Link Wray

[dustymars]

I started out learning and playing that stuff back in Jr Hi (1953) then went out on tour during Hi School (1955-59) and for some time after that with a local band. We played beer joints and larger venues down the southeast coast into Florida. My first guitar was a cheap Sears Silvertone, of course. My first Gibson was a yellow TV model then an SG, and a few models I forget and then ES-335. I cannot play anymore due to arthritis and then lack of interest.

Yesterday I was just listening to very popular guitar picker in the 1950's, Link Wray, who wrote "Rumble" and wanted to get my axe out to play along with Link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucTg6rZJCu4&list=RDucTg6rZJCu4&start_radio=1

The tune is quite easy to play and is not very sophisticated or really technical at all, but back then, in 1958, when we struck out with it the audience went bonkers. I remember once having to play it so long my fingers bled. Link was everything that teens liked then. A character for sure. It proved that the simplest tunes caught attention.

Anyone here ever heard of Link Wray and his wild rock & roll?

 

Edited December 22, 2023 by dustymars

[gearbasher]

I was always a Robert Gordon fan. Link Wray toured with Gordon and played on a couple of his albums.

[dustymars]

Yeah, here's one I remember:

 

 

[jdgm]

Yes I've played "Rumble" a few times on a gig.

Used to have a couple of of his 1970s LPs.

[Rabs]

Jimmy did a cover of this recently

 

[gearbasher]

Rumble--sped up with lyrics?

 

[dustymars]

Yeah, Link surely got our attention back then.  Some of the places we played always had a few requesting that new kind of music, Link's Rock.  🙂  It has been so long ago I have a hard time remembering it. But, the reaction from the gals was weird.  Now I know how Elvis must have felt when the gals would come up at the stage and grab at us.  Glad I didn't take the adulation seriously or my life would have been entirely different, and short.  Some of the musicians we ran into on the road, much better and more popular that we were got into the grassy smelling smoke and powder. That ended many of their lives.    Sometimes our dreams are nightmares in disguise.😁

Edited December 22, 2023 by dustymars

[Larsongs]

Rumble was so bad *** when it came out the had to censor it from Radio Stations as it made Kids go crazy & turn into Juvenile Delinquents!

Seriously, it’s one of the great all time Instrumentals! It’s still bad ***..

[Murph]

11 hours ago, Larsongs said:

Rumble was so bad *** when it came out the had to censor it from Radio Stations as it made Kids go crazy & turn into Juvenile Delinquents!

I've always wondered what caused that.

[Larsongs]

Here’s a great performance by Link..  

 

[Larsongs]

2 hours ago, Murph said:

I've always wondered what caused that.

They’d been listening to Perry Como & Pat Boone up til then.. It was a paradigm shift.. 

[Murph]

8 minutes ago, Larsongs said:

 It was a paradigm shift.. 

Interesting.

A paradigm shift is a fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline. It is a concept in the philosophy of science that was introduced and brought into the common lexicon by the American physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn. Even though Kuhn restricted the use of the term to the natural sciences, the concept of a paradigm shift has also been used in numerous non-scientific contexts to describe a profound change in a fundamental model or perception of events.

Kuhn presented his notion of a paradigm shift in his influential book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962).

Kuhn contrasts paradigm shifts, which characterize a Scientific Revolution, to the activity of normal science, which he describes as scientific work done within a prevailing framework or paradigm. Paradigm shifts arise when the dominant paradigm under which normal science operates is rendered incompatible with new phenomena, facilitating the adoption of a new theory or paradigm.[1]

As one commentator summarizes:

Kuhn acknowledges having used the term "paradigm" in two different meanings. In the first one, "paradigm" designates what the members of a certain scientific community have in common, that is to say, the whole of techniques, patents and values shared by the members of the community. In the second sense, the paradigm is a single element of a whole, say for instance Newton’s Principia, which, acting as a common model or an example... stands for the explicit rules and thus defines a coherent tradition of investigation. Thus the question is for Kuhn to investigate by means of the paradigm what makes possible the constitution of what he calls "normal science". That is to say, the science which can decide if a certain problem will be considered scientific or not. Normal science does not mean at all a science guided by a coherent system of rules, on the contrary, the rules can be derived from the paradigms, but the paradigms can guide the investigation also in the absence of rules. This is precisely the second meaning of the term "paradigm", which Kuhn considered the most new and profound, though it is in truth the oldest.

 

And yet we have to apply warnings telling people to not eat "Tide Pods"...

[dustymars]

Link looks like a silly, out of touch guy back then and even worse today, but he grew on the youngsters very fast.  Probably a touch of rebellion for some of us then.  I often tell my wife that the most successful music often turns out to be the simplest tunes and lyrics. It attracts people because they can remember it and hum the tunes easily.  Unlike Jazz, Link Wray's music was anything but complex and technical.  As a guitar player Jazz attracted me because it most challenging and more difficult to understand.  Maybe I am not explaining it correctly, being an old guy that has not played in years.  

