rumble

-link wray, 1958

banned from radio play way back when because the powers that be thought it would incite youth rioting, yet it’s an instrumental.

see, dick dale was all about surfboards and jimmy z’s and girls in bikinis, while wray was bent more towards switchblades and hot rods and go-go girls.

not to sound like a dick (but get ready for it), i saw his show with southern culture on the skids back in ‘97, and life led me to be the sound guy at the village underground for the show he muscled though after almost cancelling due to a massive eye problem in the early aughts (doctors told him that he needed time off from touring, to which he responded: “fuck it, i lost a lung in korea and they told me i would never sing again. so what the hell do they know that i don’t?”).

he’s dead now, but i don’t think i’ve ever seen a 20-something musician rock as hard and heartfelt as that 76 year old saddled with only one functioning lung and a dead eye. which is to say that dick dale ain’t got nothing on link and his wray-men.

i’ll post some gene vincent next.

edit: damn you, msbadkittie. whippin’ out posts like that while i…