LINK WRAY OPENED UP THE GUITAR TO DISTORTION...AND PETE TOWNSHEND LISTENED
BY FRANK SIMPSON, FROM HIT PARADER MAGAZINE 1971
Rock'n'roll confrontation, 1959: Link Wray with his hit "Rawhide," a rough little instrumental that was a million seller for Epic Records in New York to record his follow up, meeting with Mitch Miller, who was then THE record producer, famous for getting Tony Bennett to sing Hank Williams' songs and putting French horns behind Guy Mitchell and making all that pre rock money.
Lincoln Wray had produced his own record, just as he did his first million seller (now, of course, golden oldie) "Rumble" for Archie Bleyer's Cadence label.
But Mitch Miller had his ideas about Link Wray. One suggestion was for Link to do "Claire de Lune" with 42 musicians - a whole symphony orchestra and all of those "fog horns" which Link's mild description of the Mitch Miller French horn musical trademark. And then he saw a musician reading, actually reading a magazine while playing. Link decided that the studio was not for him and he'd better get back to North Carolina (actually Maryland ) After all, it had happened before - people were always trying to mess with him in the studios, trying to impose their ideas on his simple rock 'n' roll.
Simple recording ideas - another Link Wray hit was "Jack the Ripper" which was put together in a house-cum-studio with some important bits taped in the toilet.
Link didn't feel at home in elegant studios - "That session with Mitch Miller," he recalls. "Took me near half an hour to find my guitar."
Link Wray is back recording and has his first album in 12 years out on Polydor, "Link Wray." He recorded it himself in his own studio, "Wray's Shack Three Track," which gives you some idea of Link's ideas about putting music down.
Three tracks, says Link, is sufficient to get your music down. "You get these studios with 16 tracks and 24 tracks and you get drunk with power. You start adding more and more to what you have and in the end it's becoming mechanical music, head music, all planned out."
"The feeling comes first. Feeling is the secret not some jumped up sound. I reckon that the days of the 24 track studios are over and there's going to be a return to simplicity."
Link was playing the local bars around the studio in Accokeek Maryland - the family had moved there from Portsmouth Virginia (by way of D.C.) and soon intent to transport everything, via flat bed truck to Tucson, Arizona. His brother Ray was managing the band and recording people like Ronnie Dove in the studio and also doing a little private recording, getting Link together. Soon they had a backlog of around 125 tunes.
Admits Link: "It's different working in the Shack. We just sit down, start the tape and play what we want. If it's good it's good and if it's bad it's bad. But there's no electronics - just the real nitty gritty. Honest music. When I'd be working in the studios in New York it'd be like working in a cathedral."
Link Wray has his place in rock history.
He reckons that he was the first one to open up the guitar to distortion, getting on the record scene just after the twanging Duane Eddy. There is a quote from Pete Townshend, leader of the Who: "If I had never heard "Rumble" I never would have picked up the guitar."
The Who would like to return the compliment by picking up Link Wray and working with him on a tour. Link is all for this because he's had it playing in the bars. "I'm never going to play in a club again, making music for the drunk rednecks who only care about picking someone up." This is one of the reasons for the move out to the desert in Arizona - "getting back to the earth and cleaning our heads out."
Link Wray reckons he utilized a home made wah wah pedal long before it was invented, making it via a rubber hose that went from the speaker to his mouth. They get a fuzz tone - again long before groups like the Yardbirds made it fashionable - he put pincer holes through his poor speakers.
A gravelly sound was obtained by playing really loud and taking the head of his drum and playing the other side.
He also ran into the most peculiar kind of censorship in those days when "Rumble" was banned in several cities as being conducive to all that teenage rioting. It was just the title that offended because "Rumble", like "Jack the Ripper," which also ran into the same kind of trouble, was an instrumental.
Link Wray's Polydor album has him singing however - something, he says, he wanted to get into back in the 1950's. He considers that instrumentals "can't last" which is surprising considering his "Rumble" and "Rawhide" are still prized by students of early rock.
