Surf Guitar King dies

LOS ANGELES: Dick Dale, whose loud power-chord instrumentals on songs like Miserlou and Let’s Go

Trippin’ earned him the title King of the Surf Guitar, has died at age 81.

Dale liked to say it was he and not the Beach Boys who invented surf music – and some critics have said he was right.

An avid surfer, Dale started building a devoted Los Angeles fan base in the late 1950s. Miserlou, his signature song, had been adapted from a Middle Eastern folk tune, which he transformed into a surfrock instrumental. | AP