Great Guitar Hits – LINK WRAY & HIS RAYMEN****

Run Chicken Run/The Black Widow/Lillian/Pancho Villa/Rawhide/Ace Of Spades/Jack The Ripper/Dance Contest/Alone/The Outlaw/The Swag/Rumble

Great Guitar Hits is a compilation of influential guitarist Link Wray’s best known tracks including his US No. 16 hit single Rumble. He is considered to be the inventor of the power chord.

“The song Rumble was highlighted by Wray's snarling surfer fuzz-tone guitar licks, set to a menacingly slow bluesy tempo. The flipside was the bluesy/rockabilly The Swag which is a reminder that Wray started out in country & western before his rock career, as there are undertones of that style. Inspired by the TV series of the same name, the upbeat Rawhide sports a cool surfer type guitar set to a blues beat, proof enough that Wray was the forerunner of hard blues. Jack The Ripper, with its insistent and uptempo drum backbeat and occasional guitar riffs makes you go twenty over the speed limit. Wray does some high pitched theatrics with his guitar to imitate a chicken cackle in Run Chicken Run before going into his usual style.”

“Link Wray is the greatest unsung pioneer of modern guitar based rock, not only the inventor of the power chord and crazy new forms of distortion, this original axe barbarian combined rockabilly tinged aggression, amped up blues, and uniquely insane new sounds. What Wray was already doing full force in the late 1950s and early 60s would influence generations to follow: metal, surf, electric blues, rock instrumentals, etc.”

“Link pounds out raw and crude rockabilly rock 'n' roll tunes like none other. I'm surprised he isn't considered one of rock 'n' roll's greatest guitarists. He is certainly one of the most influential, and is the father of the power chord.”

“While everyone else in rock & roll at the time was trying to get as clean a sound as possible, Wray was poking holes in his amp with a pen and getting that truly nasty fuzz-tone. And he was strumming dissonant power chords while The Raymen raced along at twice his tempo; then he would start playing fast. One of the most fascinating sounds ever produced by a rock & roll guitarist.”

“Some words to describe Link Wray's guitar: dirty, nasty, crude, rude, gritty, mean, snarling and growling. One of the innovators of the surfy-garage rock sound, Link Wray is everything rock & roll is meant to be, loud, fast and out of control.”