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Link Wray
Wray performing in July 2005
Background information
Birth name	Fred Lincoln Wray Jr.
Born	(1929-05-02)May 2, 1929 Dunn, North Carolina, U.S.
Origin	Portsmouth, Virginia, U.S.
Died	November 5, 2005(2005-11-05) (aged 76) Copenhagen, Denmark
Genres	Country rockabilly surf garage rock country rock swamp rock hard rock Instrumental rock
Occupations	Musician songwriter
Instruments	Guitar vocals steel guitar bass guitar
Years active	1955–2005
Website	www.linkwray.com

Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr. (May 2, 1929 – November 5, 2005) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist who became popular in the late 1950s. His 1958 instrumental single "Rumble", reached the top 20 in the United States; and was one of the earliest songs in rock music to utilize distortion and tremolo.

Rolling Stone ranked Wray at No. 45 on its list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. He received two nominations for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, prior to being inducted in the Musical Influence category in 2023.

Early life

Wray was born on May 2, 1929, in Dunn, North Carolina, to Fred Lincoln Wray Sr. and Lillian Mae (née Coats), whom her son identified as being of Shawnee descent. He recalled living in very harsh conditions during childhood, in mud huts, without electricity or heating, going to school barefoot, barely clothed. He recounted that his family experienced discrimination, including times when they had to hide from the Ku Klux Klan. Wray later said: "The cops, the sheriff, the drugstore owner—they were all Ku Klux Klan. They put the masks on and, if you did something wrong, they'd tie you to a tree and whip you or kill you." His family listed themselves as White on census records. Three songs Wray performed during his career were named for Indigenous peoples: "Shawnee", "Apache", and "Comanche".

Wray lived with his family in Portsmouth, Virginia from 1942 until 1955. He and his brothers Ray and Doug (born July 4, 1933 – died April 29, 1984) drove cabs during the day while working at night clubs in the Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia area. Wray's first bands, The Lucky Wray Band and The Palomino Ranch Gang, formed in Portsmouth and included brothers Ray, Doug, and Vernon (born January 7, 1924 – died March 26, 1979) and two other musicians, Dixie Neal and Shorty Horton.

Wray served in the U.S. Army during the Korean War (1950–53). He contracted tuberculosis, which hospitalized him for a year. His stay concluded with the removal of a lung, which doctors predicted would mean he would never be able to sing again.

Career

Building on the distorted electric guitar sound of early records, Wray's first hit was the 1958 instrumental "Rumble". The record was first released on Cadence Records (catalog number 1347) as by "Link Wray & His Ray Men". "Rumble" was banned in New York and Boston for fear that it would incite teenage gang violence, "rumble" being slang for a gang fight.

Before, during, and after his stints with major labels Epic and Swan, Wray released 45s under many names. Tiring of the corporate music machine, he began recording albums using a three-track studio he converted from an outbuilding on his brother's property that his father used to raise chickens, in Accokeek, Maryland. He wrote and recorded the LP Link Wray (1971), on which he wrote about his frustrations. The Neville Brothers have recorded two tracks from it, "Fallin' Rain" and "Fire and Brimstone".

While living in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1970s, Wray was introduced to Quicksilver Messenger Service guitarist John Cipollina by bassist James "Hutch" Hutchinson. He subsequently formed a band initially featuring special guest Cipollina along with the rhythm section from Cipollina's band Copperhead, bassist Hutch Hutchinson, and drummer David Weber. They opened for the band Lighthouse at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles from May 15–19, 1974. He later did numerous concerts and radio broadcasts in the Bay Area, including at KSAN and at promoter Bill Graham's Winterland Ballroom venue, with Les Lizama later replacing Hutchinson on bass. He toured and recorded two albums with retro-rockabilly artist Robert Gordon in the late 1970s. The 1980s to the present day saw a large number of reissues as well as new material. One member of his band in the 1980s, session drummer Anton Fig, later became drummer in the CBS Orchestra on the Late Show with David Letterman. In 1994, he played on four songs of the album Chatterton by French rocker Alain Bashung. He went on to release two albums of new music: Shadowman (1997) and Barbed Wire (2000).

