Rumble!...The Best Of

this cd is good, but not quite what i expected

Man, Link could play that electric guitar and many learned from him. However, he never made the big time, in my opinion, since very few of his songs had lyrics. All instrumentals, however, good, do get a bit boring. But I'm glad to have this CD and still play it occasionally.........although rarely all the way through.

Excellent guitar riffs (along with limited vocals like in song "Ain't That Lovin' You Babe " and "Hidden Charms") from late 50s forward that were a true blast from the past. Hit songs like "Rumble" , "The Swag" , "The Black Widow" and the renown "Batman Theme" took me back...way back. Cryin' shame this guy whom many might credit with introducing all manner of ways to make an electric guitar sing isn't already in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Only knock I have with the product is not posting track lengths anywhere but c'mon...induct the man already!

I didn't start really listening to rock til 1965. Until then a lot music that I listened to would now be considered as "surf rock" instrumentals and a bunch of pop music and Duane Eddy's "twangin' guitar." We moved to California in '63 so I had an upfront seat to see & hear The Ventures, The Beach Boys, Jan & Dean and a number of then regional bands and copy cats develop into national level recording artists. I had been exposed to some early rock on a limited scale like Elvis,The Everly Brothers, Them ("Gloria" one of the first songs I learned on the guitar). Link Wray was "before my time" so I had to buy this to hear for myself "the creator of the power chord!" In a word PRIMITIVE!!! Elvis started recording in 1954 and I remember listening to a 1957 pressing of the 45 rpm single of "Jailhouse Rock" owned by my uncle in 1961. Elvis' production and sound was way better than this album or sound! And most of Link Wray's early stuff was done in 1958-1960. I will interject however that Elvis' first recordings were done at Sun Records(Memphis) and RCA(Nashville) and were obviously produced by much more experienced engineers and sound men than Link Wray had at U.S.Recording (Washington,D.C.). Even early Roy Orbison's early sound was well produced and full.However these artists were considered at the time "rockabilly" country.But Buddy Holly was considered "rock 'n' roll and was recording at Norman Petty's Recording Studios in 1957 and produced a much better product than this "anthology" of Link Wray. Maybe it was the rawness of Link's playing and his live shows that gave him a fan base but I'm sure glad that rock 'n' roll didn't hang it's hat on the sound of this album or else rock would have died as a pop trend.

This excellent album includes all high-rate music from Link Wray. The first Wray album I bought was Link Wray and his Wraymen, which listed "Rumble" as a track (actually, two tracks, as it was also a bonus track as an alternate take). It was, in fact, a different track called "Ramble", which was released as follow-up to "Rumble". I believe it was intentionally mislabelled by the label, who probably did not own the rights to Wray's biggest hit. This disc includes the proper track "Rumble" (as indicated by the title), along with a number of other great tracks, including "Ace of Spades" and "Jack the Ripper". Truly a best of Link Wray's work, including some live bonus tracks.

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. This fine collection of rare singles and album selections provides a perfect overview. Here is the classic "Rumble" and variations of it ("Ramble"). The raucous, strutting 1962 "Big City After Dark" (Wray was playing Jeff Beck nastiness, before Beck), the 1960 "Ain't That Lovin You Babe" (a wonderfully filthy cover of a Jimmy Reed blues, a Yardbirds/Rolling Stones sound pre-dating those groups, with a vocal by one-lunged Link that sounds like Mick Jagger), and the 1966 "Hidden Charms", a raunchy Howlin Wolf cover that sounds like the Doors, channeled through punk rock.

This disk is a serious bargain. If you're worried "Rumble" will be the only good thing on it, don't be. In my opinion it's not even the best. (I think "Deuces Wild" is.) That said, a number of tracks on the album sound similar to "Rumble," as Wray attempted to repeat its success. Still, there are so many tracks that you get a bunch of cool sounds. (A few have vocals, which are generally poor -- Wray lost a lung in Korea -- but add to the biographical feel of the disk.) I could have done without the cover of "Dixie," which the liner notes encourage you to see as a parody, but the rest of it's great. Speaking of, the liner notes are long and excellent except that they fail to note when he was born. According to Google, 1929.

I'm a sucker for unique guitar tunes and Link Wray delivers in spades. The sound from start to finish is so different from anything else that its hard to believe you don't hear it more often today. If all you have ever heard is Rumble or Jack the Ripper then you've only tasted the tip of the iceberg. All of the tracks on this album have that signature sound of Wray working his guitar like some inspired mad genius. Definitely pick this up if you are any kind of rock'n'roll fan.

このギタリストは50'sを生き抜いとるんやで⁉️このセンスは恐るべきモンがあるわ💦デュアン・エディの100倍不良な音がします(笑)うん、ロックンロール🎵

Rumbleは以前からギターウルフ他できいていて興味がありました。you tubeで動画をみたとたん、オリジナルを聴きたくてたまらなくなりました。今の世ではそんなに激しい音とは思えませんが、アンプに穴をあけた云々ということを思い浮かべると、すごくいい音に聞こえ、ロマンを感じます。やりきってる感もとてもいいです。車に乗りながら聴くのがとても心地いいです。テンションあがります。サイコー。

If you think that electric guitar didn't become freaky until the Hendrix generation, you haven't heard Link Wray. Half breed Wray broke through with his instrumental 'Rumble' in the late 1950s, inspired by a fight he witnessed at a gig. This and several other recordings reveal some heavy powerchording was going on, though the state of technology at the time meant the effect was lighter. Wray, though, moved on to other experiments such as 'Big City After Dark' when he starts off sounding as if he's garotting his guitar. And it was only 1962. He went wild on the pulsing 'Jack The Ripper', while 1964's 'Deuces Wild' saw him getting heavy again. Interestingly, in the late 1960s, Wray was sounding more like more like so-called garage punk bands, judging by what's on offer here. 1970's 'Climbing A High Wall' is brilliant, one of the few songs on this disc, a swirling, abrasive piece of aural barbed wire that freaks out. By this time, Wray was knocking on 40. He doesn't sound the most gifted guitarist but he blows hot all the time.

Who is Link Wray I hear you ask? Well, he is the criminally unsung forefather of such rock guitar legends such as Jimi Hendrix. Back in the late fifties Wray was exploring the limits of the sounds he could achieve with his guitar by a variety of inventive means. For example, pushing pencil holes in the speaker cones to give a fuzzy sound. It is his experimentation that paved the way for the fireworks of Hendrix' performances.This 1993 set contains original recordings of 20 rockers, all fast, furious and inventive. There is the breakthrough single `Rumble', the creepy `The Shadow Knows' and a great version of the Batman theme. Most of them are instrumentals, with the occasional vocal thrown in.The sound remastering is OK, and there are some decent liner notes. This is a good effort form Rhino.Thoroughly enjoyable, will be of interest to any fans of guitar driven Rock'n'Roll.

link wray paved the way for many a budding hero in the sixties,jimmy page&pete townshend have admitted they would not have ever picked up a guitarhad it not been for link wray.in the fifties there were no guitar multi--effects boxes ,so link drilled holes in his speaker to get extra soundslike a phaser effect,as the echo boxes were limited he used to stand @ the top of a spiral staircase of a hotel & record classics like"jack theripper".he had a style of using a combination of power-chords & twangy riffs.all of the best tracks of his are here,"ace of spades" "rumble""the swag" etc.i have an old black & white video of him from the fiftiesplaying a daneletro "longhorn" guitar thrashing out "rumble" for all hesworth! and incidentally,you can buy a replica of the danelectro longhornon amazon! you can be sure if you watch the movies some film is using linkwray on its soundtrack,cool with a capital C.