LINK WRAY - Rumble - (1996, The Rumble Man, UK)

LINK WRAY - The Rumble Man
11 Rumble

The first film to feature one of the most influential guitar players of all time, the mighty Link Wray. Some of music's most famous names have been in thrall to the guitar playing of Link Wray. Bob Dylan proclaimed Link's song "Rumble" as "the best instrumental ever".

Other's that claim to have been influenced by the great man include The Who, Neil Young, The MC5 and The Stooges. Wray has been performing and recording since the 1940's and enjoyed a U.S. million selling single with "Rumble" in 1958.

Filmed during Link Wray's UK tour of 1996, The Rumble Man is a mix of live footage and documentary featuring an extensive interview with the man himself. The Godfather of dangerous guitar talks openly about his life, his music, the army and his collaborations and friendships with an array of stars including Hank Williams, Tex Ritter, Gene Vincent and Elvis Presley.

www.cherryred.co.uk

• Category

  People & Blogs

[Bietel]

Didi you guys see that It Might Get Loud DVD? I love it when Jimmy Page picks an old copy of Rumble from a bunch of 45s, puts it on, and plays air guitar to it - beaming like a 16 year old kid while trying to explain what's so special about it.

Another 'wow'.

[Bietel]

Hey hey,

Eric here - the bassplayer in this vid.

First of all: this is not the original bassline, I know, but Link insisted on me doing it like this. (The original was chromatic and played on a double bass that was out of tune.)

Kidvic123: well spotted! Actually I do have a little leather loop strapped to the bridge, and when plugging in I put my wrist through that strap, also taking the plug through the loop, like you do with a shoulder strap. The Höfner bass is light enough to do that!

[ddarkshark]

Check out the movie 'Roadracers" it's Link Wray music and great movie!

[rrp1984]

Ya wow, the roots was in page eyes when he had this on.

[MrSaluky]

the coolest rocker in the world

[Bietel]

We rehearsed only twice and then Link said "OK we're ready", the setlist was thrown out after two shows, we were just following Link's lead. After a handful of shows Link decided that he wanted to bring us in for recording scheduled later that year in England as well, and we hit the studio with a couple of tours under our belt, and we were pretty tight. On a personal level, we became good friends (that helped!) That album became 'Shadowman'; we toured after that - as far as Australia!

[Bietel]

When Link wanted to do another tour (after his songs were used by tarantino and others), he was looking for some young musicians that could rock out. Me and Rob had just done a European tour with Rudi Protrudi (of the Fuzztones) as another line-up of Link Protrudi and the Jaymen, playing lots of Link Wray stuff -well, obviously!- and more... and then we got a call, like, "are you the guys who just played Link Wray songs all over Europe?" and we were Links band!

[creamycanarie98]

So did you originally form a band with Link or were you a session musician or just a close friend or whatever? :)

[Quadrant14]

this guy was doing this stuff back in 1958 he was one of the ORIGINAL killers of rock....so these young guys , Page , ACDC fellas were kids when he was strutting his stuff

COOOL man

[MrVicioussss]

Yup. Not the first distortion guitar on record, but probably first distortion + power chords. Regardless, if you listen to something like AC/DC's Back In Black, you clearly hear he was the foundational influence of hard rock/heavy metal.

[Bietel]

It was even banned for being too sexually suggestive... that's even better for an instrumental, right? Some of the bans were simply because it was a dark menacing instrumental, but also that in combination with the title 'Rumble' was considered inappropriate, indeed linking it to gang violence.

To answer ReSistaNceCitizenX's question: this was 1996 or 1997, in London or Manchester. (I'll have to look closely, if there's a Dead Moon shirt hanging over the bass amp -to dry!- it's Manchester!)