Link Wray: Home

During rock and roll's first decade, Link Wray pioneered the use of reverberating power chords and raw distortion—best heard in his 1958 instrumental hit “Rumble”—a song so startling it was largely banned for fear it would incite juvenile violence.

Legions of rock guitarists on every continent testify that the biggest bang of all was the first time they heard “Rumble” by Link Wray (1929-2005), a dangerous slab of reverberating power chords and raw distortion laid down in 1958. In the summer of “Purple People Eater,” “Witch Doctor,” and “Patricia,” the rebellious sonic onslaught of “Rumble” cut through Top 40 radio like a steamroller. This was more than a decade before power chords even had a name; a decade after that, in the heat of the punk era, Wray’s collaboration with Robert Gordon left every retro-rockabilly guitarslinger in the dust. More at rockhall.com...

    
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