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  • 9 hours ago
The Rock Prophet Link Wray
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00:01:00There was a Native American who was a rock star and made this beautiful, powerful sound.
00:01:08I think Link was an influence on punk, grunge and metal, and of course, as I've said on
00:01:16the Britpop sounds of the early 60s.
00:01:20Rumble by Link Ray sounded like the soundtrack to a knife fight.
00:01:27I just remembered listening to it and thinking, it's simple.
00:01:33I could do that.
00:01:35I always liked the primitive rock and roll.
00:01:37I mean, Link Ray, I don't know if you know who he is.
00:01:40He's a great guitar player.
00:01:42He developed his own sound, his own style.
00:01:44Very, very simple.
00:01:45Very earthy, if we're being straight cut.
00:01:48Very erotic.
00:01:49But the first time I heard the rumble, it was like, that was something that has so much
00:01:54profound attitude to it.
00:01:56Yeah, it really does.
00:01:57It really does.
00:01:58This was lowbrow, tough, dumb, instrumental music.
00:02:04And it was mainly just a beat.
00:02:07That was wild.
00:02:09You know?
00:02:10And very expressive and very emotional.
00:02:12You know what I mean?
00:02:12It's like, you got all this pent-up energy.
00:02:15That violent tremolo, raw, pure, and angry, gave you a soundtrack to your life.
00:02:22Every decade has been influenced by Link.
00:02:26Anyone who's ever played the guitar tried to get a sound that's a little dirty.
00:02:32Link Wray invented a sound that most American and global rock stars adore and feel that
00:02:41it's critical to their sound.
00:02:44And we still don't know his name.
00:02:46Unfortunately, I think it's very much a part of an American tradition to erase indigenous
00:02:52people.
00:02:53I don't know if there's going to be enough of Link's material continuing on that he will
00:02:59go forward or maybe he'll be a forgotten man in history.
00:03:02Just when we had out of town a long time ago.
00:03:04Link Wray.
00:03:04Link Wray.
00:03:05Mr. Link Wray.
00:03:07Thanks, guys.
00:03:17.
00:03:37Well, I was born in Dunn, North Carolina in 1929, and I'm half Shawnee Indian.
00:03:43I was raised and born to a Shawnee mommy.
00:03:45She went out into the fields and was preaching to the blacks and to the Cherokee Indians and to the
00:03:51poor whites, saying, you know, keep your morals high, believe in God.
00:03:55Me and my brothers, we were singing gospel songs behind my mom, you know, when she was out there preaching.
00:04:16Well, have you ever been to Dunn, North Carolina?
00:04:20He grew up in a house that had a dirt floor.
00:04:22We can't even really think about that in America nowadays, like living in a house with a dirt floor.
00:04:28That's basically the sort of place that slaves lived in in the 1800s.
00:04:32And if you don't think that doesn't translate into the music, you're crazy.
00:04:37It's everything.
00:04:39That's how the music, you know, gave birth to itself.
00:04:44Link's very sensitive to pain.
00:04:46Listen to his music, you gather that easily.
00:04:49I remember asking him if some song was about a woman at one point, and he got kind of upset
00:04:54with me.
00:04:54I won't use the invective he hurled.
00:04:57He said, I would never write a song about some woman.
00:05:03I was thinking of the pain of my mother when we didn't have food to put on the table.
00:05:09Frequently, he talked about his mother.
00:05:11She was a big influence on his life.
00:05:12I think that's where he got his honesty and his humbleness and work ethic from.
00:05:18She was paralyzed from 11 years old until she was 16 years old because a girl put her knee in
00:05:24her back and broke her back the whole way home from school.
00:05:27And she had to quit school after that.
00:05:29The Cherokee Indians, you know, made her a homemade brace out of deer hide.
00:05:33And then she wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and asked, would he give her a brace?
00:05:37He was crippled, you know, and his personal driver came down to our little hut in North Carolina and got
00:05:45herself a brace.
00:05:47Being Indian was almost akin to being half black.
00:05:51It was not something that you would just automatically bring up in public.
00:05:55American Indians have experienced racism for the last 500 years in this country.
00:06:00Link Wray grew up in a time where that was very much accepted behavior.
00:06:06He grew up in the segregated South where the Klan were a very fearful group of people who could come
00:06:12to your home at any time.
00:06:13I'm sure it was very challenging as a Shawnee woman to be married to a Caucasian man and the racism
00:06:21his parents must have experienced being in a mixed race marriage.
00:06:26Link Wray's admiration and devotion to his mom also recognized the strength that it took to survive and to go
00:06:37through what she went through growing up in the South when she did.
00:06:41He talked about how the Klan would come and his mother would put curtains up in the windows and they'd
00:06:48all have to hide under the bed and how scared his mother was and how this affected him.
00:06:59Violence is a favorite Klan method, blogging, castration and lynch law in the name of white civilization led by men
00:07:05with such unlikely titles as Imperial Wizard, Eternal Cyclops and Grand Dragon.
00:07:10As a mixed race person, if there were instances that his family could pass of what people call white passing
00:07:19and if that's what they needed to do to survive, he did that.
00:07:23But when he could stand on his own and he felt safe, he very much would honor his mother's ancestry
00:07:31and his Shawnee roots.
00:07:58Well, you started playing at a very young age.
00:08:00I started when I was eight years old. My father bought an old Maybel guitar for my brother if he
00:08:06passed his grade.
00:08:07He'd rather play football and baseball and play the guitar, so I just took it up and started playing it.
00:08:11I was taught by a black man called Hambone who was raised up in the circus.
00:08:16And I lived across the street from the circus ground.
00:08:19And he came over and tuned up my guitar, took his bottle of the cow and started playing it, right?
00:08:24And that didn't bog me into music.
00:08:28He taught me how to play the blues. I started off from there and then I started paying bands.
00:08:33You could let me sit in with them so I could get better, you know?
00:08:35I was listening to black music because the white pop music turned me off.
00:08:40You know, it was so de-pop. So I didn't dig it at all, you know?
00:08:49My daddy moved us away from Dunn, North Carolina, into Portsmouth, Virginia, where he went to work in the Navy
00:08:55Yard.
00:08:58We had a dude ranch, you know, where people came and rented horses and you took them out through the
00:09:02woods on the horses.
00:09:09And in 1947, 48, me and my brothers got together a band where my oldest brother, Vernon Ray, he called
00:09:16himself Lucky Ray, was a lead singer in our band.
00:09:20This was like a western swing sort of thing?
00:09:22Yeah, like a black Bob Wills type thing, you know? And before rock and roll was born.
00:09:28Rock and roll just came through like a road drill. It just smashed everything in its heart.
00:09:34The late 50s and early 60s was the era of the instrumental.
00:09:39If you went to your high school dance, it was an instrumental group, usually.
00:09:43You know, there was no such thing really as four or five guys playing and singing at the same time.
00:09:47I mean, there were countless artists in bands who were having huge instrumental hits.
00:09:53Adventures, Johnny and the Hurricanes, Due and Eddie.
00:09:58I mean, honestly, there were so many.
00:10:00We were all tuned to instrumentals at the time.
00:10:06I'm Milt Grant, the producer and emcee of the Milt Grant Show and Record Hop here in Washington.
00:10:14A disc jockey named Milt Grant, he had a local TV show, like a dance show, you know, where the
00:10:19kids would dance in Washington, D.C.
00:10:22And the stars would come and play on his show.
00:10:24About 5,000 kids out there, you know, because, I mean, rock and roll at that time was huge.
00:10:29Everywhere you went, I mean, the kids were just like a storm, you know?
00:10:32That night, he had the Diamonds on his show, which had the number one song in Billboard called Strolling.
00:10:38Or he brought them to the record hop that night, jumped up on the stage and said, Link, play me
00:10:41a stroll.
00:10:42I said, I don't know a stroll.
00:10:44Doug said, I know the beat behind one.
00:10:56He said, my Jesus God zapped rumble into my head, Jimmy.
00:11:01Bam.
00:11:01I went.
00:11:06You know?
00:11:07And my brother Ray, he grabs the microphone, right?
00:11:10Because the only mic they had back in those days was just for the singers.
00:11:13They didn't mic the amps or anything, so he just took the mic, stick it down here like this, right?
00:11:18So I just turned the tremolo on.
00:11:20And I was playing.
00:11:23You couldn't even hear Shorty.
00:11:25And Doug was playing so loud because he was playing with the butt ends of his stick.
00:11:29So all I could really hear was just me and Doug.
00:11:31You know, I was doing.
00:11:34And the kids started screaming, coming up to the stage, hollering.
00:11:38We wanted a song, and they were screaming over me.
00:11:40And they didn't care about the Diamonds anymore.
00:11:42They was really going wild of the song I was doing, you know, wild instrumental I was doing.
00:11:50And I played it about four times for them, four left.
00:11:53And so Milt Grant, he smelled a dollar.
00:11:55You know, he could smell there was money there.
00:11:57You know, so him and my brother Ray got me into a studio.
00:12:02Now, Milt Grant actually got his name on Rumble.
00:12:05He certainly didn't write any of it, but that was par for the course in the music industry back then.
