Fred Lincoln “Link” Wray, Jr. was an American guitarist, songwriter, and vocalist who became popular in the late 1950s. He was part Shawnee Indian, a heritage he rarely failed to mention in interviews. He grew up poor and his family had to relocate often. He was working by the time he was 10. At age eight he fell in love with guitar when a musician by the name of Hambone played some bottleneck slide on the cheap acoustic guitar owned by Link’s brother, Vernon. By the time he was 14, he was playing a five-piece jazz combo, but he was drawn to the more raw, plaintive sounds of Hank Williams.
He served in the Korean War in the United States Army. While serving, he contracted tuberculosis and had to have one of his lungs removed. This forced him to focus on playing guitar as singing was now out of the question. Returning from service, Wray and his brothers, Doug and Vernon, would form the Lucky Wray and the Lazy Pine Wranglers band. While playing for Milt Grant’s House Party, a local D.C. television show inspired by American Bandstand, Wray and his band were asked to play “The Stroll.” Not being familiar with the tune, Wray started playing a three-chord, droning 11-bar blues. When his brother Vernon placed the microphone next to Link’s amplifier, he overwhelmed the P.A. system and produced a heavy, distorted sound. The audience went nuts for the distorted guitar sound. Wray and his brothers went on to record the song and called it “Rumble.” It was first put out by Cadence Records on St. Patrick’s Day in 1958. It was an instant hit in the United States and Europe even though some radio stations banned it for fear of its supposed ability to incite rebellion and rioting. “Rumble” had the distinction of being one of the only instrumentals to be banned from airplay. Link Wray is one of the featured artists in the Sundance award winning RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked the World, a documentary about the profound, essential, and indelible impact Indigenous people have had on American music. Link Wray influenced other guitarists and musicians such as Pete Townsend, Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix, Marc Bolan, Neil Young, and Bob Dylan. He was inducted into the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame by Jimmy Page in November 2023.
