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Link Wray Link Wray Rocks (CD)

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1-CD (Digipac) with 36-page booklet - 34 tracks. Total playing time: approx. 79 minutes....more

Link Wray: Link Wray Rocks (CD)

1-CD (Digipac) with 36-page booklet - 34 tracks. Total playing time: approx. 79 minutes.


Link Wray - there had to be a release of this great rocker in our highly acclaimed ROCKS! series!
Recordings officially licensed by various record companies such as Sony Music, his best rock numbers originally released between 1958 and 1966 on Cadence, Cameo, Epic, Mala, Rumble and Swan, among others.
Such an elaborate Link Wray compilation did not previously exist!
The CD contains his rare vocal tracks Ain't That Lovin' You Baby and Mary Ann.
As a bonus: songs released under the name of his brother Vernon Wray (aka Ray Vernon) with Link Wray on guitar!
Detailed liner notes by blues and rock 'n' roll expert Bill Dahl from Chicago


Anyone interested in rock 'n' roll or the history of American pop music in general will know Rumble, the signature tune by one of the greatest rockers and guitarists of all time, Link Wray.
Link Wray (real name: Fred Lincoln Wray Jr) was born on May 2, 1929 in North Carolina and appeared on the stages of the world until his death on November 5, 2005 in Denmark.

Together with his brothers Doug and Vernon he first played Western Swing in the fifties and became the house band at Milt Grant's House Party, where they accompanied Ricky Nelson and Fats Domino, and others.
And then came Rumble, inspired by The Stroll of the Diamonds. Producer Archie Bleyer of Cadence Records signed Link Wray & The Raymen, and Rumble became an unexpectedly huge instrumental success, especially in the USA and Great Britain, making it into the top 20 of the US charts.
Over the next few years, more successful instrumental numbers followed, consolidating Link Wray's international reputation as one of the pioneering guitarists of his time. In addition to Neil Young, who would like to travel back in time to a Link Wray & The Raymen concert, Pete Townsend of The Who is one of his admirers: ''He is the King; if it hadn't been for Link Wray and 'Rumble', I would never have picked up a guitar''.


We finally add Link Wray to our successful ROCkS! series! On a total of 34 single tracks from the years 1958 to 1966 we deliver his greatest rockers from his recordings for Cadence, Cameo, Epic, Mala, Rumble and Swan in the best possible quality. Since we were able to license recordings from various record companies for this compilation, ROCKS! differs significantly from the cheap scrap on the market.
Our CD also includes two rare Link Wray vocal tracks, Ain't That Lovin' You Baby and Mary Ann, as well as tracks released under the name of his brother Vernon Wray (alias Ray Vernon) with Link Wray on guitar! 

The product includes a 36-page booklet with detailed liner notes from one of the most respected experts on American roots music of the day, Bill Dahl.

Video von Link Wray - Link Wray Rocks (CD)

Article properties:Link Wray: Link Wray Rocks (CD)

  • Interpret: Link Wray

  • Album titlle: Link Wray Rocks (CD)

  • Genre Rock'n'Roll

  • Label Bear Family Records

  • Preiscode AR
  • Edition 2 Deluxe Edition
  • Artikelart CD

  • EAN: 5397102176005

  • weight in Kg 0.2
Wray, Link - Link Wray Rocks (CD) CD 1
01Raw HideLink Wray
02Batman ThemeLink Wray
03TijuanaLink Wray
04SlinkyLink Wray
05Right TurnLink Wray
06I’m Countin’ On YouRay Vernon
07I'm BrandedLink Wray
08Hand ClapperLink Wray
09The SwagLink Wray
10ComancheLink Wray
11Deuces WildLink Wray
12El ToroLink Wray
13Ain’t That Lovin’ You BabyLink Wray
14Studio BluesLink Wray
15Hang OnLink Wray
16Jack The RipperLink Wray
17Turnpike USALink Wray
18The Black WidowLink Wray
19Big City After DarkRay Vernon & Raymen
20Danger One Way LoveRay Vernon
21Dance ContestLink Wray
22Run Chicken, RunLink Wray
23Pancho VillaLink Wray
24RadarLink Wray
25Mary AnnLink Wray
26The OutlawLink Wray
27Hold ItRay Vernon & Raymen
28DinosaurLink Wray
29Big City StompLink Wray
30The Shadow KnowsLink Wray
31Dixie DoodleLink Wray
32Ace Of SpadesLink Wray
33Mr GuitarLink Wray
34RumbleLink Wray
Link Wray may well have been the loudest rock guitarist I’ve ever heard in a concert setting.... more
"Link Wray"

Link Wray may well have been the loudest rock guitarist I’ve ever heard in a concert setting. Considering that over the decades I’ve also luxuriated in the teeth-rattling fretwork of Roy Buchanan and Dick Dale, that’s saying a whole lot (granted, I’m not a heavy metal devotee). That extraordinary volume boost was a necessity for Wray; a childhood bout with the measles had robbed him of a good portion of his hearing (and some of his eyesight too, for that matter). Dedicated Wray fans didn’t mind a temporary bout with deafness in the slightest following one of Link’s signature shredfests; his pulverizing power chords and screaming staccato lead licks were the very definition of what rock guitar has always been and should forever be, making it a small price to pay. What’s more, Link never stopped epitomizing the concept of cool. He proudly wore a leather jacket and shades onstage well into his 70s, when his demographic peers outside the music business had long since donned cardigan sweaters and settled into comfy easy chairs.