00:12:10They tried to record it on one track.
00:12:13And Link's saying, it's not dirty enough.
00:12:17It's not gritty enough.
00:12:19I couldn't get that sound I did in Fredericksburg at the show that night.
00:12:23So I took a pencil and I started punching holes in the speakers, you know.
00:12:27That was the first time that distortion was born.
00:12:30Well, the interesting thing is that, you know, there was distortion on records earlier than that.
00:12:36Distorted guitar.
00:12:37Going back to the early 1950s, you know, Rocket 88 by Jackie Brinson has this totally blown out distorted guitar.
00:12:44You women have heard of Jalop and you heard the noise they make.
00:12:47But let me reintroduce my new Rocket 88.
00:12:51Yes, it's straight.
00:12:52Just one way.
00:12:53But those records were really only heard by African-American people.
00:12:58And they sold in very low quantities, mostly in the South.
00:13:03They only got played on black radio.
00:13:05On Tuesday and Wednesday nights, March 25th and 26th at 8.15 at OCU's Fine Arts Auditorium.
00:13:10Tickets are on sale.
00:13:13I put it out not knowing the recording business at all, you know, because I came from a Christian Southern
00:13:18upbringing, you know.
00:13:19So, I mean, I've been playing at churches and I was playing at carnivals and I was playing anything, you
00:13:23know.
00:13:24So, they try to sell it to people.
00:13:27And it ends up with Archie Blyer at Cadence Records.
00:13:30Cadence Records have these very, very white groups on them, you know, like the Cordettes, Mr. Sandman.
00:13:37These sort of like almost easy listening pop records.
00:13:41Archie Blyer had no idea when he started considering Link Wray.
00:13:45I'd never seen him. He didn't know he was sort of from Indian descent and looked different, acted rather differently,
00:13:54produced this incredibly distorted sound.
00:13:57He got this record, put it on the shelf and sort of forgot about it.
00:14:02Even he thinks, think Ola.
00:14:04And he gives it to his daughter, who for some reason plays it at a party with her girlfriends.
00:14:11I mean, it's science fiction, this whole tale.
00:14:14And the daughter is fond of it and tells Dad to release it.
00:14:17He said, Dad, what's this? He said, it's just a piece of crap I picked up in D.C.
00:14:21He thought it was crap, too, you know.
00:14:22And she said, well, I think this crap is going to be a hit, you know.
00:14:25So, he put it out, Rumble Scrumble, Who Cares As Long As It Hit.
00:14:28It was a big record for me.
00:14:29It sold a million copies when that was unheard of in 1958.
00:14:33I didn't know what the recording business was, you know.
00:14:35And all of a sudden, everybody's saying, how is it going to have a hit?
00:14:38I said, I don't know. I don't know what a hit is.
00:14:45At North Bethesda Junior High in Bethesda, Maryland, Middle America, 6th grade,
00:14:51they had these things like little music after hours, like once a month.
00:14:56And somebody said, oh, after school today, there's a couple free bands playing for half an hour.
00:15:00We've got the Bedford Brothers, or some local band that had a minor hit that was really kind of cool,
00:15:05and Link Ray.
00:15:06I didn't even really kind of get it, but it was a little disturbing, you know.
00:15:19A couple of tones, strings out of tune, but this electric amp in the freaking cafeteria.
00:15:25And I was like kind of disturbed by it.
00:15:28Didn't matter it was two chords.
00:15:30Didn't matter Link wasn't going to write 50 more beautiful songs with great guitar tricks.
00:15:34At that moment, it was a possession, and it was a lifetime possession.
00:15:39It's like the molecular structure of your cells changed.
00:15:43Like when a heavy drinker's cells go into an alcoholic, you're an alcoholic for life, man.
00:15:49You never have one drink again.
00:15:51You drink the bottle, and you go looking for another bottle.
00:15:54Okay, here he is. Let's welcome Link Ray.
00:16:02He was the inventor of the power chord.
00:16:06Yeah.
00:16:07Because if you listen to Rumble by Link Ray, it might be rudimentary, it might be primitive, but that's a
00:16:14power chord.
00:16:15You know, the power of that power chord would very much influence the kinks and the who, and there was
00:16:20certainly a magical chord change that came from nowhere.
00:16:25The understanding is what it took Beethoven four notes to accomplish, Link accomplished in three.
00:16:31Once you hear that sound, you can never go back.
00:16:36It's so menacing.
00:16:38Yeah, it really is.
00:16:38And it's so simple, and yet I've heard other people play Rumble, and it's never as good.
00:16:44Somebody could pick it up, and they could play it through the same amplifier, and they could even play the
00:16:48same song, and it would sound one way.
00:16:50Hand it back to Link, and play it, Link, totally different.
00:16:53I think the sound actually came from Link's soul.
00:16:55People say about equipment, and Link did certain things, the way he set his guitar up and his amplifiers and
00:17:01all.
00:17:01It's just what he did, but actually, it came out of his soul.
00:17:06African beats are on the one and the three.
00:17:09Super goofy, hard to dance to, but that backbeat was Native American.
00:17:14And, like, Link's music had that heavy with the floor toms.
00:17:18I mean, it was in his blood, you can tell.
00:17:20And it's crucial, it's vital to what we do now.
00:17:23There's mystery in the music, there's, like, seduction, it's sexy, it's raucous, and it's mind-blowing, really.
00:17:31You know when John Lennon would scream into the microphone, bloody murder?
00:17:35It's the same thing.
00:17:36It's just, like, guttural, raw emotion.
00:17:39And he's pulling that out, all his frustrations, all his everything.
00:17:43And you can hear it, you can feel it in his music.
00:17:46No one had really seen a rocker come out and just be that nasty, guttural, and primitive with the electric
00:17:53guitar.
00:17:54You have a guy with this distorted, crazy guitar, instrumental record,
00:18:00that's on this pop record label getting played on white radio.
00:18:05It crossed a line, and it seems funny to think about, but America in 1957 and 1958, it was still
00:18:13very, very segregated.
00:18:15So for this sort of thing to get played on a pop AM radio station, of course, parents are going
00:18:20to freak out.
00:18:21They're like, this is going to ruin our children.
00:18:23They're going to start fighting in the streets.
00:18:25It was regarded as representing danger in some way, this unfettered sound.
00:18:32But also in local neighborhoods, you know, in the big cities, New York, Washington, a rumble was a gang fight.
00:18:40And I think that there was a feeling among major radio programmers that by playing this record,
00:18:49they were in some way encouraging that sort of behavior.
00:18:52When rumble came out, it was 1957, rumble was representing the gang fights, you know, and radio stations banned it.
00:19:00It was like a James Dean with a guitar, you know.
00:19:03I think it was just kind of the natural face of juvenile delinquency.
00:19:09JD films, we used to call them, they made those movies that were based on kids going wrong, getting into
00:19:15trouble.
00:19:16Even Dick Clark, when Dick Clark played it on his show in 1958, he says, I couldn't even say the
00:19:21title of the song, Link.
00:19:22He says, here's a slow song, a slow stroll type of song from Link Ray, and then rumble would play.
00:19:28That is so great that an instrumental could get banned.
00:19:32That is really beyond punk rock.
00:19:35That's the kind of shit that we love talking about.
00:19:37You know what I mean?
00:19:38If they had just announced him, we'd never be talking about it.
00:19:41I mean, it's like part of the lore, the folklore of Link Ray.
00:19:45He was making this instrumental music that was like scaring, scaring parents.
00:19:51And we love that.
00:19:54And that whole cliche of you listen to the radio under the bedclothes later, and I say your parents didn't
00:20:00know you were still up, was true.
00:20:02I did that.
00:20:03Rumble, if it came out in 58, I was 12.
00:20:06So that's the perfect.
00:20:07That's when you're the horniest, when puberty just hits.
00:20:09Rock and roll was hated by all parents.
00:20:12And all the talk of juvenile delinquency, perfect timing for me to hear rumble.
00:20:18And I remember how exciting it was.
00:20:20To me, it was the sound of juvenile delinquency in my bedroom, something that I was throbbing in excitement.
00:20:26People were masturbating to rumble.
00:20:31Not that many people were masturbating to Lawrence Welk, I don't think.
00:20:35So no matter what your politics or what your sexuality was, it was a sex sound, too.
00:20:41It was violent and sexual.
00:20:42I think Gene Vincent was the closest of the singers that would reflect that kind of drape, juvenile delinquency, frightening
00:20:51kind of sound.
00:20:53When he would mumble and moan and all that.
00:21:00That was kind of in the Link Wray school, but Link Wray did it without any vocals.
00:21:07Juvenile delinquency was a big issue for the adult generation.
00:21:13Young people have no respect for authority.
00:21:16Juvenile delinquency is increasing daily.
00:21:19They were worried about their wayward kids who had grown up in this affluent post-war environment and were looking
00:21:26for fun and action in destructive ways.
00:21:30West Side Story immortalized this.
00:21:33The choreographed rumble is depicted in that play.
00:21:36People were always worried, oh, the kids are going to get together after school and they're going to rumble.
00:21:40Kids have always fought.
00:21:42Fighting is like a high school sport.
