:: Available items from this Artist/Band ::
Link Wray / Early Recordings
(Vinyl LP – Ace)
Quite simply, Link Wray invented the power chord, the major modus operandi of modern rock guitarists. Listen to any of the tracks he recorded between that landmark instrumental in 1958 through his Swan recordings in the early ’60s and you’ll hear the blueprints for heavy metal, thrash, you name it.
Drawn from the one LP and the dozen or so singles Link Wray recorded for Swan Records between 1963 and 1966, Early Recordings, first released in this configuration by Chiswick Records in 1978, remains the best single-disc introduction to this powerful guitar player…It burns like a runaway gas fire, from the ragged, surging ‘Batman Theme’ that opens things clear through to the remake of his signature ‘Rumble’ that closes up the sequence. This is powerful, spooky, and haunting stuff… These cuts were recorded after Wray’s stint with Epic Records, which kept trying to sweeten his sound with horns and strings, and you can feel the sense of desperation, freedom, and joyous release in every second here.
Link Wray / White Lightning: Lost Cadence Sessions ’58
(Vinyl LP – Sundazed Music)
Surf, Cycles and Super Guitar Crunch!
The kids of 1958 loved ’em, 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!