CD Odyssey Disc 897: Dick Dale

I’m feeling a little worn out on this fine summer Thursday, and I’m ready for the weekend to begin. Before we get there, let’s get to another music review.

Disc 897 is….Mr. Eliminator

Artist: Dick Dale and his Del-Tones

Year of Release: 1964

What’s up with the Cover? This picture looks like Dick Dale is sitting behind one of those cardboard cutouts where you can pretend to be sitting in a race car. This would be a feature for kids at Daytona or something. Dick probably paid 25 cents to have his picture taken here, and I bet there was a line of kids waiting in line with their moms waiting for him to be finished so they could have a turn.

How I Came To Know It: I really loved Dick Dale’s other “ho-dad” album “Checkered Flag” and went back looking for more of the same. “Mr. Eliminator” was it.

How It Stacks Up:  I have four Dick Dale albums (plus one compilation album that doesn’t stack up). In every race there is a car that must come in last, and “Mr. Eliminator” is that car. Because this is the last Dick Dale album in my collection, here’s a recap:

1. Checkered Flag: 5 stars (reviewed at Disc 688)
2. Summer Surf: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 394)
3. Surfer’s Choice: 4 stars (reviewed at Disc 756)
4. Mr. Eliminator: 3 stars (reviewed right here)
5. Surf Beat: best of (not rated but reviewed at Disc 757)

Ratings: 3 stars

In 1963 Dick Dale struck hot rod lightning with “Checkered Flag,” one of my favourite albums of all time. “Mr. Eliminator” is proof that lightning never strikes in the same place twice. It is a good record, but it doesn’t have the same magic as the record released just one year prior.

All the elements are there. Dick Dale’s signature surf guitar sound wails across the tracks. In fact, some of the best tracks on this record are the instrumentals, which are all about Dale and his axe making magic.  The album begins with the title track, which features not only a groovy guitar riff, but some pretty sweet drumming action as well. Like most of Dale’s songs, it is over in just over two minutes, leaving you wanting more.

Fortunately, there is more, as the record features a fistful of instrumentals, including the furiously fast “Flashing Eyes” and the Mexicana-flavoured “Taco Wagon” before it hits the album’s instrumental height with “The Victor.”

“The Victor” has an arrogant disconnect in the guitar and a deep well filled with confidence and aggression that simply says “I drive fast.” I was fortunate enough to be on the bus when I heard it, with my foot far away from any inconvenient gas pedal.

On many other Dick Dale albums, the songs with lyrics paint a great picture of whatever beach crowd he is idolizing. On his surfer records, the songs are full of tanned lads sneaking off to secret surfer spots to hang ten and mocking the gremmies and the ho-dads (the slang term for the cool kids at the beach who were more into cars than surfing). On his other hot rod record, “Checkered Flag” he flips the script, and sells up these same ho-dads, racing up and down the strip looking for fast cars and adventurous women.

There are definitely moments of this latter tradition on “Mr. Eliminator.” The best example is “Blond in the 406” a classic track about a fast girl in a car faster than even Dick Dale’s hot-rod persona can muster. The resulting pursuit is a lot of fun, and Dale’s admiration for a girl who can out-duel the boys down on the strip is a welcome bit of gender equality for 1964.

“My X-KE” is a fun song about a Jaguar that warns:

“Look out Stingrays and Cobras too

I’m gonna show you what this car can do.

My X-KE, My X-KE

She cost me a fortune yessiree

Dual exhaust and four on the floor

Man this car is sure a go…er!”

I’m more into American muscle these days, but the mid-sixties Jaguar X-KE is a pretty sweet ride, and well deserving of any car enthusiast’s love.

Unfortunately, despite a lot of good stuff on “Mr. Eliminator” there is just a bit too many hokey tracks to pull me all the way in. “50 Miles To Go” might as well be “50 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” for all its musical interest, and “The Squirrel” is the kind of kitsch that would be fun if I were eight years old, but doesn’t have enough to catch my attention of a grown-up.

The record is still solid, and for musicianship alone I’m tempted to give it 4 stars, but it suffers from standing in the tall shadow of “Checkered Flag.” The instrumentals made me long for better ones on other albums, and apart from the two exceptions noted above, the songs with lyrics were lacking the standard of excellence I’ve come to expect from a master like Dick Dale. I guess he spoiled me with his own greatness.

Best tracks:  Mr. Eliminator, The Victor, Blond in the 406, My X-KE