00:21:43Come on, kids.
00:21:44Get up, I said.
00:21:45I bet it did incite some riots.
00:21:48I have no doubt it did.
00:21:50It makes me want to, you know, get my knuckles out, but I don't know why.
00:21:56He was an indigenous rebel in his heart and his soul, and that's what was coming through.
00:22:01As opposed to, I have a choice.
00:22:02I can be like Bobby Rydell, or I can be like Marlon Brando.
00:22:07I want to be like Brando.
00:22:08I'm more like that guy.
00:22:10That's why I think in a Link show, the guys would say, I relate to Brando because that's who I
00:22:15am, and that's who goes to see those movies and goes to see those concerts.
00:22:18I think Link had more of a visceral, powerful effect with rumble and that approach, that guttural thing, instead of
00:22:25being a virtuoso.
00:22:27You know, it was like an experiment that touched everybody and, you know, the lowest blues street common denominator of
00:22:35electric guitar, and just reveling in it.
00:22:38You know, one of the first people, I mean, people play guitar forever, to all of a sudden, you know,
00:22:43be wanting to poke holes in speakers and turn it up so it's distorted.
00:22:46That's why that the song was so raucous sounding, even though it had no lyrics.
00:22:52That combined with the title made it seem like a social threat to the powers that be and wanted to
00:23:00keep the kids calm.
00:23:01That's why all those Bobby singers were so popular, because that was what they were trying to do.
00:23:07Link Wray and Early Elvis, Gene Vincent, all those cats.
00:23:11It was definitely a rebellious sort of music, and then eventually it got tamed down because they saw that they
00:23:16could make more money commercially.
00:23:18The first generation of rockers was gone.
00:23:24The brothers were very close.
00:23:27That's all through time, you know, until they passed away.
00:23:30You had his brother Ray playing some guitar and piano, and you had Shorty on bass, and it was just
00:23:38like a whole very tribal thing.
00:23:42That band was so powerful.
00:23:44Doug Ray.
00:23:46Oh, man.
00:23:47What a drummer.
00:23:48This guy was just, he was as unique as Link, and Link would tell you that.
00:23:54I mean, in the time I spent with Link, he just raved about Doug's drums.
00:24:00He was a real loud drummer.
00:24:02Frankie Avalon's manager said, that's the best drummer and loudest drummer I've ever heard in my life.
00:24:12You have been a great idol for dozens and dozens of guitar players, but have you had yourself any idols?
00:24:19Sure.
00:24:19I mean, Hank Williams, Les Paul, Barney Kessel, Chet Atkins.
00:24:24They were country artists, you know, because back in the 40s, there was no rock and roll until Elvis came.
00:24:29I mean, how does a man like Chet Atkins influence a person that goes on to become a rock and
00:24:33roll legend?
00:24:37What was it about Chet Atkins?
00:24:38I never could play as good as Chet Atkins.
00:24:39I tried to play clean like he did.
00:24:41I knew back in the old days I never could be a really good, clean jazzer, a good, even clean
00:24:46country picker.
00:24:48I don't consider myself a great musician.
00:24:49I just consider myself an average guitar player who looks for sound.
00:24:57I did rumble and went up the charts and left.
00:24:59Then Milk Grant wanted to put me on a bigger label.
00:25:02So he took me away from Cadence, put me on Epic Records, and I made Rawhide, which was my second
00:25:08here.
00:25:08Came out, Dick Clark was playing it every day, even read it on his show.
00:25:12And at 98 with a bullet in the charts.
00:25:16This is a guitar that he supposedly recorded Rawhide and a lot of the stuff that was on Epic around
00:25:211958, 1959.
00:25:23These were sort of budget guitars back in the day.
00:25:27It's been thrashed.
00:25:28You can see the neck's been broken off and re-glued, and it just kind of barely plays now.
00:25:34If the guitar turned up and it was mint, and somebody said, this was Link Rigg's guitar, you'd say, bullshit.
00:25:40You can't play a biker bar and still have a mint guitar.
00:25:46When you play those songs, you can just kind of hear that same tone, the fret buzz, the whole thing.
00:25:53So, yeah, this is the Denelectro that Link's holding in that iconic photo.
00:26:02I did no thought of being a musician when I was growing up.
00:26:05Total, last thing in my mind, had no talent for any kind of music.
00:26:09Heard Link, one night, bam, I got to be a guitar player.
00:26:12You know, went out and bought a guitar the next day, tried to find somebody to show me how to
00:26:16play guitar a little bit.
00:26:20Actually, it's kind of a funny story how I started playing with Link.
00:26:24I was good friends with him, and I went to see him play.
00:26:27And the bass player just didn't show up.
00:26:29Somebody came in with a message.
00:26:31The guy had a loop, got married.
00:26:32Boom, no goodbye or nothing.
00:26:34So they don't have a bass player, and they need to get paid for four pieces.
00:26:37So Doug says, well, nobody else is in the club.
00:26:41Stick Elwood up on stage.
00:26:42And I played guitar, but I didn't play bass.
00:26:44So, of course, I'm nervous.
00:26:46Never been on stage before in my life.
00:26:48Got up on stage.
00:26:49Link says, stand there, you know, set the volume on the amplifier and everything.
00:26:52I mean, I'm nervous and scared to death.
00:26:54I mean, literally shaking in my boots.
00:26:55So anyway, at the end of the night, I guess I did something right, because Link says to
00:26:59Doug, he says, hey, why don't we just keep Elwood?
00:27:01I'll show him what I want him to do on bass.
00:27:03You know, because we were good friends.
00:27:05He said, well, he'll fit right in with us.
00:27:06So, boom, I was a member of the Rayman.
00:27:10A lot of people sat in with that band, sometimes for one set, sometimes one night, sometimes for
00:27:15two or three nights.
00:27:16So we had sax players coming in and out, harmonica, lots of singers.
00:27:21A lot of these people were in other walks of life.
00:27:25They weren't professional musicians, but they should have been.
00:27:32The funny thing about Link Wray and his music is that he definitely deserved to be playing
00:27:39at the Kennedy Center for the Arts or places of that stature.
00:27:43But his music also lent itself to just these gut bucket dives.
00:27:50There's a famous story from the 1960s where they walked into a bar and each member of
00:27:57the band put a gun on top of their amp.
00:27:59Like, okay, we have this here, don't mess with us.
00:28:02That was the sort of joints they played in.
00:28:05So, yeah, up until he was an old guy, I'm sure that he always had a knife or something
00:28:09on him for self-protection.
00:28:11Even though at that point he was Link Wray, I mean, who's, you know, who's going to mess
00:28:14with Link Wray?
00:28:22Link Wray was so emotional in his music and his presentation.
00:28:27He brought the emotions out of the audience.
00:28:30Sometimes this took the track of being fistfights.
00:28:34Sometimes just a lot of people love dancing.
00:28:36Sometimes they just kind of stared in awe.
00:28:39I mean, he could come off and just mesmerize people.
00:28:43A lot of the clubs we played in, there would be a mixture of hoods and gangsters, motorcycle
00:28:49crowd, and maybe soldiers.
00:28:52Well, that's not a good mix in a crowd because you have people getting jealous of people dancing
00:28:56with the girls and this type of thing.
00:28:58So, it wasn't unusual for some violence.
00:29:04Link carried a very large knife everywhere he went.
00:29:07He felt he needed that for personal protection.
00:29:10I'll never forget, I was doing a show at the Lone Star Cafe here in New York.
00:29:16We played there lots of times.
00:29:18Sid Vicious came up to the dressing room and he was mouthing off about something and Link
00:29:23pulled out a fucking knife and had him up against the wall.
00:29:26So, Link was a bit of a redneck, no question about it.
00:29:29And if you mess with him, you know, you could be in trouble.
00:29:40A traffic altercation on the way to the gig, whatever.
00:29:44He'd take the knife out and start waving it at the other car.
00:29:47It was crazy, man, because he was such a quiet guy, so mellow.
00:29:51It fit in with that bad boy image he had of the black leather and the pompadour.
00:29:57I mean, he had that wild rumble-type look to him.
00:30:01And I believe carrying a switchblade fit right in with that.
00:30:05We even did an instrumental called Switchblade.
00:30:07Every singer is an actor.
00:30:10And every, in this case, performer is an actor.
00:30:13You're playing the role, now usually the song is the script, but when it's an instrumental,
00:30:22the title is the script.
00:30:23Native Americans are often coined in either being a docile native person, just one with
00:30:30nature, or a violent savage.
00:30:32Those are stereotypes.
00:30:35Although he made this sound that was banned, just for the fear or threat that it may incite
00:30:43violence, was not known to be a violent person.
00:30:47Link, on and off stage, was two different people.
00:30:50He didn't drink, he didn't smoke, no drugs ever, totally against anything like that.
00:30:55I got down here, Jesus first.
00:30:58And when you put Jesus first, you can never grow old, you know, in your spirit, in your
00:31:03body.
00:31:03Make music, make rock and roll, you know, get high with God, get high with Jesus.
00:31:08Coming from a family that very much had a long background in Judeo-Christian beliefs, coupled
00:31:15with his native ancestry, it would not be surprising to me that when he was playing his music and
00:31:24creating his sound, that he was in some form of prayer.
