Link Wray (born Fred Lincoln Wray, Jr. May 2, 1929 – November 5, 2005) was an American rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and vocalist who first came to popularity in the late 1950's. Building on distorted electric guitar sound of early electric blues records, his 1958 instrumental hit "Rumble" by Link Wray and his Ray Men invented "the power chord, the major modus operandi of modern rock guitarists", making possible "punk and heavy rock". Rolling Stone placed Wray at No. 45 of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. In 2013 he was announced as a nominee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (More from Wikipedia)
Primarily, Link Wray performed under the name Link Wray and His Ray Men (originally Link Wray and His Wray Men); there were a few other rock bands with the possessive – notably the legendary rock and roll pioneer Bill Haley and His Comets – but most bandleaders in the rock and roll era were content to just use "the" to identify the band.
Link Wray and His Ray Men have a bonafide hit song to their name, "Rumble" which got as high as #16 (and that's not bad at all for an instrumental); and they hit the singles charts twice more in the early part of his career. Not surprisingly, due to his Indian heritage, several of his recordings were named after Indian tribes: his own people, "Shawnee Tribe", plus "Comanche" and "Apache". The latter is by far the best known of these instrumental songs, though by other artists; Link Wray didn't actually record it until 1990.
Whether or not Link Wray heard the 1950's blues records with earliest power chords and got the idea has not been established as far as I know. He refined his technique over a period of time during gigs. While working up an instrumental backing for their version of a really fine early rock and roll song "The Stroll" (originally by the Diamonds), Link Wray and His Ray Men hit upon a slow-paced but incredibly powerful instrumental that they first called "Oddball". The first time they played it, it was a huge hit with the audience, who demanded four encores of the performance.
Phil Everly of the Everly Brothers reportedly heard the song and suggested the name "Rumble" since it sounded like a street fight to him. Archie Bleyer, a record producer for Cadence Records also heard about it but hated the song. However, Bleyer's step-daughter Jackie Ertel and some of her friends loved the song. Some sources even say that Jackie Ertel, not Phil Everly came up with the name – the two later married.
To this day, the raw sound that Link Wray and His Ray Men generated in "Rumble" is somewhat startling; unlike much "ground-breaking" material that is left in the dust when other artists take the musical ideas and run with them, "Rumble" still casts something of a spell.
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This month's Under-Appreciated Rock Band of the Month, Link Protrudi and the Jaymen is obviously named in honor of Link Wray and His Ray Men. However, this is not a tribute band; while they have their versions of classics like "Night Train" and "The Stroll", most of the songs that they play are originals.
(February 2013)
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Items: Link Wray and His Ray Men
