|
LINK WRAY REMEMBERED
It's almost impossibe to believe Link Wray is gone. I met Link in 1958
just after Rumble had turned
radio stations upside down from the teenagers calling in wanting to
hear the song again. I'd drive
down to Wash.D.C. in my 1948 chevy to where ever he was playing Link
and his brothers played
all over the Washington area any place to make a buck.
"Lucky," as Vernon Wray was called in those days and the
Palmetto Ranch Boys. Later Vernon changed his name to Ray Vernon
so he wouldn't be confused with Link Wray. Little good that did -
everyone knew Ray was Link's brother and it made no difference to those
of us who knew them. On lots of Saturday nights the brothers three and
Shorty would perform at Turners arena on the "Saturday Night jamboree"
produced by Connie B.Gay. Performers all over Maryland,
Virginia and West Virginia worked the Saturday night show including
Patsy Cline, Jimmy Dean, Roy Clark, Clint Miller, Vernon Taylor, Jimmy
Case, The Stringdusters and the list goes on... this was 1958.
Patsy Cline was still trying to get known even though she had a hit with
" Walking After Midnight ". Jimmy Dean was playing at the
"Famous" nightclub on New York Avenue and Roy Clark was working at the
Dixie Pig in Bladensburg,Md just outside of Washington DC
Link Wray was working at The Ozarks Club in D.C. with Ray, Doug and
Shorty. Barry Darvell was trying to get a hit and get going in the
music business and Sammy Goins, who had just recorded "Kissing At The
Drive In" on the United Artist label, was working at a small honky
tonk on the Rockville Pike in Rockville, Maryland. Ronnie Dove
was just forty-five miles away in Baltimore and was trying to get
something going at the clubs there. Clint Miller was getting air play
with "Bertha Lou" on ABC-Paramount and George Hamilton IV had a hit
on ABC-Paramount with "A Rose And A Baby Ruth" He was attending
college at American University in downtown Washington DC and was
getting a little TV exposure on WMAL with a morning country music
show.
It was a very good time to be around the Washington DC area.
I got to know Link, Ray, Doug and Shorty and we became good friends
all five of us. I went to their apartment on Orange Avenue in
the Anacostia section of DC, near the Anacostia Naval Air Station.
Link would show me songs he had written and play them for me.
Link loved Elvis and really wanted to be able to sing like Elvis he
was a big fan of Elvis. I never understood why Link liked
Elvis so much when he had such talents of his own. Link
could play anything on his guitar and everything he played sounded
good - he just rolled instrumentals out one after the other. I
loved for him to play "Walkin With Link". Link had no amp at
home so he'd play that ole Dan-o-electric of his without an amp -
the same Dan-o-electric thats on the cover of his first Epic album. He
played "Rawhide" in the clubs long before he ever recorded it, along
with "Slinky", "Dixie-Doodle",
"Ramble", and "Lillian". He'd play and sing "Walking
Down A Street Called Love," and sometimes Ray would sing something he
had written such as "My Sugar Plum".
There is a lot more to this story than what I have written,
it's only seconds when I think about those golden days when life was
so uncomplicated in a time when rock n roll was young and country
music was the classic of it's time. It was a long time ago
everyone was young and looking out the window of life and believing
one day everyone would find the "pot of gold" at the end of the
rainbow.
On November 5th 2005 it ended. Link was the last of a
group of fine men who were with us for just a short time when we
compare our lives to an oak tree. It was in New Orleans at the
Shim Sham Club in 2001 when Link and I spoke at any length... Link
said to me "Bobby they are all gone, Ray, Doug and Shorty."
My friends, they are all gone now - passed on into the twilight of
yesteryear. The recordings they left behind will remind us
they were once with us as a part of us - but the real truth is they
will never be with us in this life again.
I'm glad we had those early years as friends I still see the
smiles and hear the laughter and the quality conversations we had
when there was time to have them. Remember it's time we always
seem to run out of, try to spend more of it with the folks you care
about because one day they will be gone. May the memory of Link Wray
live with us as long as we have people in the Universe who love his
music.
|