Stardom didn’t come easily for Wray; he and his brothers had to work long and hard to escape the impoverished circumstances of their youth and find a foothold in the music industry. Fred Lincoln Wray, Jr. was the middle musical sibling, born May 2, 1929 in Dunn, North Carolina. Vernon was five years older than Link, born January 7, 1924 in Fort Bragg, N.C., and Doug five years younger (July 4, 1934). The Wray boys did some singing at the same church services where their mother, a full-blooded Shawnee Indian, preached the gospel. Link picked up some early guitar lessons when he was eight from an African American slide specialist called Hambone, who taught him the rudiments of how to play the blues. The Wray family moved to Portsmouth, Virginia during the mid-‘40s, but Link was in no particular hurry to embark on his musical career—he didn’t buy his first electric axe until 1949. Link was drafted in ’51, stationed first in Germany and then in Korea, where he was felled by tuberculosis. Finally back in the U.S. in 1953, he bought a Les Paul guitar and a Premier amplifier and got serious about his playing. But he was never quite able to duplicate the elegant, complex technique of his hero, Chet Atkins, so he developed his own mind-melting attack. Jazz guitarists Tal Farlow, Les Paul, and Barney Kessel and country picker Grady Martin also caught his ear, although he wouldn’t end up playing like any of them either.

The Wrays formed a country band in 1954 to play the rough-and-tumble gin joints around Portsmouth and nearby Norfolk, recruiting their cousin, Brentley ‘Shorty’ Horton, to play bass and provide comic relief with Doug on drums, Vernon on rhythm guitar and occasional piano, and Dixie Neal, the brother of Gene Vincent’s bassist Jack Neal, on steel guitar. They were billed as The Lazy Pine Wranglers for a time, then Lucky Wray (Vernon’s temporary alias, stemming from his gambling skills) and The Palomino Ranch Gang. A connection with pioneering country broadcaster Connie B. Gay in Tidewater, Virginia led to the group minus Neal relocating to Washington, D.C., where Gay had established a popular television program, ‘Town and Country Time,’ hosted by young accordion wielder Jimmy Dean. For all its political sophistication, D.C. was loaded with hillbilly talent and plenty of watering holes in which to showcase it. In addition to the personable Dean, Marvin Rainwater and guitarist extraordinaire Roy Clark were part of the bustling scene. All three of them recorded for producer Ben Adelman, the owner of Empire Studio there (West Virginia native Patsy Cline cut her first demos, long since lost, under Adelman’s supervision with Dean’s Texas Wildcats backing her). Although his legend rests solidly on a legacy of blistering instrumentals, Link’s debut release in January of 1956 for Adelman’s Kay label paired two of his raucous rockabilly vocals, I Sez Baby and the all but incomprehensible Johnny Bom Bonny, as half of an EP that Link shared with the obscure duo of Bob Dean and Cindy.

Adelman indefatigably hustled his finished masters to various labels; he found a home for three country-oriented singles by the considerably smoother-voiced Lucky Wray (It’s Music She Says, Got Another Baby, and Teenage Cutie) at H.W. ‘Pappy’ Daily and Don Pierce’s Starday Records in 1956-57, the last one sub-billing Link and Doug on its label. Starday released the masters through its custom service rather than issuing them on the main label, intending them for regional exposure only with the manufacturing costs paid by the artists themselves. Right in the middle of it all, the TB that Link had contracted in Korea sent him to the hospital in the summer of 1956 all the way until March of the following year. A grueling operation to remove his left lung largely put an end to any serious singing aspirations; from here on, Wray would concentrate on his blazing guitar technique and mostly leave the vocal duties to others, in particular his brother Vernon, whose prospects looked bright once Bernie Lowe and Kal Mann’s Philly-based Cameo Records brought him aboard in mid-1957. The songwriting duo was on a real roll, having penned Elvis’ pop chart-topper (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear. Their label was too, scoring its own number one seller that same year with Charlie Gracie’s Butterfly.

As Lowe led the choir-cushioned orchestra, Vernon crooned the Mann/Lowe copyright Remember You’re Mine, issued in June of ’57 after the label flipped the singer’s name so he was billed as Ray Vernon. Cameo even sprang for a full-page ad promoting the single in ‘The Billboard.’ But any hopes of a hit were dashed when Pat Boone covered the tune for Dot, taking it into the Top Ten and leaving Ray’s original in the dust (its bouncy flip Evil Angel might have nicely suited Gracie). Cameo responded to Boone’s cover by replacing Remember You’re Mine with I’ll Take To-morrow (To-day) as Evil Angel’s plattermate; Link’s biting axe was prominent on the new ballad, unlike its sedate predecessor. Cameo tried again with Ray that autumn with the rocking I’m Counting On You, penned by Atlanta-born blues shouter Chuck Willis (1957 was a big year for Chuck; his revival of the ancient blues C.C. Rider for Atlantic, perfectly tempoed for dancing The Stroll, sailed to the top of the R&B charts). This time, Link made his presence felt with a searing solo, and even if the arrangement was a tad rough around the edges, Ray’s encore outing stood as a contender for hitdom yet didn’t quite make the grade.

