Doggedly searching for the crux of the biscuit.
Everybody in the house is almost healthy again, but I have three missed days of work to try to make up before taking off for Alabama on Wednesday morning, so the dearth of posts is likely to persist. Felt I should mention that native North Carolinian Link Wray died earlier this month in Denmark. Credited with inventing the power chord and distortion (the latter by poking holes in a speaker cone with a pencil), Wray shaped the sound and feel of rock and roll as much as anybody. In 1958, his song "Rumble" got banned in several markets for promoting juvenile delinquency. Big deal, you say? Well, when you consider it was purely instrumental, then yes. Big deal. MP3s, including "Rumble", are available at the second link there and more info at Wray's website (and here), Wikipedia, and the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.
TrackBack"Rumble" is one of those songs that I always recognized but never knew what it was called. I think it's been pressed into service in dozens of TV commercials over the years. Good stuff.
Posted by: GaijinBiker at November 21, 2005 05:57 PMDouble "http://" action on that Link Wray website link (his own) - but the weird thing is, instead of crapping out, I get dumped to M$'s homepage. And I'm using Firefox! WTFF!
Posted by: KJ at November 21, 2005 06:30 PMThanks a billion! Yall have a great thansgiving down there, ya hear?
-h
Posted by: at November 21, 2005 07:34 PMIt's time for a tribute band. We could call it "Missing Link".
Posted by: Gaijin Biker at November 22, 2005 05:04 AMThe Manta Wrays! I could listen to him and Duane Eddy every day. Necessity to rock is the mother of intervention!
Posted by: norbizness at November 22, 2005 09:16 AMI think it was Chicago Bluesmen that invented distortion by that method. The 1,4,5 progression is also a blues invention, Lex. Regardles, Link Ray is still the fucking man. I hope his is the first concert I hear when I make it to that big roadhouse in the sky.
Posted by: Hanke at November 22, 2005 05:24 PM"Rumble" is cool, but a bit too slow. "Dixie-Doodle" is more fun.
Link Wray played at an absolutely deafening volume, really extraordinary. A lot of people didn't expect it, so it was always amusing to see their reactions when he'd start going.
Posted by: JL at November 23, 2005 06:23 PMLetterman's band played his stuff in and out of commercials one night last week. It was cool...
Posted by: gene kelly at November 26, 2005 08:33 AM