00:31:30I believe in sex because I'm married.
00:31:32I don't believe in drugs because it's bad for your health.
00:31:35Don't eat to others as you will have them do unto you.
00:31:38This song is called Jesus of Nazareth.
00:31:44Image and reality are quite often, aren't they, two different things?
00:31:48And I think Link was probably an example of that gap.
00:31:53You know, Link Wray is one of those guys that he just can't help it.
00:31:57He looks cool.
00:31:58And when you look at those pictures of him in the 1950s, it was just like he just had this
00:32:02perfect swagger.
00:32:04When he walked in a room, he was a little guy.
00:32:06He was only like five, seven.
00:32:08He was just bigger than life.
00:32:10There was a drama to this guy.
00:32:11And he just had that vibe around him.
00:32:15Let's face it.
00:32:16Link Wray was a fashion plate.
00:32:18I mean, you look back on those photos and he had two-tone outfits that matched his guitars.
00:32:24He had impeccable jet black hair that was cut just so.
00:32:29Great shades.
00:32:30Link's eyesight was very, very bad.
00:32:32And he had the typical, you know, Coke bottle, very heavy glasses.
00:32:36And it would magnify light to the point where it would almost blind him.
00:32:40So that's why he wore the dark glasses even at night.
00:32:48His look and his sound was a part of his resistance to his very existence as being a mixed race
00:32:55person, as being a Native American rock and roll musician, as being a Shawnee man growing
00:33:01up in the South.
00:33:02I think his look is endemic of the time and the feelings that he had towards the country
00:33:06that he's living in.
00:33:08You know, Link Wray is often referred to as the other man in black.
00:33:13But no better than what you heard.
00:33:19Elvis was dangerous, but he sang Teddy Bear.
00:33:21You know what I mean?
00:33:21Link Wray was not singing Teddy Bear, man.
00:33:24He was right coming in with a chainsaw.
00:33:26So, and that needs to be represented.
00:33:29You need that representation if you want a full balanced understanding of what's going
00:33:34on in society.
00:33:40Doug said, I'm going to introduce you to this guy.
00:33:43He's going to knock your socks off.
00:33:44That's what Doug said.
00:33:45He's going to knock your socks off.
00:33:47I said, why, Doug?
00:33:48He said, you just wait until you see him.
00:33:50And when I went to see Elvis, I said, this is something brand new.
00:33:53Link, could you show us your t-shirt before?
00:33:55Can you just do that again for us?
00:33:57Oh, the Elvis t-shirt.
00:33:58Yeah.
00:34:00Well, Link took his original look from Elvis.
00:34:02He was a big Elvis fan.
00:34:03Did a lot of Elvis songs.
00:34:05But he had his own thing, for sure.
00:34:08And he just, he had this great look about him.
00:34:11It was like the guy never took a bad picture.
00:34:13When he came out of the bathroom, came out of the bedroom, I mean, he was stage ready.
00:34:1624 hours a day, the hair was combed.
00:34:19I never saw him needing a shave.
00:34:21He was always fully dressed as though he could go on stage at any minute.
00:34:24That was just how he saw himself.
00:34:26That became the look of rock and roll, and Link was one of the pioneers of putting that
00:34:30on stage, you know.
00:34:31I swear, somebody.
00:34:46There was a period where he was kind of floating around, and he ended up on Swan, this kind
00:34:51of penny-ante label out of Philadelphia.
00:34:53Not the biggest, not the greatest, but they were happy to get Link records, and they just
00:34:58cranked out singles.
00:35:00He was just like a mad scientist.
00:35:02He was on the prowl for new sounds made with an electric guitar.
00:35:07And nobody really cared about these records.
00:35:10A few were hits, but mostly he was just churning this stuff out, and it's just utterly brilliant.
00:35:16Records like Jack the Ripper, Deuces Wild, you want to hear a hell of a record, pal, put
00:35:21that on.
00:35:22That'll put your hair in curlers.
00:35:31He had enough money that they were getting by, and he had a label that put the records out
00:35:39and didn't seem to care if they were big hits.
00:35:42You know, they put out a single of the Batman theme, backed with Alone, which is a great
00:35:47example of the two sides of Link.
00:35:55The first night that Batman came on, he wasn't working at the time.
00:36:00He was kind of on strike, had a little disagreement with Ray about money.
00:36:05And he came up to the club, and he said, hey, I'm just watching TV, man.
00:36:10I just heard this thing.
00:36:11We've got to go down to the studio and record.
00:36:13I think he said it took something like 78 takes or something.
00:36:16If you listen to that record, there's a lot of complicated gizmos and effects and a lot
00:36:21of strange sounds in that record.
00:36:23It isn't just guitar playing.
00:36:24So you can kind of imagine it was an all-night session.
00:36:27Anyway, next day, Ray had, of course, the tape from the studio, flew up to Swan, gave
00:36:32him the tape.
00:36:33They immediately pressed the record.
00:36:34The thing was probably in the DJ's hands within a week or two.
00:36:38Batman is a very popular TV show all of a sudden on TV, and here's Batman theme, Link
00:36:42Ray recorded.
00:36:42Radio stations are all playing Batman theme.
00:36:46You have to advertise in the music business.
00:36:49The disc jockeys, the suits, they believe what they read.
00:36:54Ray didn't, for whatever reason, take out any ads in Billboard or any of the dailies.
00:36:59Now you've got the marquees on a major label.
00:37:02Disc jockey says, oh, marquees, write-ups in this magazine, write-ups in that.
00:37:05You know, the dailies are saying to play.
00:37:07Link Ray goes in the trash.
00:37:09Marquees Batman goes on the turntable.
00:37:11Big hit for the marquees.
00:37:13Link, again, the poor forgotten soul, what's he get?
00:37:16Basically nothing.
00:37:18You know, record disappeared off the face of the earth.
00:37:21That would have been his next rumble.
00:37:25Being in the music business as long as you have, what do you see bands like Boston, Blondie,
00:37:29the Village People, who have virtually no musical background at all, come on and become overnight superstars?
00:37:34What does that do to you?
00:37:36No, it's just like, you know, they've got good managers and good, lots of money behind them, you know.
00:37:41You can be the best musician in the world if you don't have a good manager and if you don't
00:37:44have the right producer and the right manager and the right agency behind you.
00:37:53You can be the best musician in the world and not go anywhere.
00:38:02Link left and went to Tucson with Ray.
00:38:06There was a business deal out there and other things going on.
00:38:09Well, Doug, his brother at the time, had a barbershop.
00:38:12Fairly lucrative.
00:38:13I mean, he was settled in.
00:38:14I had a family and a daughter.
00:38:16I wasn't going anywhere.
00:38:18Ray Vernon was a character, okay?
00:38:20And you have to understand that Vernon wanted to be a solo artist, and he didn't cut it.
00:38:26It never happened for Link's brother.
00:38:28And he became Link's kind of manager, producer.
00:38:33Link bowed his head in terms of the sound that Ray got on those records.
00:38:38That's a whole thing you can talk about.
00:38:40There's an analog glow to those records that's just wowsville.
00:38:46I mean, you can take a vacation in that sound these guys created, and Ray's a big part of that.
00:38:54If you listen to the old original, I think it was called Pop and Popeye originally, and then it was
00:38:59Fatback.
00:39:01It later was renamed Days of Spades, but that early recording is probably the closest thing to a live sound
00:39:07of Link.
00:39:11Ray could almost nail it in the studio.
00:39:13What his secrets were, I don't know, I'm not an engineer.
00:39:16I don't know how they, bowling dials and stuff work, but Ray was a genius at that.
00:39:20It's a shame he didn't record other performers.
00:39:22He pretty much only recorded Link, and a few local people, too.
00:39:26But where things went a little funky was when it came to money.
00:39:34Ray sort of played a little fast and loose.
00:39:37Vernon was always the business manager of the band, and he made sure that Link did not have control of
00:39:44the copyrights and the publishing and everything.
00:39:47He would tell Link, you're not responsible for your money, which Link wasn't.
00:39:52If you gave Link $100, he'd go out and give it to somebody else.
00:39:54I mean, he had no concept, really, of what money was as long as it was food on the table.
00:39:59So in one sense, somebody needed to kind of financially, you know, steer him right.
00:40:04In this case, it was supposed to be Brother Ray.
00:40:07Link was an ethereal creature.
00:40:10He was like in outer space.
00:40:12I remember playing him Nirvana's Breed.
00:40:20Which, of course, hijacks Run Chicken Run.
00:40:24And he'd never heard it.
00:40:30Was he pissed off?
00:40:31Did he say, I should get a piece of that?
00:40:33I'm the songwriter?
00:40:34No, he just said, wow, wow, Jimmy, that's Link Ray music.
00:40:38And he was kind of touched by it.
00:40:40So it filtered back through him, through these seven veils that was his life.
00:40:45There was so many things he wasn't aware of, or compilations, or the way people had covered his songs.
00:40:52He remained sort of blissfully unaware, or maybe willfully unaware, I'm not sure.
