MODERN ROCK 1959 - RUMBLE - LINK WRAY

Steven Wagner - Stevan Vagner, Podrum COLLEGIUM MELODIUM, World music museum in Belgrade and * BEACH ALARM *, present Fred Lincoln "Link" Wray Jr / May 2, 1929 -- November 5, 2005 /Wray was born in Dunn, North Carolina, to Fred Lincoln Wray,Sr. and his wife Lillian M. Coats. With half Shawnee Indian ancestry, Wray frequently spoke of this in performances and interviews. Three songs he performed were named for American Indian tribes: "Shawnee", "Apache", and "Comanche." "Apache" was an instrumental composed by Jerry Lordan; it was a hit in the United Kingdom for The Shadows in 1960. Wray recorded a cover version 30 years later, when it was also associated with The Ventures and the Incredible Bongo Band. an American rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and vocalist who first came to popularity in the late 1950. Wray served in the US Army during the Korean War, and contracted tuberculosis, which laid him up in a hospital for a year. His stay concluded with the removal of a lung, which doctors predicted would mean he would never be able to sing again. Building on the overdriven, distorted electric guitar sound of early electric blues records, his 1958 instrumental hit "Rumble" by Link Wray and his Ray Men invented "the power chord, the major modus operandi of modern rock guitarists," making possible "punk and heavy rock."Rolling Stone placed Wray at number 45 of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. In 2013 he was announced as a nominee for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.