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Link Wray
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Link Wray, in full Fred Lincoln Wray, was an American guitarist, songwriter and singer. He was born in Dunn, North Carolina, in 1929 and grew up in great poverty. According to him his mother was of Shawnee descent, and the family faced discrimination. With his brothers he played country in clubs around Portsmouth, Virginia. During the Korean War he contracted tuberculosis and a lung had to be removed. Doctors thought he would never be able to sing again, and he turned to instrumental guitar music.
Music and breakthrough
In 1958 Rumble was released, an instrumental that reached the top 20 in America. It was one of the first rock songs with distortion and tremolo on the guitar. To get that raw sound, Wray poked holes in the speaker of his amplifier. Rumble was slang for a fight between youth gangs, and in New York and Boston the song was banned from the radio for fear that it would incite young people. Further hits followed, such as Rawhide and Jack the Ripper. Later he recorded in a converted chicken coop, making records such as Link Wray (1971), and in the late 1970s he toured with the rockabilly singer Robert Gordon. He died in Copenhagen in 2005.
Influence
Wray is regarded as the inventor of the power chord: a bare chord of root and fifth, played hard and distorted. His instrumentals were a blueprint for hard rock, punk and heavy metal. Pete Townshend said that without Rumble he would never have picked up a guitar, and Jimmy Page, Iggy Pop and Neil Young also named him as an influence.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1964Sings and Plays Guitar
- 1969Yesterday - Today
- 1971Link Wray
- 1973Be What You Want To
- 1973Beans and Fatback
- 1974Link Wray
- 1975Stuck in Gear
- 1977Link Wray
- 1978Fresh Fish Special
- 1979Bullshot
- 1990Apache
- 1990Wild Side of the City Lights
- 1993Indian Child
- 1997Shadowman
- 2000Barbed Wire
- 2014Two Classic Albums Plus Singles And Session Tracks
- 2021Wraymen Unbound
- ?Rock 'n' Rumble
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- Mixtape 9: The InstrumentNL Reader
Mentioned in other articles
- Amplifier and overdrive Technology
As early as 1958, Link Wray poked holes in his speaker to get that sound.