00:40:58So many artists of the late 50s, early 60s, pre-Beatles, you know, so much as pre-Beatles,
00:41:05were ripped off by loads of people around them at the time.
00:41:08A little bit would filter down to the artists, just enough to kind of keep them thinking,
00:41:14oh, I'm earning a little bit of money.
00:41:16But they weren't seeing the books.
00:41:19They weren't seeing the accounts.
00:41:21And they were getting ripped off.
00:41:23It was almost a standard practice.
00:41:25There's so many people that deserve, maybe, more notoriety, or more commercial success,
00:41:31as far as records sold, which is really just getting the sound to a large group of people.
00:41:36And the management and the record company aspect of that was never aligned to do that for Link.
00:41:43He's not unique in that respect.
00:41:46He's just unique in his playing and the sound he brought to us.
00:41:50Ray was telling him, I'll put the money away for you.
00:41:53I've invested it, and it'll all come to you in your old age.
00:41:56Well, as it came out, there was no money.
00:41:59Everybody else was asking Link, why does Ray have a new car every month?
00:42:02Why does he live on a big house on, you know, four acres of land?
00:42:06Why does he wear the best suits?
00:42:08You know, you have nothing.
00:42:10You know, you don't have a shirt on your back hardly.
00:42:12You don't have razor blades to shave with.
00:42:13And Link says, well, you know, he just would kind of, like, pass it off
00:42:17and maybe didn't want to admit it to himself.
00:42:20I don't know.
00:42:27You stopped recording after several years.
00:42:30Why did you give it up?
00:42:32Jack Nietzsche recorded Rumble with this big band sound, the guy who had Lonely Surfer.
00:42:36And he had Rumble in the charts when President Kennedy got shot.
00:42:40My type of music, the Elvis music, and all that early music died with President Kennedy
00:42:44because they were mourning of the president.
00:42:46And then when the music started back up again, here come the Beatles from England
00:42:50doing, I want to hold your hand, you know, and it was a different type of music.
00:43:00About 10 or 15 minutes ago, a tragic thing from all indications at this point
00:43:04has happened in the city of Dallas.
00:43:05Let me quote to you this.
00:43:07President Kennedy and Governor John Connolly have been cut down by assassins' bullets in
00:43:11downtown Dallas.
00:43:13The president, his limp body carried in the arms of his wife, Jacqueline, has rushed to
00:43:18Parkland Hospital.
00:43:21They were riding in an open automobile when the shots were fired.
00:43:48There was a five-year window that was available to him from sort of 58 to 63.
00:43:54To get the best out of his career.
00:43:57And I don't think he was prepared to compromise, to achieve the fame to do that.
00:44:03Once the Beatles and the Stones, the British bands, hit, they dominated the charts.
00:44:08Very few of those pre-Beatle American stars survived.
00:44:12Suddenly all of these pioneers were put out to pasture in the prime of their lives.
00:44:17And it's a great injustice of the entire rock history.
00:44:21Every single one of these acts that were huge in the 1970s, and especially the British rock
00:44:28acts, they grew up.
00:44:30You know, their ears got turned on to rock and roll with Link Wray's guitar.
00:44:38Along came Cream, The Kinks, and The Who.
00:44:41You know, literally sometimes smashing things up, but certainly shaking the foundations of
00:44:46the industry.
00:44:47With respect to Link, what we were doing was closing the circle on what he had done so
00:44:53many years before, you know, in the late 50s, with his sound, with his approach, and everything
00:44:58else.
00:44:58The British Invasion influenced everybody, other than the hardcore blues guys, who were
00:45:04just into the blues and that's it.
00:45:06Almost everybody else was influenced one way or the other, you know, except Link Wray.
00:45:12He was 100% American, and maintained that throughout.
00:45:17You know, the question is whether or not they could have gotten him in the spotlight and showcased
00:45:24him in a way that would have been palatable to 1970s rock audiences.
00:45:30That's a million dollar question.
00:45:31I don't know.
00:45:32He was making great music then, but then it's always the question of where do they fit in
00:45:36that particular timeline.
00:45:38From the next generation on, the audience grew up with the bands.
00:45:44Who's the biggest artist right now?
00:45:47Rolling Stones and the Beatles.
00:45:49Right?
00:45:50Same thing as in 1964.
00:45:53I mean, that's a fact.
00:45:56One of the things about Whistle Test at that time was the program really championed new music.
00:46:03And in those days, you really are talking about people like, you know, Elton John, Jackson
00:46:07Brown, Bonnie Rae.
00:46:08These were the bands that we were supporting that were appearing in front of a British television
00:46:13audience pretty much for the first time.
00:46:15So that was the main engine of the show.
00:46:19But the show also lived within a context where 60s music was still very important.
00:46:25So, you know, it was important for us to reflect back on bands like Cream or currently Led Zeppelin
00:46:33or, you know, and we also quite regularly used to dip back into rock and roll.
00:46:39But as far as tonight's concerned, we're closing the program with music from Link Rae.
00:46:44A number called Midnight Lover.
00:46:47In 72, I think Link Rae appeared on the show on the basis of all of us loving Rumble.
00:46:56It was such an innovative recording that it was important when Link was recording again
00:47:03in the early 70s, that we were able to get him in and reflect back also on that moment
00:47:10in 58 when Rumble came out.
00:47:13He found fame as an instrumental guitarist, but then he also sang.
00:47:18And it's hard to verbalize this to people who are not actually rockers themselves.
00:47:27He embodied rock and roll.
00:47:30You know, he was the archetype.
00:47:32And part of that was overcoming the odds, being part Shawnee, you know,
00:47:39living with the Ku Klux Klan every day.
00:47:41I mean, he said they were literally everywhere, you know.
00:47:46The guy at the drugstore, the, you know, the cop on the beat.
00:47:51And then he's in the Korean fucking war, man.
00:47:54How many rock and rollers do you know that were in any war, first of all?
00:48:00But Korea?
00:48:03Holy shit, you know.
00:48:19I was in the Korean war, you know.
00:48:21I lost a lung.
00:48:23They had me in the VA hospital.
00:48:24Every time I'd breathe, I'd hemorrhage blood out, you know.
00:48:27And the doctors would say, will he be there tomorrow, you know.
00:48:40So I've got to overcome that as well, right?
00:48:43Whatever trauma goes with that.
00:48:46And then gets tuberculosis and loses the lung.
00:48:51He was singing with one lung his entire career.
00:48:54And the guy was one of the loudest singers I ever heard.
00:48:57Phenomenal.
00:48:58His singing voice was equally as sort of rough hewn as his guitar playing.
00:49:04So for me, it's always interesting when you talk about a record like Ain't That Lovin' You Baby,
00:49:10you know, which was a cover of a Jimmy Reed song.
00:49:13Link Ray's the only guy I can think of that can actually cover a blues record like that
00:49:17and have it actually sound meaner and rougher and tougher than the original guy who performed it.
00:49:24I mean, it sounds like he's just ripping his guts out of his body when he sings it.
00:49:28You know, I've often heard about American Indians and American Indian musicians
00:49:34and their influence from the blues, where people are talking about their experiences
00:49:41and growing up in a time or in a place that is hostile to their very existence.
00:49:49I think American Indian musicians and American Indian rock stars like Link Ray
00:49:55are expressing the blues in their sounds because for American Indians,
00:50:01our existence is our resistance.
00:50:04I love his voice.
00:50:05It has so much character.
00:50:07It's really cool.
00:50:36I'm still not really sure how he got signed to Polydor.
00:50:39This was a guy who was kind of a relic of the 1950s and aging,
00:50:45and yet, you know, he got signed to this major label that was handling much younger bands.
00:50:51Apple Records is on the 42nd floor, and Polydor was on the 38th floor,
00:50:56and I'm getting in the elevator, and John Lennon, oh no, he jumps in the elevator,
00:50:59and, aren't you, like, right, aren't you, like, right?
00:51:01I said, yeah, aren't you, John Lennon?
00:51:05He said, oh no, oh no, like, right, wrong, wrong, wrong.
00:51:07It sounds like if Link had signed with Apple and the Beatles,
00:51:12somebody like a John Lennon would have maybe gotten more great music out of him
00:51:18to share with the world than the way that he went,
00:51:21but that's the story of show business.
00:51:28I didn't hear that Polydor record until later on.
00:51:31When I was on tour, I found it in Minneapolis at a place called Jaime's.
00:51:35I mean, I just listened to it obsessively,
00:51:36that first Polydor record that he cut in the three-track shack.
00:51:41It's a beautiful record.
00:51:42I love that it was recorded behind his mom's house with his brother
00:51:46on that big three-track machine.
00:51:47It's just a beautiful sound.
00:51:49The three of them and the shack is a magic combination of vibration.
00:51:53It's super important.
00:51:55Definitely would never have been created by anybody else but those three guys.
00:51:59They needed each other to create that.
00:52:02You know, it's interesting to think that he had been developing
00:52:07songwriting techniques and singing techniques,
00:52:10but not so much changing his guitar style.
00:52:14In my liner notes for the album he was producing
00:52:17at that particular time in 74.
00:52:19I praised Link's singing.
00:52:21I think his voice was really good.
