Link Wray
Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr. ( born 2 May 1929 in Dunn, North Carolina; † 5 November 2005 in Copenhagen, Denmark) was an American guitarist. He became famous with his instrumental Rumble, which he reached in 1958 ranked 16th on the Billboard Hot 100. The name of the piece led to its boycott on some radio stations - a rare fate for an instrumental piece.
Life and work
Wray grew up in the U.S. state of Arizona. At the age of eight he heard there for the first time a slide guitar from a black player named " Hambone ". His family later moved to a suburb of Washington DC. He participated in the Korean War, where he incurred a tuberculosis and lost a lung. Since he could not sing after a longer period, he specialized in instrumental pieces. Wray and his brothers Doug and Vernon already had the country style western swing played a few years when they anheuerten as house band at Milt Grant 's House Party, Washington's version of the American band stand. There she backed up many artists, including Fats Domino and Ricky Nelson. When she tried out an arrangement for the song The Stroll by The Diamonds, they developed the powerful Blues Rumble, which they at that time still called Oddball. The piece came with the live audience immediately very good, so were called up to four encores in the evening.
Finally, the producer Archie Bleyer of Cadence Records record label on the title was attentive. Bleyer liked the piece does not, however, whose daughter liked the number that reminded her of the musical West Side Story, which is why they renamed it. Rumble was a huge hit not only in the United States but also in Great Britain, where he influenced many bands such as the Yardbirds and The Who. The The- Who guitarist Pete Townshend wrote the accompanying text for an album Link Wray's "He is the king in 1974; if it Had not been for Link Wray and ' Rumble ,' I would have never picked up a guitar. " The guitarist Neil Young was quoted " If I could go back in time and see any band, it would be Link Wray and the Raymen. "
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the band was able to land several hard instrumental hits, including Rawhide, Ace of Spades and Jack the Ripper, but without again to reach the top 20 of the charts. Wray's career resembled since a constant ups and downs, periods of withdrawal alternated with renewed popularity, especially in Europe. With Robert Gordon he toured and recorded some albums in retro rockabilly style. With the band Dieselhed from San Francisco he went under his own name on tour.
His music has been used in many films such as Desperado, Independence Day, 12 Monkeys, Blow and Pink Flamingos. Its to be heard in the soundtrack to Quentin Tarantino's film Pulp Fiction music led along with the music of Dick Dale also used there to a surf music revival in the 1990s.
Link Wray had Indian ancestors of the people of the Shawnee. Three of his titles are named after the Native American tribes: Shawnee, Apache and Comanche.