DICK DALE, 1937-2019

Dick Dale, the undisputed father of the surf guitar, has died. He was 81.

Dale, born Richard Monsour, crafted the very loud, very boisterous surf sound, incorporating melodic influences from his Lebanese heritage, scoring such hits as the indelible "Miserlou" (which was revived in popular culture as the theme to the smash 1994 film Pulp Fiction), influencing countless other rock guitarists and transforming the technical possibilities of the instrument.

The Boston-born Dale was interested in music from childhood, learning country songs on the ukulele before picking up the guitar; when his family moved to Southern California during his teens, he began to surf. His two passions merged in the sounds he conjured from his axe, which variously evoked the menacing rumble and cascade of the ocean, the sparkle of the foam and the surfer's elegant glide.

With his band, The Del-Tones, he recorded what's regarded as the first true surf-rock song, "Let's Go Trippin'" (1961); "Misirlou" and various other singles highlighting his dexterous staccato picking followed, as did a deal with Capitol Records. Dale became world-famous as the ambassador of surf music, hoisting his left-handed axe on Ed Sullivan and performing in various Beach Party movies alongside Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello.

To say he played it loud is an understatement. Dale, who had no problem admitting his desire to "make people's ears bleed," was not only an emissary for Fender guitars and amplifiers but a one-man quality-control division, blowing out countless Fender amps and even causing them to burst into flames in the normal course of his shows. Leo Fender had to invent the first 100-watt guitar amp to meet Dale's deafening standards.

Surf-rock's ride across the top of the popular imagination was short-lived, soon washed aside by The Beatles and the rest of the British Invasion (not to mention Dale's raft of health problems). But he continued to be a signal influence on such guitarists as Jimi Hendrix (whose remark "then you'll never hear surf music again" on "Third Stone From the Sun" was a shout-out to an ailing Dale), Eddie Van Halen and Stevie Ray Vaughan. But he had a career revival in the '80s, joining Vaughan for a duet on his classic "Pipeline" that earned a Grammy nod. And when "Misirlou" was featured in Quentin Tarantino's electrifying Pulp Fiction, its bubbling, sinuous sound was suddenly everywhere, from video games to hip-hop samples.

He was inducted into the Musicians' Hall of Fame in Nashville in 2009; that he's in the Surfing Hall of Fame as well goes without saying.

Dale's health problems worsened in the ensuing years, including cancer, diabetes and renal failure, but he couldn't slow down, in part because the cost of his medical care required him to earn steady income. "I can't stop touring," he said in a 2015 interview, "because I will die."

Though these myriad plagues have claimed Dale's life, his extraordinary influence as a musician and performer is undimmed.