SURF rock king dies guitar legend Dick Dale, whose music featured in cult film Pulp Fiction, has died aged 81.

Dale was credited with pioneering a genre of music based on Californian surf culture.

His former bassist Sam Bolle says Dale — who had a career spanning six decades — passed away on Saturday night.

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

Director Quentin Tarantino used "Misirlou" to set the pace and build tension early in "Pulp Fiction" and the song also popped up in other movies, television commercials and video games.

"SO INTENSE"
Tarantino said: "Having 'Misirlou' as your opening credit, it's just so intense.

"It just says you're watching an epic, you're watching a big ol' movie ... It just throws down a gauntlet that the movie now has to live up to."

An avid surfer, Dale started building a devoted Los Angeles fan base in the late 1950s with repeated appearances at Newport Beach's old Rendezvous Ballroom.

He played "Miserlou," ''The Wedge," ''Night Rider" and other compositions at wall-rattling volume on a custom-made Fender Stratocaster guitar.

"Miserlou," which would become his signature song, had been adapted from a Middle Eastern folk tune Dale heard as a child and later transformed into a thundering surf-rock instrumental.