MISIRLOU
“Misirlou” is a traditional song from the Eastern Mediterranean region. The earliest known recording of the song is a 1927 Greek rebetiko / tsifteteli composition influenced by Middle-Eastern music. This song was very popular from the 1920s in the Greek and Armenian communities formed from former Ottoman citizens who had settled in the United States of America. The song gained worldwide popularity through Dick Dale’s 1962 American surf rock version, originally titled “Miserlou”, which popularized the song in Western popular culture. (More from Wikipedia)
Among other things, the 1994 film Pulp Fiction served to reintroduce one of the founding fathers of the surf sound, Dick Dale (real name: Richard Monsour), whose signature instrumental masterpiece, “Misirlou” (released in 1962 and officially by Dick Dale & His Del-Tones) is included on the soundtrack. The song is of Greek origin with Middle Eastern influences and dates from 1927; phonetically, the title is the same as how the word “Egyptian” sounds in the Turkish language. I once heard Dick Dale describe his fierce guitar technique as playing the instrument as though it were a set of drums.
(December 2014)
