Link Wray – Guitar Preacher (The Polydor Years)

 

If all you know of Link Wray is Rumble, you missed out on his mid career recordings of roots music. Link and his brothers grew up dirt poor so this is not the polite roots music of suburban kids studying roots music at an upscale college....this is real and raw. The four albums these tracks come from are out of print and can fetch a good price on the collectors market. 

The rock and roll music on this compilation of songs is excellent. Link Wray was a rock and roll pioneer who inspired many other musicians with his great music. I highly recommend this compilation to fans of Link and to anyone who has not heard much of his music. There are lots of surprises here and the tunes are very well recorded and feature such Bay Area legends and icons as Commander Cody and Jerry Garcia. If you like Link Wray's stuff you will want to have this collection as it does a great job of covering this period of his career. 

This 2CD collection is also hard to find and is a must for Link Wray and guitar music fans alike.

Disc One

1-1 La De Da 4:01

1-2 Take Me Home Jesus 3:18

1-3 Juke Box Mama 4:26

1-4 Rise And Fall Of Jimmy Stokes 4:00

1-5 Fallin' Rain 3:43

1-6 Fire And Brimstone 4:18

1-7 Ice People 3:03

1-8 God Out West 3:52

1-9 Crowbar 4:45

1-10 Black River Swamp 3:56

1-11 Tail Dragger 4:30

1-12 Hobo Man 3:51

1-13 I'm So Glad, I'm So Proud 6:52

1-14 Georgia Pines 3:54

1-15 Water Boy 9:40

1-16 Alabama Electric Circus 3:57

1-17 Take My Hand (Precious Lord) 3:35

Disc Two

2-1 Walkin' In The Arizona Sun 2:51

2-2 Scorpio Woman 3:44

2-3 All Because Of A Woman 3:18

2-4 On The Run 5:42

2-5 Days Before Custer 4:01

2-6 Be What You Want To 5:56

2-7 All Cried Out 3:48

2-8 Tucson, Arizona 4:14

2-9 River Bend 2:38

2-10 You Walked By 3:16

2-11 Walk Easy, Walk Slow 5:19

2-12 Morning 2:01

2-13 It Was A Bad Scene 3:32

2-14 Good Time Joe 3:59

2-15 Walkin' Bulldog 3:09

2-16 I Got To Ramble 4:39

2-17 Backwoods Preacher Man 4:00

2-18 She's That Kind Of Woman 4:02

2-19 Super 88 3:28

2-20 Rumble 2:35

Disc One

Tracks 1 to 11 taken from the album "Link Wray", released May 1971.

Tracks 12 to 17 taken from the album "Beans And Fatback", previously unreleased in the US.

Disc Two

Tracks 1 to 5 taken from the album "Mordicai Jones", released 1971.

Tracks 6 to 12 taken from the album "Be What You Want To", released 1973.

Tracks 13 to 20 taken from the album "The Link Wray Rumble", released 1974.

Link Wray – Guitar Preacher

The Essential Robert Gordon

 

Robert Gordon (March 29, 1947 – October 18, 2022) was an American rockabilly/rock and roll singer and actor. Gordon grew up in Bethesda, Maryland, United States. At the age of nine, he was greatly inspired by the Elvis Presley song "Heartbreak Hotel" playing on radio and decided to pursue a career as a rock and roll musician at that young age. Along with Elvis, Gordon's influences included Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran among other notable rock 'n roll music artists of the period.

Gordon made his recording debut at age 17 in 1964 with a group called The Confidentials. He was also actively performed with the Newports in his teenage years. By 1970, Gordon had relocated his family to New York City with the intent of operating a clothing boutique. His focus shifted to the punk rock scene at the nightclub CBGB. He became a member of the punk-pop band Tuff Darts. During 1976, the Tuff Darts recorded "All for the Love of Rock and Roll", "Head over Heels", and "Slash" for a compilation album called Live at CBGB's, which included a number of other local New York City bands.

