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?

My music bio:  https://alpo-astronomy.org/jbeish/My_Music.pdf
 

[dustymars]

Yeah, Link Wray 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.