LIVE IN HOBOKEN - 2000
Hoboken, NJ is located on the Hudson River directly opposite the island of Manhattan, i.e. New York City. Formerly a somewhat industrial city, it is famous for, among other things, being the home of the old Maxwell House Coffee plant, easily seen from New York City. Down the road from Maxwell House Coffee is a saloon that in years past served the needs of the Maxwell House Coffee employees (Man does not live by coffee alone.) and appropriately enough came to be known as Maxwell’s.
In the rear of Maxwell’s, away from the bar and dining area, is a small, deliberately unadorned, undecorated room, where over the years many bands have taken a stand, often while in transit between bigger and greater cities such as New York and Boston, or New York and Philly. A few have gone on to great accomplishment, such as Nirvana, Sonic Youth, and The Smashing Pumpkins. And a few landed up finding work at the Maxwell House Coffee plant. But most spend years traveling from city to city, bar to bar, doing what they love to do, the only thing they can do.
Last month something happened at Maxwell’s that doesn’t neatly fit into any of these categorizations, though. It was obvious from the beginning, actually. Listening to Maxwell’s’ answering machine in September one could here a lengthy list of scheduled guests, some names familiar, but many not. However, when the Maxwell voice got to October 7ths guest, the name was preceded by, “the great...”. No other name before, or after, this name earned this preface. I’m sure many phoning in thought to themselves, “What makes this guy great? Nobody else was called ‘great’!” But I knew the answer to that question. Just like I knew the very first time I heard Link Wray play guitar that I had just heard the best rock and roll guitar I had ever heard in my life. No, not necessarily the best guitar, not necessarily the best rock guitar, but definitely the best rock and roll guitar. That was a long time ago, and a lot of things have changed in my life since then. But one thing that hasn’t is that I still think Link Wray is the greatest rock and roll guitarist I’ve ever heard.
October 7th was a Saturday and a fine day for rock and roll! Autumn was doing its thing, and Halloween was just around the corner. Gabrielle and I got to Maxwell’s about an hour early. I am predictably late for everything and always have been, except for music. I go to concerts early. I like to check out the venue, the sound system, the guitars and amplifiers before the show begins.
So I’m sitting on Maxwell’s’ floor for about an hour, checking the place out, thinking about “Barbed Wire”, Link’s recent follow up to “Shadowman”, and how powerful it is, and wondering if Link can still perform at that energy level live. Link’s live show has always been his strong suit, but he’s no spring chicken anymore (not that I am either!).
“Homes”, the opening act, turns out to be a pleasant surprise. The front man is dressed in white coveralls sporting an STP decal (Special Treatment Petroleum, not Stone Temple Pilots). He has a good sense of humor and likes to tell a joke or two between each song. He explains that he likes Autumn because it’s the time of the year when his sideburns change color and fall off! Well, I thought it was funny at the time. Their music is British and early sixties in tone. There’s no doubt in my mind that they’ve listened to a lot of Yardbirds. The lead guitarist plays a Gibson SG, ala early Townsend or Clapton (while with Cream). Gabrielle seems to like them a lot, as does everyone else, and at the end of the set the small crowd asks for an encore. The STP endorsing frontman says he thinks the band knows one more song, and at its conclusion many in the room take advantage of the opportunity to relieve themselves of previously consumed beverages, and then purchase some more.
Anticipation surely colors one’s sense of time, and it seems to me like hours, rather than minutes, are passing as I sit on the sidelines awaiting the arrival of Link, Olive Julie, Screaming Red, and Link’s bandmates from California. I’m not sure who he is, but some guy is asking everyone to out their smokes because it’s “ really rough on Link.”, and the next thing I know, the unmistakable leather jacketed, pony tailed image that personifies the spirit of rock and roll is on stage, strapping on a guitar.
It only took the opening chords of Rumble to convince me that Link’s guitar prowess was completely intact, and septuagenarian or not, he still had the picking hand of a twenty year old. The sound was very loud and powerful, and maybe a little bit too much so, because before Rumble concluded it was clear that one of the amps, or some piece of sound equipment, had suffered a blown tube or some serious ground fault, because there was a very audible hum whenever there was a silence. This did not turn into a big problem because, for one thing, there is rarely a silence during a Link Wray show! Not only did this noise fail to distract Link, but he seemed to thrive on it and just played louder and harder.
Rumble was only the first of many classics to be heard, including Rawhide, Jack The Ripper, The Black Widow, Run Chicken Run, Deuces Wild, Ace of Spades, I’m Branded, and The Batman Theme. Many of the songs were performed with the newer names and personalities Link has assigned them the past few years, but whether you call it Barbed Wire or by some other name, Run Chicken Run is still Run Chicken Run! This inebriated Hoboken crowd definitely preferred the loud rockers over the slower, sentimental tunes, and I even heard a heckler yell some unpleasantries during one of the slower numbers. This didn’t deter Link from doing them, though. Songs like Home is Where The Heart Is and Young And Beautiful seem to carry a lot of meaning for Link, which is possibly attributable to Link’s feelings for Olive Julie. Link and Julie’s affection for each other is very real and, in my opinion, is part of the equation that explains Link’s ability to do what he’s doing at this point in his life.
