Featured In
ALBUMLegendary Rock & Roll for 2022Link Wray & Joey Welz
Albums by Link Wray
ALBUMRumble ManLink Wray
ALBUMCleveland '78Robert Gordon & Link Wray
ALBUMRumble & RollLink Wray
ALBUMLive Fast, Love Hard!Robert Gordon, Link Wray & Chris Spedding
ALBUMLink Sings ElvisLink Wray
ALBUMBarbed WireLink Wray
ALBUMWalking Down a Street Called LoveLink Wray
ALBUMShadowmanLink Wray
ALBUMTurnpike U.S.A and Other Hits!Link Wray
ALBUMGuitar Preacher: The Polydor YearsLink Wray
Artist Playlists
Link Wray Essentials
If you’re just digging into their sound, start with their very best.
Artist Biography
Link Wray's contribution to the language of rockin' guitar is a major one, even if he had never walked into another studio after cutting "Rumble." Quite simply, Link Wray invented the power cord, 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 1960s and you'll hear the blueprints for heavy metal, thrash, you name it. If a direct line from a Black blues musician crankin' up his amp and playing with a ton of violence and aggression can be traced to a young white guy doing a mutated form of the same, the line points straight to Link Wray. Pete Townshend said, "He is the king; if it hadn't been for Link Wray and 'Rumble,' I would have never picked up a guitar."
Hometown
Dunn, NC, United States
Genre
Rock