In November 2017, Easy Eye Records announced the future release of two recently discovered recordings, "Son of Rumble", presumably a follow-up to 1958's "Rumble", and "Whole Lotta Talking", recorded in 1970. The recordings were issued as a 45rpm single in April 2018. Easy Eye released another 45rpm single of newly discovered/unreleased material for RSD 2019, "Vernon's Diamond" b/w "My Brother, My Son". "Vernon's Diamond" was recorded circa 1958-59 and is an early version of "Ace of Spades", and "My Brother, My Son" was recorded at the same sessions as "Whole Lotta Talking" in 1970.

Personal life and death

Wray's first three marriages, to Elizabeth Canady Wray, Ethel Tidwell Wray, and Sharon Cole Wray, produced eight children. In the early 1980s, Wray relocated to Denmark and married Olive Poulsen, who became his manager.

Wray died of heart failure at his home in Copenhagen, on November 5, 2005, at the age of 76. He was survived by his nine children, 24 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. Wray was cremated, and his ashes were buried in the crypt of the Christian's Church, Copenhagen.

Musical style and influence

Link Wray's 1950s recordings "straddled country and rockabilly". He later performed surf influenced garage rock in the 1960s, swamp rock and country rock in the early 1970s and hard rock in the late 1970s and onward.

Wray is credited with inventing the power chord. According to AllMusic's Cub Koda, Wray's instrumental recordings starting with "Rumble" through his Swan singles in the early 1960s laid the blueprints for "heavy metal, thrash, you name it." "Rumble" facilitated the emergence of "punk and heavy rock", according to Jeremy Simmonds.

Wray has influenced a wide range of artists. Jimmy Page described Link Wray as having a "real rebel attitude" and credited Wray in the documentary It Might Get Loud as a major influence in his early career. According to Rolling Stone, Pete Townshend of The Who once said, "If it hadn't been for Link Wray and 'Rumble,' I never would have picked up a guitar." Mark E. Smith of The Fall wrote in his autobiography: "The only people I ever really looked up to were Link Wray and Iggy Pop... Guys like are very special to me." Iggy Pop and Neil Young have also cited Wray as an influence on their work.

Bob Dylan refers to Wray in his song "Sign Language", which he recorded as a duet with Eric Clapton in 1975: "Link Wray was playin' on a juke box I was payin'/ for the words I was saying, so misunderstood/he didn't do me no good" Both Dylan and Bruce Springsteen performed Wray's tune "Rumble" in concert as a tribute to the influential musician upon his 2005 death. In 2007, musician Steven Van Zandt inducted Link Wray into the Native American Music Hall of Fame with a tribute performance by his grandson Chris Webb and Native artist Gary Small.

Discography

Singles

Wray was a featured collaborator on Robert Gordon's 1977 single "Red Hot" (Private Stock 45–156). The single peaked at No. 83 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.

