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Re: Primitive Stuff / RE: (TV) Link Wray, RIP



Leo wrote:

"Quite simply, Link Wray invented the power chord ['Rumble',
1958], the major modus operandi of modern rock guitarists.
Listen to any of the tracks he recorded between that landmark
instrumental in 1958 through his Swan recordings in the
early 1960s and you'll hear the blueprints for heavy metal,
thrash, you name it" from: http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll

And "Rumble" served as a very specific blueprint for those powerful opening chords of Richard Thompson's "Shoot Out the Lights."

He also had another 1958 45 rpm
guitar instrumental called 'Rawhide'  But its tempo was
about 10 times faster than the lumbering 'Rumble'. In the
80's at great parties, I'd often put 'Rawhide' at the end
of a dance tape---invariably it got people jumpin'
around---even many of the crowd who'd spend the whole
party talking in the kitchen and were too self-concious
to dance.

And Richard Thompson even covered "Rawhide" - sort of (assuming it's the same tune as the theme music from the TV show of the same name). At one of his all-request shows at the Bottom Line in the early '90s, he gamely essayed a verse or two after picking the request (from my date, who was not at all familiar with RT) from a hat. (He also wound up taking a stab at my request, "Long Black Veil").

....when I brought back to the store a Link Wray
compilation vinyl album (had some of his 'hits',
plus his cover of the theme music for the god-awful
late-60s' tv show, "Batman").

Hey, them's fighting words! I'm somewhat younger than you, Leo, and let me tell you, for a young boy at the time, that was a pretty exciting show! I'm not even sure I recognized it as "camp." Made me a Batman fan for life. Plus a great theme song - covered not only by Wray but, among many others, the Who and the Jam.

(Of course, in hindsight, the show _was_ kind of ... god-awful.)

- Jesse
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