Profile of Link Wray on Famous Like Me

Link Wray (born May 2, 1929) is a rock and roll guitar player most noted for the early feedback and distortion experimentation on his major hit, the 1957 instrumental "Rumble", by Link Wray and the Raymen. Its menacing sound (and title) led to a ban on several radio stations, a rare fate for a song with no lyrics.

Wray was born in Dunn, North Carolina, but grew up in Arizona, where he first heard slide guitar at age 8 from a black player named "Hambone". His family later moved to Accokeek, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C.. He currently lives in Denmark with his wife, Olive.

Wray is a veteran of the Korean war, where he contracted tuberculosis that ultimately cost him a lung. Despite this, on his rare vocals he displays a range equivalent to Clarence "Frogman" Henry.

Wray and his brothers Doug and Vernon Wray had been playing country music and Western swing for several years when they took a gig as the house band on Milt Grant's House Party, a Washington version of American Bandstand. They played for many performers, from Fats Domino to Ricky Nelson. When attempting to work up a backing for The Diamonds' "The Stroll", they came up with the stately, powerful blues instrumental "Rumble", which they called "Oddball". The song was an instant hit with the live audience, which demanded four repeats that night.

Eventually the song came to the attention of record producer Archie Bleyer of Cadence Records, who hated it, particularly after Wray poked holes in his guitar speakers to make it sound more like the live version (see "Rocket 88"). Bleyer's daughter, however, loved it and renamed it because it reminded her of West Side Story. It became a huge hit, not only in the United States, but also Britain, where it has been cited as an influence on the Yardbirds and The Who, among others. (Pete Townshend wrote liner notes for a 1974 Wray album.)

The band had several more hard-rocking instrumental hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including "Rawhide", "Ace of Spades", and "Jack the Ripper", the latter named after a "dirty boogie" dance popular in Baltimore at the time.

Wray's career has been in and out since those days, with periods of retirement followed by renewed popularity, particularly in Europe. He toured and recorded several albums with retro rockabilly Robert Gordon and continues to tour under his own name, most recently with the San Francisco band Dieselhed.

His music has been featured in numerous films, including Desperado, Pulp Fiction, Independence Day, 12 Monkeys, This Boy's Life, Johnny Depp's Blow, Brad Pitt's Johnny Suede, and Pink Flamingos by John Waters, which is set in Baltimore.

In 1999, his tune "Jack the Ripper" was used in the original Taco Bell television commercial featuring a talking chihuahua.

Part Shawnee Indian, Wray has frequently spoken of ancestry in performances and interviews, and three of his compositions bear the names of American Indian tribes: "Shawnee," "Apache," and "Comanche."

DigitalDreamDoor.com named him the most underrated rock artist of all time.

See Also

• Rolling Stone's List of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time

External link

• Link Wray's Net Shack

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