THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.
301-Link Wray & His Ray Men-Rumble.
1958-It has never charted in the UK.
Best Bit-At 0.01 Sometimes fact can be stranger than fiction. This song was banned from being played on the radio. ‘IT’S AN INSTRUMENTAL!’
Link Wray was born Fred Lincoln Wray Jr. on May 2nd, 1929, in Dunn, North Carolina, United States, he died on November 5th, 2005, of heart failure at the age of 76. Wray’s mother was descended from ‘Shawnee,’ who are a Native American people of the Northeastern Woodlands, and as a result of being indigenous, Wray and his family were always in fear of their lives from the ‘Ku Klux Klan,’ Wray has said, ‘The cops, the sheriff, the drugstore owner, they were all Ku Klux Klan. They put the masks on and, if you did something wrong, they’d tie you to a tree and whip you or kill you,’ his family listed themselves as White on census records. Between 1942-1955 Link Wray lived with his family in Portsmouth, Virginia, where he and his brothers Ray, and Doug (1933-1984) drove taxi cabs during the day, while working at night clubs in the Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia area. Wray’s first bands, ‘The Lucky Wray Band,’ and ‘The Palomino Ranch Gang,’ were formed in Portsmouth, and included brothers Ray, Doug, and Vernon (1924-1979.) Link Wray served in the United States Army during the Korean War between 1950-1953, where he contracted tuberculosis, leading to him having a lung removed, and doctors telling him that they thought he would never be able to sing again.
Link Wray is considered one of the most influential guitarists of all time for his groundbreaking use of ‘distortion,’ and ‘tremolo’ on this track ‘Rumble,’ which enhanced ‘Rock N’ Roll,’ and if not giving birth to ‘Rock’ music, then it certainly gave it a big push. Among the many greats who have acknowledged this are Pete Townshend (see also best songs 926-891-306 and 265) who has said, ‘He is the king, if it hadn’t been for ‘Rumble’ I would have never picked up a guitar.’ Jimmy Page (see also best songs 135 and 66) said that as a kid he used to listen to anything with a guitar on, ‘But the first time I heard ‘Rumble’ that was something that had so much profound attitude to it,’ and Bob Dylan (see also best songs 792-621-358-103-36 and 7) has called ‘Rumble’ The best instrumental ever.’
The discography of Link Wray includes 24 Albums released between 1960-2019, and 40 singles released between 1958-2019, he has also released three Albums in collaboration with the American Rockabilly singer Robert Gordon (1947-2022) between 1977-2014, and there are also a further 23 official compilation Albums available. In America on the Billboard Hot 100, both of Link Wray’s first two singles charted within the top 40, ‘Rumble’ made Number 16 in 1958, and ‘Raw-Hide’ reaching Number 23 in 1959. Link Wray has never had a charting single in the UK.
‘Rumble’ was officially written by Link Wray, and Milt Grant, (1923-2007) but the chances are Grant had nothing to do with the composing of the song. Grant was a radio and television presenter who probably had his name added to the credits in return for commercial exposure. When Link Wray first came up with the instrumental he called it ‘Oddball,’ and was pleased with the reaction when performing it live. The song was brought to the attention of Archie Bleyer (1909-1989) of the ‘Cadence Records’ label, who being from a previous generation had a very low tolerance when it came to ‘Rock N’ Roll,’ he only agreed to the record being released due to his step-daughters fascination with the song. It was also Bleyer’s step-daughter who suggested the songs title ‘Rumble.’ as it reminded her of the ‘rumble’ scenes in ‘West Side Story, although there is another story which suggests that it was Phil Everly (1939-2014) (see also best songs 799) who suggested the songs title, the Everly Brothers were also signed to ‘Cadence Records’ at that time. The title made the song somewhat controversial because it implied gang violence, with ‘rumble’ being a slang name for street fighting among gangs of youths in America. This led to some radio stations refusing to play it for fear of glorifying juvenile delinquency. The song can be heard at it’s most ‘menacing’ in a scene from the 1994 film ‘Pulp Fiction,’ between John Travolta, (see also best songs 768) and Uma Thurman.
‘Rumble’ is considered a groundbreaking song for it’s utilising techniques of ‘distortion,’ and ‘tremolo,’ which in 1958 was largely unexplored in ‘Rock N’ Roll.’ Distortion and overdrive are forms of audio signal processing used to alter the sound of amplified electric musical instruments, usually by increasing their gain, producing a ‘fuzzy,’ ‘growling,’ or ‘gritty’ tone. Distortion is most commonly used with the electric guitar, but may also be used with other electric instruments such as electric bass, electric piano, synthesizer and Hammond organ. What Link Wray achieved with his experimentation of the electric guitar by distorting it’s output led to being a key part in future genres of music, notably ‘Hard Rock,’ ‘Punk Rock,’ ‘Hardcore Punk,’ ‘Acid Rock, ‘Grunge,’ and ‘Heavy Metal.’