RIP - Link Wray. The rumblin' man is gone... (I'm not at home right now and the only articles are in Danish and Spanish that Imants Krumins supplied via e-mole). Ben Gart for the info. Sleeve is a NORTON RECORDS release.
from http://actualidad.terra.es/cultura/articulo/fallece_link_wray_603381.htm
AMERICAN ROCK PIONEER AND CULT FIGURE LINK WRAY DIES
The guitarist Link Wray, considered one of the pioneers of American rock in the 50s and cult figure, died at 76 in Copenhagen, where he had lived since 20 years ago, the newspaper Politiken informed today.
His powerful guitar riffs validated the nickname of "Grandfather of the Power Chord" and the respect of various generations, in debt to his legacy, although he never had the recognition of other contemporaries like Gene Vincent or Elvis Presley.
Regarding him, Pete Townshend, guitarist of the Who, said he was "the king" and that if not for him Townshend would have never learned to play guitar, while Johnny Cash owed him his look of black leather.
Frederick Lincoln Ray was born in Dunn, North Carolina, in 1929, in a home marked by extreme poverty, strong religiosity and the traumas of a father marked by World War I.
After surviving tuberculosis, which forced the removal of a lung, Wray, of Native American blood through his mother, created a country group with his two brothers and then founded the band Link Wray and His Ray Men.
"If I could have gone back in time and only could have seen one band it would have been Link Wray and His Ray Men', Neil Young once said.
His rise to fame came with 'Rumble' (1958), a success in the USA despite the song being prohibited by some radio station programmers who considered it an incitement to violence.
Wray alternated his band with work as a studio guitarist for Fats Domino, Rick Nelson, or Buddy Holly, until, fed up with record labels, he decided to create his own in the mid 1960s and play from his Maryland farm, ignored by the industry.
In 1977, he had a brief comeback with singer Robert Gordon, which led to a brief renaissance.
In the 1980s he lived on the road, back and forth between the USA and Denmark. After marrying a Danish woman he moved there permanently.
Link Wray continued making records sporadically and collaborated with some local bands, until he had another brief moment of glory when Quentin Tarantino chose some of his songs for the film "Pulp Fiction"
In 2004, he returned to playing live to do a tour of his homeland that brought forth good critical reaction.
Wray, whose cause of death nor date of death has not been made public, was buried this week in privacy in the Church of Christian in the working class neighborhood of Christianshavn.
4 comments:
This is truely sad news. Link is/was up there with the best of 'em. I'm gonna go dig up my signed copy of Rumble and blast the hell outta it...
R.I.P. Link
More info at GaragePunk.com Forums
from http://actualidad.terra.es/cultura/articulo/fallece_link_wray_603381.htm
AMERICAN ROCK PIONEER AND CULT FIGURE LINK WRAY DIES
The guitarist Link Wray, considered one of the pioneers of American rock in the 50s and cult figure, died at 76 in Copenhagen, where he had lived since 20 years ago, the newspaper Politiken informed today.
His powerful guitar riffs validated the nickname of "Grandfather of the Power Chord" and the respect of various generations, in debt to his legacy, although he never had the recognition of other contemporaries like Gene Vincent or Elvis Presley.
Regarding him, Pete Townshend, guitarist of the Who, said he was "the king" and that if not for him Townshend would have never learned to play guitar, while Johnny Cash owed him his look of black leather.
Frederick Lincoln Ray was born in Dunn, North Carolina, in 1929, in a home marked by extreme poverty, strong religiosity and the traumas of a father marked by World War I.
After surviving tuberculosis, which forced the removal of a lung, Wray, of Native American blood through his mother, created a country group with his two brothers and then founded the band
Link Wray and His Ray Men.
"If I could have gone back in time and only could have seen one band it would have been Link Wray and His Ray Men', Neil Young once said.
His rise to fame came with 'Rumble' (1958), a success in the USA despite the song being prohibited by some radio station programmers who considered it an incitement to violence.
Wray alternated his band with work as a studio guitarist for Fats Domino, Rick Nelson, or Buddy Holly, until, fed up with record labels, he decided to create his own in the mid 1960s and play from his Maryland farm, ignored by the industry.
In 1977, he had a brief comeback with singer Robert Gordon, which led to a brief renaissance.
In the 1980s he lived on the road, back and forth between the USA and Denmark. After marrying a Danish woman he moved there permanently.
Link Wray continued making records sporadically and collaborated with some local bands, until he had another brief moment of glory when Quentin Tarantino chose some of his songs for the film "Pulp Fiction"
In 2004, he returned to playing live to do a tour of his homeland that brought forth good critical reaction.
Wray, whose cause of death nor date of death has not been made public, was buried this week in privacy in the Church of Christian in the working class neighborhood of Christianshavn.
http://www.theherald.co.uk/features/51159.html has a funny story about Link from The Beat Poets
Howard Wall
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