00:52:25When he sings on that album,
00:52:28you know, he sounded somewhere between Nick Jagger and Van Morrison.
00:52:38I think I said in the notes,
00:52:40this powerful voice coming from a man with only one lung.
00:52:43The songs were very moving and very varied and powerful stuff.
00:52:47It was no longer songs about fighting or anything like that,
00:52:51but it was still Link-Rae music.
00:52:53And it was innovative in his own Link-Rae way
00:52:58of making music in that era,
00:53:00which was definitely kind of the hippie Woodstock era.
00:53:03The whole hippie movement owed a large part of its philosophy
00:53:08to both Indians, you know,
00:53:11the Native Americans as well as the Far East
00:53:13in terms of Hindu philosophy or Buddhist philosophy,
00:53:17you know, combined with Native American philosophy
00:53:21of honoring the earth.
00:53:23It became cool to be a Native American.
00:53:26It was like this cool thing to be different.
00:53:28And that was when you had a lot of musically integrated acts
00:53:32and there was a lot more acceptance of things
00:53:34that were outside of the mainstream.
00:53:36And so guys like him that had a unique look
00:53:39and a unique flavor to what they did,
00:53:41all of a sudden that was cool.
00:53:42So I think from that point on,
00:53:44he was, you know, he was proud to say he was Native American.
00:53:48So many people have said that they've been influenced by you.
00:53:51Peter Townsend of the Who, Jeff Beck, the Kinks, even Bob Dylan.
00:53:54I mean, what does it feel like to have influenced people like that?
00:53:57Well, if I just had their money, it'd be all right.
00:54:00No, no, it's an honor, you know.
00:54:03It makes me feel good to know that they was listening to my music
00:54:05and then they were kids, you know.
00:54:07Even though they came up with giant stars, you know.
00:54:10Bob Dylan told me one time, he said,
00:54:12Link, he said, you're as big as I am.
00:54:14He said, all you need to do is get your sheep together, you know.
00:54:15Well, he'd got his sheep together.
00:54:17I'm still trying to get them on up, you know.
00:54:19Link was influencing lots of people, but I was too young.
00:54:22So I didn't really see him or hear him, I think,
00:54:27until he was with Robert Gordon.
00:54:30I was in a group called the Tough Starts.
00:54:32It was one of the main groups at the time.
00:54:36New Wave, I guess, would be better.
00:54:38And, you know, we all, all of us,
00:54:40Debbie Harry, the Talking Heads, television,
00:54:42all of us rehearsed in the same area,
00:54:45so in the same place, actually.
00:54:47And Richard Goddaro, who suggested Link,
00:54:50and I said, whoa, that would be cool, man,
00:54:52because I remembered him from when I was a little kid.
00:54:55Link Ray was a known entity in the business,
00:54:58so, of course, to put his name on the album
00:55:00would give this new artist,
00:55:02who was relatively unknown, Robert Gordon, credibility.
00:55:05And so it became known as a duo act.
00:55:08They were backed up by just bass and drums.
00:55:14Link is a true instrumentalist,
00:55:17and Gordon is a true singer.
00:55:21So it's one of those things
00:55:22that I think they were very complimentary to each other.
00:55:26When I heard Robert sing, I said, yeah, yeah,
00:55:28that's gotta win.
00:55:32Springsteen had, at the time,
00:55:33more songs than he could release on his albums,
00:55:36but like any songwriter,
00:55:38he was trying to pitch his songs to other people.
00:55:40That's what songwriters do, no matter how big they are.
00:55:43Bruce got in touch with us and said,
00:55:45hey, I got this song.
00:55:46And Bruce was already getting quite a reputation.
00:55:49We were doing a Robert Gordon, Link Ray album,
00:55:52and Bruce showed up in the studio one day,
00:55:54and he accompanied us on piano.
00:55:59Okay, we're gonna do a song
00:56:00that we just finished recording for our new record.
00:56:04It's gonna be out in February.
00:56:05This is a Bruce Springsteen song.
00:56:11Link would have his own solo section
00:56:14in the middle of the show.
00:56:16Robert Gordon would come out,
00:56:17he'd do a few tunes,
00:56:18and then he'd take a break and say,
00:56:21I'd like to introduce the man
00:56:23that I'm really having a pleasure working with,
00:56:26Mr. Link Ray, ladies and gentlemen.
00:56:27Link Ray.
00:56:28I would do a bunch of tunes,
00:56:30and they'd let me do a tune.
00:56:31Link would let me do a tune
00:56:33in the middle of his set.
00:56:34It was more of a variety show that way.
00:56:44So it was a match made in heaven, really.
00:56:47I mean, it was just pretty amazing.
00:56:49Link was great on stage.
00:56:51He was terrific.
00:56:52Although he only knew one way to play,
00:56:55and that was on full volume,
00:56:57which was difficult for me as a singer.
00:56:59Even though Robert Gordon's a loud singer,
00:57:01he could not hear himself
00:57:03over Link Ray on stage.
00:57:07Any way to turn these things up a little louder?
00:57:09Because I can't hear what I'm doing up here.
00:57:11Link was used to doing it his way,
00:57:15and whenever anybody would make a comment to him
00:57:18about turning it down,
00:57:19he would say,
00:57:20no, man, I can't feel it.
00:57:21He liked to feel the volume.
00:57:27And they were always at odds over this issue.
00:57:30So that's why it ultimately didn't work out with them.
00:57:33Volume.
00:57:41Link was just magnetic, electric energy.
00:57:45Many times there's a rivalry and envy between brothers.
00:57:48That's the nuts and bolts of it right there.
00:57:50Ray was just very envious of Link's success.
00:57:54You know, Ray knew that he didn't have that spark,
00:57:56that connection with a live audience.
00:57:59After him and Link kind of had the animosity
00:58:01come to the surface about them,
00:58:03and he was no longer managing Link,
00:58:05Ray unfortunately got into drugs and drinking,
00:58:08and he just went downhill like a bullet.
00:58:11We knew it was coming.
00:58:12It just was a matter of when.
00:58:15You could just see this man was on a downhill path.
00:58:19Redemption would have been a miracle.
00:58:21Sad.
00:58:23I wish it had been otherwise all the way around.
00:58:29One day I'm over a visit,
00:58:31and my mother, the phone rings, and it's Link,
00:58:33and she said, well, hey, Elwood's here right now.
00:58:35He was calling to tell me that Ray had committed suicide.
00:58:39Link told me, he says, you know,
00:58:40my brother Ray just passed away, took his own life.
00:58:43I mean, he was totally in shock when I found out about it.
00:58:47Brother Ray admitted this before he died.
00:58:50He said, Link, you got the glory, I got the money.
00:58:57As a Native American person,
00:59:01what's really important to us
00:59:03is making sure the family, the tribe,
00:59:07the community is in harmony.
00:59:09And so we work really hard
00:59:11to stay in good relations with one another.
00:59:13And it's not to say that we're not without conflict,
00:59:18even where there are situations
00:59:20where perhaps siblings, sibling rivalry,
00:59:26you know, a brother can do you wrong,
00:59:30a mismanagement of funds,
00:59:32or whatever those situations are,
00:59:35there's always this attempt
00:59:36to keep some sense of balance and harmony.
00:59:39And I think that very much goes
00:59:41to his Native American roots
00:59:43in that, you know, you only have one family.
00:59:46You only have one tribe.
00:59:48And we should do our best
00:59:50to be in good relations with one another,
00:59:52as difficult as that might be.
00:59:54I've gone through a lot of pain, you know.
00:59:57My two brothers I told you about,
00:59:58they just passed away,
00:59:59and I'm the only one left in my family, you know.
01:00:01But I've been very happy, you know.
01:00:03I've met people like you in the business,
01:00:06and I've met people that I didn't like in the business,
01:00:08but the music is the real.
01:00:10You know, everything else that surrounds me,
01:00:13you know, I can't, I take with a, you know,
01:00:17I take with a distance.
01:00:18But the only thing I don't take with a distance
01:00:20is my music, you know.
01:00:21And he got even more of a lone wolf.
01:00:24I mean, you listen to that song alone.
01:00:27That was Link, you know.
01:00:28He was just kind of out there.
01:00:31You've been married three times, had eight kids.
01:00:33What's in the future for Link Wright?
01:00:35Another wife, another kid, maybe.
01:00:36And I hit, and hit up.
01:00:38You're gonna be able to rock and roll until you die?
01:00:40Yeah, man, that's it, man.
01:00:46After he finished working with Robert Gordon,
01:00:48he left America,
01:00:49and he didn't go back for over 20 years.
01:00:53You're married now, you and Oliver together.
01:00:55You have a baby instead of a year and a half.
01:00:57Yeah, I'm living in Copenhagen, Denmark.
01:00:59They didn't live an extravagant lifestyle.
01:01:02They were more or less subsisting
01:01:04on Link's small disability pension
01:01:08from the U.S. forces.
01:01:10I don't go to parties and stuff like that
01:01:11because I'm a home man,
01:01:12but I deal myself with good people and good musicians
01:01:15and try to live a happy life, you know?
01:01:17Olive took over the management
01:01:19and total control of Link.