Record producer Richard Gottehrer discovered Gordon during a rehearsal one afternoon with Tuff Darts and soon afterward the two were talking about making a rock and roll record. Gottehrer was impressed with Gordon's voice and his rendition of Elvis Presley's "One Night". After some conversation, Gordon suggested working with guitar legend Link Wray. Wray was contacted and he agreed to work with them both. "Robert to me sounds a lot like the early Elvis, back when he was at Sun Records", he commented. In 1977, Robert Gordon with Link Wray on Private Stock Records was the result of this collaboration. After Elvis Presley's unexpected death in August, 1977, the album picked up some airplay, and the Private Stock label attempted to hype Gordon as the heir to Elvis. In 1978, Gordon made a second album with Wray, for Private Stock called Fresh Fish Special. The record featured The Jordanaires, who had been background vocalists for Presley, and included the Bruce Springsteen song "Fire". Springsteen played keyboards on the track.

In 1978, RCA Records signed Gordon to a contract which he described as "a dream come true" to record for "Elvis's label". In February, 1979, the album Rock Billy Boogie was issued on the RCA Victor label, this time without Wray, as Chris Spedding joined Gordon, playing lead guitar. Writer Bruce Eder (AllMusic) hailed Gordon's next album, Bad Boy, released in 1980, as one of the best mature rockabilly albums ever recorded. Gordon's next and final album for RCA was 1981's Are You Gonna Be The One. The title track written by Marc Jonson. It is Gordon's best-selling album to date, with more than 200,000 copies sold. Danny Gatton played lead guitar on this record and Marshall Crenshaw penned the single "Someday, Someway", which went to No. 76 on the Billboard charts in 1981.

During the early 1980s, Gordon toured briefly with Gatton. A recording of one of their performances was later released on NRG Records as "The Humbler".

In the early 1990s Gordon toured with Spedding, including Japan, Norway, Finland, United States, Spain and Sweden, with a number of live tracks later appearing on the 2006 Climate Control album Born To Rock.

This compilation release was a (hand-numbered) collectible, strictly limited edition of 1,000 copies. It includes some previously unreleased tracks.

1 Rockbilly Boogie

2 The Catman

3 The Way I Walk

4 Love My Baby

5 The Fool

6 Red Hot

7 Flying Saucer Rock 'n' Roll

8 Red Cadillac And A Black Moustache

9 Lonesome Train ( On A Lonesome Track )

10 Fire

11 Hot Dog ( That Made her Mad )

12 Don't

13 Bad Boy

14 The Worrying Kind

15 Mean To me

16 Drivin' Wheel

17 Someday, Someway

18 Look Who's Blue

19 Little Sister

20 The Wanderer

21 Rock Therapy

22 Devil In Disguise

23 Lonely Blue Boy

24 Sea Of Heartbreak

25 Playing For Keeps

26 Wasting My Time

27 I'm Dreaming Of You

28 It's Only Make Believe

The Essential Robert Gordon 

Link Wray & The Wraymen – Slinky! The Epic Sessions '58-'61

1-1 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Slinky 2:29

1-2 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Mary Ann (Alt. Take) 2:38

1-3 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Right Turn 1:43

1-4 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Raw-Hide 2:05

1-5 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Ramble 2:14

1-6 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Ain't That Lovin' You Baby 2:45

1-7 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Caroline 2:26

1-8 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Studio Blues 2:02

1-9 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Walkin' With Link 3:09

1-10 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Dixie-Doodle 2:07

1-11 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Radar 2:13

1-12 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Oh Babe Be Mine (Alt. Take) 2:06

1-13 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Lillian 1:50

1-14 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Comanche 2:02

1-15 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Dance Contest 1:53

1-16 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Guitar Cha-Cha 1:55

1-17 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Rumble Mambo 2:39

1-18 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– El Toro 2:31

1-19 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Comanche (Demo) 1:56

1-20 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Right Turn (Alt. Take) 2:04

1-21 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Lillian (Alt. Take) 2:48

1-22 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Kiki 2:00

1-23 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Moonlight Love 2:10

2-1 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Handclapper 2:19

2-2 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Mary Ann 2:20

2-3 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Golden Strings 2:44

2-4 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– New Studio Blues 2:13

2-5 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Rendezvous 1:53

2-6 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Trail Of The Lonesome Pine 2:33