Case in point: Julie does this rehearsed move occasionally during which she slowly walks from stage left to stage right, and back again, playing her tambourine with a drum stick the entire time. One time, though, the exact timing of this movement was less than perfect, and Link and Julie collided in center stage in the middle of a song! Link was clearly thrown off balance for a moment. He literally walked Julie back to stage left, and then returned to his central location and continued playing. I was concerned that this incident might impact on the momentum of the current song as well as the remaining songs. As Link continued with the song, I noticed his head turning slightly right. He winked at Julie, and I saw her smiling back at him... they never missed a beat.
Before the set ended, Link broke into Rumble again, which received a very enthusiastic reaction in Maxwell’s back room, which at this point was quite crowded due to recent arrivals from the front part of Maxwell’s as well as Washington Street. When concluded, Julie and Link waved goodbye and left quickly. And I mean left as in completely exited the building to the street through a rear door. Link left Screamin Red plugged in and totally up (not in standby) and Screaming Red started feeding back. And feeding back. And feeding back! It got really loud and the walls were reverberating with the energy. Gabrielle and I looked at each other in amazement. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Link, followed by Julie, returning from outside with a grin on his face. He got Screaming Red under control and began a second set, the highlight of which, for me, was a smoking version of Jack The Ripper. It was very long and Link did this thing during which he would walk over to the bass guitarist and physically pull him over to the center stage area and jam with him while their backs were pressed against each others.
Though Olive Julie and the band showed a little wear and tear at the end of the night, Link had obviously tapped into something, somewhere, somehow, and finished up past 2:00AM looking like he could easily have continued playing ‘till the sun came up. As he left the small back room of Maxwell’s, Link received a very warm, appreciative ovation from the mix of old fans, new fans, and other Saturday night revelers.
Gabrielle and I left Maxwell’s at approximately 2:30AM. We cut through the restaurant section and discussed the possibility of returning to Maxwell’s someday soon and having dinner before a show. We walked out onto 11th St. into complete blackness and stillness. I could really hear my ears ringing from the show now. There was no one and nothing on the street with the exception of one very plain looking white van parked adjacent Maxwell’s’ building. We began walking to our car when suddenly Gabrielle exclaimed, “Look, there’s Link!”. And, sure enough, there were Link and Julie walking toward the van. I hastened our pace and arrived at the van just as Link was climbing in.. I turned toward Olive Julie, still standing outside the van, and told her how much Link and she coming to The States and touring like this meant to me. She thanked me for my words and assured me that they would be back real soon, and with that she joined Link in the van and off they drove. I stood totally still for a moment and watched the van drive away, east on 11th St.
As my eyes looked eastward, ‘cross the river and toward midtown Manhattan, the evening’s great irony hit home with much, much greater force than it had earlier, though I had been feeling it since I woke up in the morning.
You see, for many, many months the press had been anticipating and writing about this glorious day in rock history. There were moments of doubt when some said it could never fly , and in the end the “rock event of the decade” didn’t come off as planned, but it did come off. I’m talking about Pete Townsend and The Who at the famous Madison Square Garden in midtown Manhattan. Jimmy Page was to be the opening act (supported by The Black Crows). Jimmy couldn’t make it due to a back injury, otherwise he certainly would have been there.
As Link and Julie disappeared around the corner on their way to a local motel, or maybe even the next city on the tour, I imagined the mayhem at The Garden... 20,000 fans cheering one of rock’s super groups. The insanity when they were whisked away by limousine afterwards to The Plaza or some other very fine New York City Hotel. Rolling Stone, Spin, all those guitar, keyboard and drum magazines, not to mention The Voice and the local papers, fighting for a piece of the story. Then, just for a moment, I recalled those early Jimmy Page/Zeppelin albums with all those great I-IV-V songs, like Moby Dick. Have you ever listened to Moby Dick and then listened to Link’s The Black Widow? Quite a coincidence, don’t you think? And as for The Who, well, “Live At Leed’s” could easily have been a Link Wray tribute album. Townsend has, of course, made his heart felt debt to Link quite public in past interviews.
Don’t get me wrong. I have great respect for The Who, and I love Jimmy Page. He’s my favorite of the 60’s Brit guitarists. He still plays great both live and on record. But the awesome irony , absurdity and inequity of the evening’s events on opposite sides of The Hudson was much too much to ignore.
The following week I often thought of how well Link played that night at Maxwell’s, and how little credit, in my opinion, he’s received for his immeasurable contribution to rock and roll history. The following weekend I drove over 500 miles to another bar, in another town, in another state, to have that experience again. And if I could do it again this weekend, I surely would.
These days there seem to be as many guitar heroes as Stratocaster clones, and anyone who’s stuck it out for ten years is deemed a legend. But that’s not the way it works. It takes a much greater sacrifice than that to be a hero, and a much greater commitment than that to be a legend. You can count the real heroes, the true guitar legends on your fingers. Link Wray is a rock and roll hero. If he ever passes by your home in his travels, make it a point to see him. Take a vacation day at work, borrow the cover charge if necessary, but do it. And get there early, so we can check out the guitars and amplifiers . See you there.
Howie Fishman