I often search for videos featuring Jeff "Skunk" Baxter because he fit well with Steely Dan's style of music, then was a deep thinker that fit in with the military defense strategy.   He is a genius that started off picking and mastering the guitar and scientific endeavors as well.  Like Link Wray, both were thinkers and doers.

[Larsongs]

It’s been said, there are guys that can play 1000 notes & shred Scales like nobody’s business and say nothing.. And there are guys that can play 1 note & say it all..  

 

[gearbasher]

5 hours ago, Larsongs said:

It’s been said, there are guys that can play 1000 notes & shred Scales like nobody’s business and say nothing.. And there are guys that can play 1 note & say it all..  

 

From a B.B. King interview:

“I can’t play a lot of fast notes, but the ones I do try to play, I try to make a lot of sense of it. To me, each note is precious.”

[Larsongs]

There’s another old saying but I can’t remember who?

How to make $1,000,000.00 as a Jazz musician…. First you get $1,000,000.00.. Then you play Jazz!

[Murph]

21 hours ago, dustymars said:

  As a guitar player Jazz attracted me because it most challenging and more difficult to understand. 

That's the stuff that attracted me to more complex rock, as well.

As time went on, I became bored with distortion and drawn to acoustic tones and complexities. Which, in turn, lead me to modern (and some vintage) bluegrass (Punch Brother, et al) and the lightning speed and accuracy of those players. But the simple, slower and softer stuff that Dave Rawlings and Gillian Welch do have a special place as well.

Great thread.

[Larsongs]

My Grandfather had a Dixieland Jazz Orchestra in Chicago in the 20’s during Prohibition.. He got pretty big & was signed to Victor Records & others as well. He played every Horn & Reed Instrument.. My Mom was a Formally trained Pianist & Singer. She played & sang beautifully.. She appeared on Lawrence Welk when she was 16.. 

My brothers, sister & I were born into a musical family.. I have been exposed to almost everything.. Classical always fascinated me.. As did Jazz. So did early Blues.. But, it didn’t click for me til I saw Elvis on Ed Sullivan play his style of Rock n Roll.

I still like all kinds of music.. I was not formally trained. My Mom never wanted my brother & I to pursue music.. I never knew why?  But, we did & we still love playing, singing, writing songs, recording & performing.

I still believe the most complex thing a musician can do is create a 3 Chord Rock n Roll Masterpiece.

[Murph]

7 hours ago, Larsongs said:

 My Mom never wanted my brother & I to pursue music.. I never knew why?  

But NOW you do, eh?

[Larsongs]

2 hours ago, Murph said:

But NOW you do, eh?

Yeah! LOL!

 

[dustymars]

I still like Blues.  It is great to hear so many young players into Blues guitar.  My Mom gave me an old wooden radio back in the late 1940's and I found a local garage station that played Blues.  First time I heard B.B. King I think was in 1949.  Then Jimmy Reed set me off listening to all his stuff in the early 1950's.  Later on, I started playing his Blues, Eddie Tayor was his lead player.  The last time I played was a list of Reed tunes.  My left hand gave way to arthritis soi I loosened the strings and put it in the case for good.    Their tunes were simple, but great. 

I like all kinds of music except opera.  Music allows me to model astronomical equations in my head and understand how the Solar System works.  I guess.

[DynBloo]

On 12/22/2023 at 10:00 PM, dustymars said:

I started out learning and playing that stuff back in Jr Hi (1953) then went out on tour during Hi School (1955-59) and for some time after that with a local band. We played beer joints and larger venues down the southeast coast into Florida. My first guitar was a cheap Sears Silvertone, of course. My first Gibson was a yellow TV model then an SG, and a few models I forget and then ES-335. I cannot play anymore due to arthritis and then lack of interest.

Yesterday I was just listening to very popular guitar picker in the 1950's, Link Wray, who wrote "Rumble" and wanted to get my axe out to play along with Link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucTg6rZJCu4&list=RDucTg6rZJCu4&start_radio=1

The tune is quite easy to play and is not very sophisticated or really technical at all, but back then, in 1958, when we struck out with it the audience went bonkers. I remember once having to play it so long my fingers bled. Link was everything that teens liked then. A character for sure. It proved that the simplest tunes caught attention. It does not require much time to study, and even excellent students can afford to free themselves to play. But even on the busiest days of school life, when classes and assignments seem endless, you can find a way to free yourself. My nephew says he goes to https://essays.edubirdie.com/pay-for-essay for this. Although he's more trying to just play video games.  Anyone here ever heard of Link Wray and his wild rock & roll?

 

Owe him half the music I listen to