2-7 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Ramble (Alt. Take) 2:37

2-8 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Slinky (Alt. Take) 2:29

2-9 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Walkin' With Link (Alt. Take) 3:02

2-10 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Young And In Love (Demo) 3:15

2-11 The Ponies – Stupid Pony 2:19

2-12 Doug Wray– Goose Bumps 2:03

2-13 Doug Wray– School Girl 2:26

2-14 Bert & Ray– Night Life 2:09

2-15 Bert & Ray– Slow Drag 2:29

2-16 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– New Studio Blues (Alt. Take) 2:14

2-17 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Golden Strings (Demo) 3:07

2-18 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Ain't That Lovin' You Baby (Alt. Take) 2:55

2-19 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– If This Is Wrong 2:01

2-20 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Oh Babe Be Mine 2:28

2-21 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Radar (Alt. Take) 2:19

2-22 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Tijuana 2:36

2-23 Link Wray & The Wraymen*– Tenderly 2:03

Slinky! The Epic Sessions '58-'61 - one

Slinky! The Epic Sessions '58-'61 - two

see also - The Original Rumble and White Lightning The Lost Cadence Sessions '58

Link Wray and His Ray Men...White Lightning The Lost Cadence Sessions '58..RARE release

Fred Lincoln 'Link' Wray, Jr. (May 2, 1929 – November 5, 2005), was an American rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and vocalist who first came to popularity in the late 1950's.

Building on the distorted electric guitar sound of early records, his 1958 instrumental hit "Rumble" by Link Wray and his Ray Men popularized "the power chord, the major modus operandi of modern rock guitarists", making possible "punk and heavy rock". Rolling Stone placed Wray at No. 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. His musical style primarily consisted of rock and roll, rockabilly and country.

The kids of 1958 loved the Ray Men, and their first single for Cadence Records shot up the charts like a label owner's dream. This is the fantastic and fiery album that was supposed to have been released as a follow-up to one of the all-time great instrumental classics, the ultra-menacing "Rumble." But faster than you can say "Drag Race," everyone--Cadence label-owner Archie Bleyer included--was talking about this new threat to the morals of American youth. That's why Link and his boys were off the imprint, and this album of prime distorto-guitar-crunch cool remained unreleased for nearly 50 years. Well here it is, and it's every bit as dirty and dangerous as you would expect!

The Lost Cadence Sessions

Reviews: 

"This rocks forwards and backwards. That it took so long to be released is borderline criminal. It's refreshing to hear the power chord from a new-old view."

"Raucous instrumental twangy guitar rock! As raw and tough as the 50's has to offer. This stuff will blow your mind!"

See also: Link Wray, The Original Rumble

                                   

Link Wray.....The Original Rumble plus 22 other Storming Guitar Instrumentals

Fred Lincoln 'Link' Wray, Jr. (May 2, 1929 – November 5, 2005), was an American rock and roll guitarist, songwriter and vocalist who first came to popularity in the late 1950s.

Building on the distorted electric guitar sound of early records, his 1958 instrumental hit "Rumble" by Link Wray and his Ray Men popularized "the power chord, the major modus operandi of modern rock guitarists", making possible "punk and heavy rock". Rolling Stone placed Wray at No. 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. His musical style primarily consisted of rock and roll, rockabilly and country.

No collection is complete without an album by this man. Link Wray is the inventor of the power chord that influenced a whole generation of British and American guitarists. The Who, The Kinks and many more took the power chord to another level because of hearing Link DO IT FIRST! He was the inventor of a style of music that is such a deep part of musical history.

1. Rumble
2. The Swag
3. Batman (Theme)
4. Ace Of Spades
5. Jack The Ripper
6. I'm Branded
7. Fat Back
8. Run Chicken Run
9. Turnpike USA
10. Deuces Wild
11. Mustang
12. Blueberry Hill
13. Run Boy Run
14. The Sweeper
15. Hound Dog
16. That'll Be The Day
17. The Fuzz
18. Rawhide
19. Draggin'
20. Aces Wild
21. Bull Dawg
22. The Rumble Man
23. Copenhagen

The Original Rumble