`King of Surf Guitar` Dick Dale dead at 81
(Artdaily.org)

Dick Dale, the California rocker behind the song `Misirlou` which plays during the opening scene of `Pulp Fiction,` has died at the age of 81. His death on Saturday was confirmed on Facebook by Dusty Watson, a drummer who once toured with Dale, though the cause of death was not immediately known. Dubbed the `King of Surf Guitar,` the genre he invented in the 1950s, Dale`s work was influential to a generation of musicians including The Beach Boys, Eddie Van Halen and Jimi Hendrix. The keen surfer and musical pioneer described the style in a 1994 interview with the New York Times as `a heavy machine-gun staccato picking style to represent the power of Mother Nature, of our Earth, of our ocean.` According to a biography on his website, Dale worked with electric guitar trailblazer Leo Fender to develop