01:01:21He had royalties common to him,
01:01:24and they didn't have any way to get in touch with him.
01:01:26For a long time,
01:01:26the only thing that him and Olive had
01:01:29was a fax machine.
01:01:30No telephone, no nothing.
01:01:33After a while, the fax machine disappeared.
01:01:35I never spoke to Link after that.
01:01:37Olive completely cut him off.
01:01:40None of us ever heard from Link.
01:01:41He just disappeared off the face of the earth.
01:01:52It's going to be great to see his show tonight,
01:01:55and we're really lucky to be able to catch him here in London.
01:01:58Sausages.
01:02:00I don't like sausages.
01:02:03I figure that anyone that Mark E. Smith thinks is a god
01:02:05can't be all bad.
01:02:06He's a fucking best.
01:02:08Brilliant.
01:02:08I just got back off of a little Yerkin tour, you know?
01:02:12I'm getting ready to play a gig in London the 27th of December.
01:02:23Link did a version of It's All Over Now Baby Blue,
01:02:26the Bob Dylan song.
01:02:28Bob told Link backstage at the Roundhouse gig in London
01:02:33that it was his favorite cover of a Bob Dylan song
01:02:36that he'd ever heard.
01:02:38And when you listen to that track,
01:02:40wow, he just kills it, man.
01:02:42It's like from another world.
01:02:48I think that he had the same effect on audiences wherever he went.
01:02:54It was just if Link was playing in Kansas City,
01:02:57he would have a devoted crowd of 100 to 200 people
01:03:02that were really into it.
01:03:04But, you know, if he played in Madrid, Spain,
01:03:07there was 1,000 people there,
01:03:091,500 people absolutely losing their minds.
01:03:12They cannot believe they're seeing Link Wray play.
01:03:15So I think the European audience was just more energetic
01:03:19and they definitely knew his music better
01:03:21than the American audience, which is weird.
01:03:26Ladies and gentlemen,
01:03:29we have a very special treat for you guys now.
01:03:33There's been a man
01:03:34who's one of the finest rock and roll guitar players
01:03:37ever to live
01:03:39and probably the most unrecognized
01:03:42and uncredited for making rock and roll
01:03:45what it is today.
01:03:46To the one, the only,
01:03:49Link Wray.
01:03:50Well,
01:03:53Come on, everybody,
01:03:54let's tear this old place up.
01:03:57Come on, everybody,
01:03:59let's tear this old place up.
01:04:02Come on, you little baby,
01:04:04let's sing it and shake it.
01:04:08Tear it up.
01:04:10Tear it up.
01:04:12Tear it up.
01:04:15Tear it up.
01:04:18Come on, little baby.
01:04:19Ladies and gentlemen,
01:04:20the only great.
01:04:21Look for it, buddy.
01:04:22Get up there.
01:04:46Keep going, Link.
01:04:47Get another one.
01:04:48Get another one.
01:04:49Come on.
01:04:49Get another one.
01:04:57Ready?
01:05:04Yeah.
01:05:19All sorts of people came out of the woodwork who were fans of his, you know, came to the
01:05:25gigs and things like that.
01:05:26He was held in much higher esteem than he had realized, you know.
01:05:36I was always interested in rock and roll and blues and soul and so on from a very early
01:05:40age.
01:05:41The idea of America was fantastic, so I went to America and there I discovered a small
01:05:47record shop.
01:05:48If you bought ten records for ten dollars, you got an extra one free.
01:05:55I decided when I came back to England that I'd open a small second-hand record shop.
01:06:01We covered everything, rock and roll, blues, soul, jazz, reggae.
01:06:07So I thought as soon as I had a little bit of capital, I'd approach somebody and try and
01:06:13license a single and put it out.
01:06:15The idea with Ace, which was called Chiswick at the time, was to reissue oldies, you know,
01:06:21rock and roll and stuff like that.
01:06:23And the first album we did was Hollywood rock and roll.
01:06:27And the second album of old recordings was the Link Wray one.
01:06:31And I ended up going to Copenhagen and recording an album.
01:06:36It was done in a little rehearsal studio, put the album out, was well received, sold well.
01:06:42And it's still in the catalog, so it speaks for itself.
01:06:48Link only sporadically came back to America.
01:06:51And when he did, he was, I wouldn't say a dangerous outsider, but maybe a lonely outsider.
01:06:59There's something that Neil Young said about Roy Orbison to me.
01:07:03He described his music as sad, but proud.
01:07:08And I always think of that when I think about Link, because there was a lot of sad, but
01:07:13proud in Link.
01:07:15One of the reasons he didn't want to go back to America was he didn't want to encounter
01:07:20members of his family from the past.
01:07:23And if he heard they were going to be at a gig, he was upset.
01:07:26Some of his kids would show up to the shows and then it was like show over.
01:07:29They just canceled the show.
01:07:31They would leave.
01:07:32And then eventually a few of them actually got backstage, you know, to see their dad
01:07:38and, you know, OK, you got your picture.
01:07:41Now you have to leave.
01:07:42They veered away in the van like criminals and his kid was left there, you know, an emotional
01:07:47wreck.
01:07:48This is something that happened with Link.
01:07:50There's no way to sugarcoat it.
01:07:51And I talked to his family members.
01:07:53I felt their pain and they didn't want to think their dad had, you know, turned his back.
01:08:01It seemed to me he had.
01:08:06You can certainly understand why he would be paranoid about anything involving the music
01:08:13business.
01:08:13You know, it was like a whole world that he was just not part of.
01:08:26The thing that was really sad about that is that certain things that could really, really,
01:08:33really help his career and did help his career, he was violently opposed to because he was
01:08:39convinced that he was getting ripped off.
01:08:41A good case in point is this series that came out on Norton Records called The Missing Links.
01:08:47It's all these unreleased tracks, just amazing stuff.
01:08:50Link and Olive would refuse to sign any of those records.
01:08:54They would go on and on and on to fans about how Norton Records had ripped them off.
01:09:01Oh, Link, the Nortons are coming.
01:09:04I don't know what we're going to, we may have to cancel the show.
01:09:07I mean, the drama of these encounters was, was thick in the air.
01:09:13You know, the people at Norton Records were the biggest fans of Link Wray imaginable.
01:09:18And they weren't ripping him off, they were licensing these tapes from the person who owned
01:09:24them.
01:09:24It wasn't Link or his wife, it was somebody else.
01:09:27Everything was legal and above board.
01:09:29We saw one of his last gigs and it was gruesome kind of to watch because he was obviously ill.
01:09:35He'd get up on that stage and it didn't matter that it was just some Bozo the Clown
01:09:40nightclub in Waukegan.
01:09:42He was so frail and old and he walked slowly.
01:09:47They had to carry him up and onto the stage and I just remember he had no energy.
01:09:54It just wasn't Link, it was like a poor imitation and it was disturbing to see.
01:10:00Someone had to help him put his guitar over and help him take his ponytail up and put it
01:10:05over his strap.
01:10:06But you know, Link said he wanted to go out playing the final chord of rumble.
01:10:17As soon as he started playing, it was like electricity.
01:10:21It was like a bomb went off in the club.
01:10:24You know what I mean?
01:10:24And he just didn't stop.
01:10:25And it was just like seared into my brain, age defying.
01:10:32It was like that magical quality that someone has and they just have it forever.
01:10:38Musically, it just absolutely blew my mind.
01:10:40It was important for me to see that, to witness that power.
01:10:45There was something kind of oddly surreal about watching a 77-year-old guy on stage with his guitar
01:10:54shrieking feedback, wearing a leather jacket, you know, with his dark black hair pulled back.
01:11:00But he played for 30 minutes, you know, he never came back.
01:11:04And that was it.
01:11:05You know, I think I learned the importance of sometimes not coming back for an encore and
01:11:11how that can even leave a bigger impression.
01:11:14But then I also saw him afterwards sitting in the front seat of the tour van.
01:11:18It was exciting to meet him.
01:11:20But in retrospect, it was also kind of depressing, seeing him in this kind of like beater van,
01:11:25just like looking like he's ready to go.
01:11:32It was not good.
01:11:33It was not good.
01:11:34Highly disturbing.
01:11:35And then before you know it, you turn on the computer and Lincoln left the auditorium.
01:12:01You probably hear Link Wray in the background more now than you ever have at any time in his career.
01:12:08He had his career as a artist trying to sell singles and have hit records on the radio.
01:12:13And that was one thing.
01:12:14But then at some point, people who put music in commercials and movies figured out that is perfect music for
01:12:22this.
01:12:23I'm confused.com.
01:12:24Face your confusion.
01:12:31We're Jack Daniels.
01:12:39You use Link Wray if you want to have people think that you are hip.
01:12:44And cool and underground.
01:12:48He represented like a menace and a fury.
01:12:51And God damn it, I'm going to let my freak flag fly.
01:12:54And no one's going to stop me with this guitar in my hands.
01:12:58That sums up so many movies, whether it's the Dirty Harry, the Westerns, the Quentin Tarantino's.
01:13:04If you watch the film Road Racer, there's a scene where I think it's David Arquette or whoever the star
01:13:09is.
01:13:09He says to the girl in the front seat.