 

 

Read, write and discuss reviews...more
Customer evaluation for "Link Wray Rocks (CD)"
8 Nov 2019

TOP!

Mit Link Wray in der 'Rocks' Serie habt ihr eine große Lücke gefüllt und mich und sicherlich auch andere sehr glücklich gemacht! Brettharter Rock 'n' Roll, geile Gitarren Riffs und viele mir unbekannte Titel, die ich hier entdecken durfte! Rock 'til you drop and keep up the good work!

20 Sep 2019

Think Link

My Man... love the Linkster great CD Folks *

2 Aug 2019

Maybe not the best possible quality.

To be honest at first, I have only listened to the samples. But from what I heard, it seems that "Rumble" derives from a scratchy record. His most famous recording. Why? Better versions are available.

Admin 3 Aug 2019

Dear Steen, we haven't used the original master for the soundfiles on the Link Wray 'Rocks' CD! What we have used was the compilation CD which includes the 'Rumble' soundfile from a 45rpm record as the final product wasn't mastered at that time! You sure will get a proper product including a proper mastering which just came in and to which we now listen carefully! Hope that helps and have a great weekend! Regards, Nico Feuerbach (re-issue producer of the Link Wray 'Rocks')

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Presse Archiv - Link Wray Rocks - NOW DIG THIS
Presse Archiv - Link Wray Rocks - NOW DIG THIS Whilst the above selections merit their inclusion in the set and add variety, Link's legacy lies in his brutal instrumentals. As Bill Dahl writes in his terrific liner notes: "No guitarist ever said more with a handful of titanic power chords." 'Raw Hide', 'Batman Theme', 'I'm Branded', 'Jack The Ripper', 'Run, Chicken, Run', 'Ace Of Spades' and his immortal signature tune 'Rumble', inspired in part by The Diamonds' The Stroll', are all here. The titles have been well chosen and I rated seventeen of the remainder as high quality. The slow original 'Big City After Dark' and cover of Bill Doggett's hectic 'Hold It' were credited to Ray Vernon & The Raymen on initial release. The Latin-flavoured 'El Toro' and 'Pancho Villa' are essentially the same tune and both versions are fine. 'Tijuana', as one would expect, is another with a Mexican flavour. 'Slinky' features jungle drums and 'Right Turn' is a raw bash. The snappy 'Hand Clapper' and `Studio Blues', misleadingly titled as it's a solid mover, have the band's pal Switchy on sax. 'Deuces Wild' is gutsy and 'Hang On' is pacy with a potent sting. 'Turnpike USA' is an infectious mover and 'Dance Contest' doesn't hang around either. The 'Apache'-like 'The Outlaw' is quite sparse and the pacy 'Mr. Guitar' is aptly named. The sinister `The Shadow Knows' and Duane Eddy-ish 'Dixie Doodle' also make it into this category.
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Presse Archiv - Link Wray Rocks - UK Rock & Roll Magazine
Presse Archiv - Link Wray Rocks - UK Rock & Roll Magazine LINK WRAY `ROCKS' (Bear Family) Aficionados of music of the 50's and 60's will almost certainly have some of guitarist Link Wray's tunes in their collection, that's going to include 'Rumble' which hit the top 20 in the USA and UK in 1958. Apparently, the disc was shunned by some radio stations because it was considered to be inciting violence amongst teen gangs, some achievement for an instrumental. It's here but you have to wait until the 34th and final track for the hit. What you glean listening getting that far is the rich musical legacy this hugely influential guitarist left. There's none of the earliest Western Swing because this collection includes just tracks from 1958 to 1966 over several labels. They feature some lesser known gems including 'Big City After Dark' backing his brother Ray plus two tracks where Link provides the vocals. This is a fascinating collection easily illustrates why artists diverse as Neil Young and the Cramps were huge fans. Simon Nott
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Presse Archiv - Link Wray Rocks - Blues & Rhythm
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Tracklist
Wray, Link - Link Wray Rocks (CD) CD 1
01 Raw Hide
02 Batman Theme
03 Tijuana
04 Slinky
05 Right Turn
06 I’m Countin’ On You
07 I'm Branded
08 Hand Clapper
09 The Swag
10 Comanche
11 Deuces Wild
12 El Toro
13 Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby
14 Studio Blues
15 Hang On
16 Jack The Ripper
17 Turnpike USA
18 The Black Widow
19 Big City After Dark
20 Danger One Way Love
21 Dance Contest
22 Run Chicken, Run
23 Pancho Villa
24 Radar
25 Mary Ann
26 The Outlaw
27 Hold It
28 Dinosaur
29 Big City Stomp
30 The Shadow Knows
31 Dixie Doodle
32 Ace Of Spades
33 Mr Guitar
34 Rumble