stew of pop culture.