01:13:11Link Wray's called.
01:13:14Link Wray.
01:13:17And then she says.
01:13:19Is he popular?
01:13:20No.
01:13:21That's why it's called.
01:13:22And that's when Link Wray became on my radar again.
01:13:25Because that's when I just remember that song.
01:13:26And I go, there's that song.
01:13:27I forgot about that song.
01:13:32Then Pope Fiction comes out.
01:13:34Quentin Tarantino is a kid like them.
01:13:36I guess he liked Link Wray music.
01:13:38It goes up.
01:13:39And he becomes a big movie producer.
01:13:41So I like Link Wray.
01:13:42So I put Rumble in my movie.
01:13:44They put it in the right scenes, I guess.
01:13:46I didn't see the movie.
01:13:47If you have real music that people have heard in a completely different context, it alters everything.
01:13:53It alters the music, how it's remembered, and it also alters the visual image.
01:13:58To be hearing your music in a big hit film like Independence Day.
01:14:02How does that feel?
01:14:03I mean, it's shocking, you know, but I'm happily shocked.
01:14:06Yeah.
01:14:07Yeah, I'm happy.
01:14:08I'm glad.
01:14:09Yeah.
01:14:09I mean, you feel like you're in a fucking movie when Link's playing, and you're the star.
01:14:14He has this way of imparting a drama to you that is just utterly thrilling.
01:14:20It's made for the big screen.
01:14:22Yeah.
01:14:22Yeah.
01:14:23Yeah.
01:14:24Yeah.
01:14:24Yeah.
01:14:25Yeah.
01:14:25Yeah.
01:14:25Yeah.
01:14:26Yeah.
01:14:28For a lot of artists who were hugely popular in the 1950s, sold millions and millions and
01:14:33millions and millions of records, but their style of music, it just didn't translate into
01:14:38the modern era.
01:14:39You know, it's like, no, modern audiences can't relate to it in any way at all.
01:14:45But Link Wray's music, it's weird, you know, it has this timeless quality where it doesn't
01:14:51matter if it's in a movie in the 1970s or the 1990s or something that came out today, it
01:14:56still has this same freshness quality to it.
01:15:00Link Wray's lack of notoriety and recognition, I have to say, is something that I'm not surprised
01:15:06as a Native woman.
01:15:07We have contributed to so many things that are a part of the tapestry of America in pop
01:15:14culture, in music, in art, in fashion, in film, yet it's always amazing to me to hear
01:15:20from people that they didn't know about the American Indian contribution.
01:15:25Link Wray's kind of shadow of his success is unfortunately part of that.
01:15:31The list is unbelievably long of the people they influenced.
01:15:34Jimmy Page said he would never have picked up a guitar if he hadn't heard rumble on the
01:15:38radio.
01:15:39He was a musician's musician, you know, he didn't have the pop hits.
01:16:01I would hope he found some peace knowing while he was still around how many great guitar players
01:16:07paid homage to him and let him know how much they influenced, like the Pete Townsends and
01:16:12Springsteens that point out what an influenced Link was.
01:16:41Now, one of the good things about technology is
01:16:44is you can just go buy his music on your phone
01:16:47and hear it immediately and get inspired by it.
01:17:16There's a whole new generation, a couple of them that thanks to the notoriety from their
01:17:20heroes pointing out Link's legacy and what he meant to them are now going to discover
01:17:25him hopefully.
01:17:26Yeah I wish he had had big success along the way but look he was the one who came up
01:17:30with
01:17:31that sound and you know gave it to us, sold it to us and kind of stuck it down his
01:17:37throats
01:17:37whenever he had his guitar on and it affected millions of people.
01:17:53But the simple truth is, you know he was the embodiment of the rock musician, you can analyze
01:17:58all of the different genres, instrumental, surf, hard rock, metal, punk, rockabilly, he was
01:18:06all of those things, that's why everybody points to him as the influence.
01:18:11Jeff Beck, this is what he said to me, me and Jimmy Page used to jump around at my mom's
01:18:15house when we were 17 playing air guitar to Link Wray.
01:18:19You know for me, a guitar player grew up learning how to play guitar in San Diego listening to
01:18:23Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Clapton and Townsend, you know the guys, those were our guys.
01:18:28And realizing that Link Wray was their guy, James Brown wouldn't be here, Jimi Hendrix
01:18:34wouldn't be here, nobody would be here.
01:18:36Link Wray's sustainability and the resilient sound that he created that I think sits well
01:18:47with musicians, it's something that will live on forever.
01:18:51Whether you're born in the 70s, in the 2020s, this is the sound that you will turn on, turn
01:19:00up, and be influenced by.
01:19:03His lack of commercial success is really just the luck of the draw in show business.
01:19:09It's just a beauty contest, and a popularity contest, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
01:19:15is evidence of that.
01:19:17Hey, he's in there to every guitar player who's ever heard him.
01:19:21You know, he's already there in their mind.
01:19:23Personally, I don't think Link would give a damn one way or the other.
01:19:26They threw him a little, a little something when they, they inducted his song, Rumble, into
01:19:33the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
01:19:34But in spite of the fact that Link has been nominated for several years and never made the
01:19:41cut just shows the shallowness of these so-called best of lists.
01:19:46The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
01:19:50You look so satisfied I can't help it if I'm still in love with you.
01:20:18There are some artists that are just fiercely individual.
01:20:22They just want to do what they do.
01:20:23He's never, he didn't chase fame, so he wasn't prepared to compromise to find it.
01:20:30He didn't feed off the audience.
01:20:31He wasn't doing it for the money.
01:20:33He just had to do it.
01:20:34You know, I think he would have exploded if he couldn't play guitar.
01:20:37He didn't know how to do anything else.
01:20:38He never worked a job in his life.
01:20:40He wouldn't have known how to go out and look for a job.
01:20:42He was a guitar player.
01:20:49Link Wray has made a sustainable, long-lasting impact on what we know as rock and roll.
01:20:56The sound that he created wasn't part of his native ancestry and identity.
01:21:00What you hear in his music is that blood memory of that sound of resistance.
01:21:18Link was an influence on punk, grunge and metal, and of course, as are the Britpop sounds.
01:21:24It's a pity that that wasn't known at the time.
01:21:28I don't think Link had a chance, to be honest, of ever being a really truly celebrated artist.
01:21:39If the Britpop invasion had honored his legacy more often, it would have really helped him.
01:21:45But for some reason, that didn't happen.
01:21:50Any kind of music that first comes out, people dislike it.
01:21:52Rock and roll, rap, grunge.
01:21:55It always happens that at first it's received very badly by the culture
01:21:59because it wrecks the rules that came before.
01:22:01So he was one of the first to wreck a rule.
01:22:04And he was the patron saint of wrecking the rules of music.
01:22:07So he was embraced.
01:22:09And he never changed.
01:22:10He never sold out.
01:22:11So many things came together with Rumble in terms of that, the chord, the attack, the sound.
01:22:19It changed rock history.
01:22:23Rumble will be that riff that he's defined by and he's always remembered by.
01:22:28But you'd be doing a real disservice to Link Wray to say that was the only good thing he ever
01:22:35came up with.
01:22:36He came up with hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of great songs over a period of many, many decades.
01:22:43If you want to talk about rock and roll, Link Wray just blew it out, man.
01:22:49He just took it to the farthest point.
01:22:51And that legacy, it's a haunting, beguiling legacy.
01:23:09He's one of those artists that if you were at a session or if you were at a gig, you
01:23:15would tell someone, make it like Link Wray.
01:23:17And I think that everyone would know what you're talking about.
01:23:20I'm always trying to play Link Wray for people because people always love it.
01:23:24Every time they hear Link Wray, they love it.
01:23:26For me, the fact that we're sitting here talking about him and this powerful, joyful revelation of what an electric
01:23:33guitar can do,
01:23:34that he put in all our psyches so well, that's his legacy.
01:23:39He made a sound that lives on, is experiencing a rebirth and a resurgence amongst young people.
01:23:48They know the sound, now they know the name.
01:23:50He is the rock and roll Shawnee prophet.
01:23:57Yes, the artist may pass away, might go even out of print, but that possession never leaves you.
01:24:04And Link is right up there with the top artists that I still feel that possession in a beautiful way
01:24:10by.
01:24:10That I'll carry on for the rest of my days.
01:24:26And the music is alive and I'm alive, you know, and I'll always be alive.
01:24:35Link Wray, mysterious, at times reclusive, and almost always loud.
01:24:41Wray spent much of his early career in the DC, Maryland and Virginia area.
01:24:45For years, Wray, like other rock pioneers, was overlooked by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame,
01:24:51leading to an outcry from guitar aficionados.
01:24:54But that changes tonight.
01:24:55I'm really thrilled and honored to be the one to be able to induct Link Wray, my hero, into the
01:25:03Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
01:25:28We're
01:25:30King James of нравится!
01:25:325
01:25:40Box
01:25:41Wouldn't
01:25:42Just
01:25:42Tape
01:25:42Chlaughing
01:25:43Ar
01:25:49Hurry
01:25:50navigator
01:25:52Emma
01:25:52moon
01:25:53push
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