Albums

Compilations

With Robert Gordon

See also

• Surf music

References

1. ^ "100 Greatest Guitarists - 45. Link Wray". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
2. "Nirvana, Kiss, Hall and Oates Nominated for Rock and Roll Hall of Fame" Archived September 2, 2016, at the Wayback Machine. Rolling Stone. October 16, 2013; retrieved October 16, 2013.
3. "Kate Bush, Missy Elliott, and Rage Against the Machine Inducted Into Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's Class of 2023". pitchfork.com. 3 May 2023. Retrieved 2023-05-03.
4. Flowers, Sonya (2008). ""Rumble"—Link Wray (1958)" (PDF). Library of Congress. Washington, DC. Retrieved 22 November 2024. Their mother, Lillian, was of Shawnee descent, and became affectionately known as Memaw.
5. Bengal, Rebecca (2023). "Link Wray & the Chord Heard 'Round the World". Our State. Retrieved 22 November 2024.
6. "Ancestry of Link Wray". Wargs.com. Retrieved 2012-08-24.
7. "Link Wray - MEGAMIX - 16 03 1994". YouTube.
8. ^ Raidt, Dana (6 February 2019). "Link Wray Grew Up Hiding from the KKK in Rural North Carolina. Over the Course of His Career, He Refused to Be Erased". Indyweek.com. Archived from the original on 2021-09-24. Retrieved 19 October 2021.
9. Cartwright, Garth. "Link Wray". The Guardian. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
10. "Musician with Virginia roots "Rumbles" for an induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame". 19 October 2017.
11. "New Biography Covers Rock 'n' Roll Guitarist Link Wray | Coastal Virginia Magazine". 21 June 2019.
12. ^ Meadows, Dick (August 28, 1971). "Link: Doing it his Way". Sounds. Spotlight Publications. p. 8.
13. ""Rumble" Riles Censors". Pophistorydig.com. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
14. "The Leading Bands Site on the Net". BayAreaBands.com. Retrieved 2013-08-09.
15. "Whisky A-Go-Go Show List 1971-1975". Chickenona unicycle.com. Retrieved June 14, 2017.
16. "Link Wray". wolfgangsvault.com. Archived from the original on 2012-06-25. Retrieved 2012-08-24.
17. Prown, Pete & Newquist, HP (1997). Legends of Rock Guitar: The Essential Reference of Rock's Greatest Guitarists, p. 25. Hal Leonard Corporation.
18. Chatterton (album booklet). Alain Bashung. Barclay Records. 1994. 523 111-2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
19. "Dan Auerbach's Easy Eye Sound Label Releases Never-Before-Heard Link Wray Song "Son of Rumble"". MXDWN Music. 29 November 2017. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
20. "Steve Hoffman Music Forums". Forums.stevehoffman.tv. Retrieved March 2, 2021.
21. ^ Bernstein, Adam (November 22, 2005). "Guitarist Link Wray Dies; Influenced Punk, Grunge". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 8, 2013.
22. Sisario, Ben (November 22, 2005). "Link Wray, 76, a Guitarist With Raw Rockabilly Sound, Dies". The New York Times.
23. "Guitarist Link Wray Dies At 76". Billboard.com. 21 November 2005.
24. ^ Koda, Cub. "Link Wray Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
25. Fablo, Syd (October 16, 2016). "Link Wray – Live at The Paradiso". Rock Salted. Retrieved 2022-12-10.
26. Simmonds, Jeremy (2008). The Encyclopedia of Dead Rock Stars: Heroin, Handguns, and Ham Sandwiches. Chicago Review Press. p. 559. ISBN 978-1-55652-754-8.
27. Smith, Mark E. (2009). Renegade: The Lives and Tales of Mark E. Smith. Penguin UK. ISBN 978-0141028668.
28. "Iggy Pop – The Colbert Report". Comedy CentraL. 30 April 2013. Archived from the original on December 6, 2021. Retrieved 2021-12-06.
29. Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine: "BBC Documentary; Don't Be Denied". BBC. Retrieved 2009-06-10.
30. "Sign Language". Dylanchords.info. Retrieved February 4, 2020.
31. "Sign Language: the meaning behind the music and lyrics in Dylan's song". Bob-dylan.org.uk. 14 June 2016. Retrieved February 4, 2020.
32. ^ Strong, Martin C. (2000). The Great Rock Discography (5th ed.). Edinburgh: Mojo Books. pp. 1084–1085. ISBN 1-84195-017-3.
33. "Hot 100 for the week ending October 15, 1977". Billboard. Vol. 89, no. 41. October 15, 1977. p. 88. Note that, despite the correct credit on the record itself, the Billboard chart credited Wray as "Link Ray".

External links

• Official website
• Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
• Link Wray's entry at the Rockabilly Hall of Fame Archived 2007-06-08 at the Wayback Machine
• Perfect Sound Forever: Be Wild, Not Evil: The Link Wray Story at furious.com
• Mr. Guitar's City After Dark: Link Wray Obituary at newyorknighttrain.com
• Vernon Wray – features some unreleased Link photos Archived 2012-03-13 at the Wayback Machine

• 1929 births
• 2005 deaths
• 20th-century American guitarists
• 20th-century American male musicians
• American expatriates in Denmark
• American country rock musicians
• American hard rock musicians
• American emigrants to Denmark
• American male guitarists
• American people of Shawnee descent
• American rockabilly guitarists
• Apex Records artists
• Burials at Christian's Church, Copenhagen
• Cadence Records artists
• Garage rock musicians
• Guitarists from North Carolina
• Norton Records artists
• Okeh Records artists
• People from Dunn, North Carolina
• Surf musicians
• Swamp rock musicians
• Swan Records artists
• United States Army personnel of the Korean War
• United States Army soldiers