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This is “The Ultimate” tribute to one of my favorite guitar-slingers, one and only “King of the growling guitar” Link Wray. Yeah surfers, it growls alright. Too many garage losers tried hard to emulate his guitar tone & style and this collection is a testimony of their efforts. Many famous garage dropouts are here but I’m too lazy to spell their names so see for yourself. 60 trax of unrelentless raw garage instro action with few vocal trax. This is kinda A MUST! Gotta dig!
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Mr. Guitar raw & rare instro growl from 1964 to ’69. Already have posted this before and here it comes again, Climbing A High Wall, The Earth Is Crying, Hang On, Summer Dream, Alone, The Fuzz… Real cool stuff indeed!
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“Ace’s compilation pairs two old Chiswick vinyl compilations: 1978’s Early Recordings and 1982’s Good Rockin’ Tonight. Despite the title of Early Recordings, these aren’t the earliest sides Wray ever committed to wax. Link cut these sides for Swan between 1963 and 1967, many years after “Rumble” rolled all the way to 16 on Cadence and long after he left Epic. They’re midperiod but they’re still prime and, in some ways, even dirtier than his trailblazing Epic instrumentals because they were done on the cheap and shHere you got essential amelessly ape trends. Wray embraces the corn in covering the “Batman Theme,” co-opts surf for “Scatter,” indulges in some backwoods boogie on “Turnpike U.S.A.,” rips off “Telstar” on “Cross Ties,” turns “Rumble” into a noir novelty for “The Shadow Knows” — and those are just the recordings that came out as singles during the ’60s. Good Rockin’ Tonight is devoted to sides that were squirreled away in the vaults until 1982, many of which were covers, some of them even featuring vocals (like the title track). The music on the 1982 LP is of a piece with the 1978 set but it’s not quite on par: the earlier comp really did have the cream of the crop. That said, having the two of these records on one CD is not only a blast, it’s one of the best ways to hear Wray’s ’60s peak.”
Here you got essential Link Wray, some of his best recordings cut for Swan records in the mid 60’s. Link Wray’s best moments are all here, punked-out, raw, primal guitar instro riot. Already have posted these stuff before but hey… This is A MUST !!!
Red Hot rockabilly action recorded live at the Agoura Cleveland, March 25th 1978. Link & Robert walk through the bunch of rock’n’roll covers of classics like Mystery Train, The Way I Walk, Red Hot, My Baby Left Me, Lonesome Train, Summertime Blues, Twenty Flight Rock, Rumble… Say… Dig!!!
Aloha from hell!!! Here we go again with another Surfadelic vinyl rip. This time it’s a 79′ comeback lp for ”The King of GROWLING guitar”. After his successful collaboration with R-billy hero Robert Gordon, Link is more than eager to put his solo album, a R’n’R revival slab with mostly vocal numbers and few instro cuts, re-recordings of his 60’s tunes ”Snag” and ”Rawhide”, and one new, super cool ”Peter Gun” rip off called ”Switchblade”. There are fine rockin’ covers of ”Fever” and Dylan’s ”It’s All Over Now Baby Blue” and rumblin’ originals ”Good Good Lovin”’, ” Just That Kind” and ”Wild Party”. Produced by Richard Gottehrer [Blondie, Richard Hell, Go-Go’s…], mastered by Greg Calbi [Ramones, DMZ, Television, Iggy Pop…]. And… ya know… Vinyl Rip by Mr.Eliminator. Dig!!!
Battle Of Rat Fink Hill gathers unissued Link Wray and Bo Diddley inspired Pittsburgh teen band instrumentals 1961-63. featuring The Outcasts, The Galaxies, The Keys, The Mad Hatters, The Sonics [not the legendary NW band].
Link Wray’s nephew Vern circa 1966 with his teen combo the Junior Raymen whangin’ away on four Link stompers & an original, Rat Fink on this killer mini-LP! The J.R.’s star never got a chance to shine, as Vern was killed a few months after these sessions! Produced by Vernon Wray!
“Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!”
”24 scrappy garage,surf, and punk artists from across the globe contribute versions of popular and obscure Link Wray nuggets, proving that his music transcends cultures, ages, genres, and trends. With a sufficiently primitive approach and more vocals than you might expect from someone best-known for his instrumentals, ringers like The Fleshtones (blitzing though a minute-and-45-second, raucous beach party rave-up of “Soul Train”), Southern Culture on the Skids (grinding out “I’m Branded” with lo-fi raw power) and Calexico (the lovely “Fallin’ Rain” is this album’s least-frantic cut) rub elbows with lesser-known yet talented bands; all of whom deftly capture Wray’s eclectic musical personas. From the reverbed, spaghetti western twang of The Hellbenders “The Outlaw,” The Space Cossacks “Mustang,” and Boston’s Four Piece Suit “Roughshod,” to variations on the “Rumble” theme courtesy of an international crew featuring Belgium’s Fifty Foot Combo (“Slinky”), Finland’s The Downers (“Genocide”), and the Scandinavian ad-hoc group Spy-Fi (“The Shadow Knows”), Guitar Ace leaves few Wray guns holstered. Excursions into surf (San Francisco’s Pollo Del Mar‘s frantic “Jack the Ripper”) country (Deke Dickerson & The Eco-Fonics finds his inner Ricky Nelson on “Run Boy Run”), and poppy garage rock (The Gore Gore Girls run “Baby Doll” through the Shangri-Las’ tough but tender wringer) show how Wray was far from a one-chord pony.”[Hal Horowitz]
Guitar Ace plus two 10” vinyl ”Thin Link” volumes add up to the total tribute post to the king of power chord. Featuring instrumental action by 90’s garage/surf revival acts as The Galaxy Trio, Mono Men, The Volcanos, Thee Headcoat Sect, Impala, The Phantom 5ive, Huevos Rancheros, Man Or Astroman… Think… Link!!!
”It’s not fair to judge a man by the color of his skin,
or the size of his wallet, but rather the number
of Link Wray records he owns.”
Bruce Brand – Thee Milkshakes, Headcoats, Mighty Caesar’s drummer and all round musician – plays everything [Rhythm Guitar, Drums, Harmonica, Bass Guitar, Piano] but solo guitar on these 1989. recordings.
They were issued in ’89. as 2 LPs [“Apache” & “Wild Side Of The City LightS”], at the time and with the new technology now available, they have been remixed by Rob Keyloch who engineered 1997’s “Shadowman”. This has brought out the full power of the Link Wray guitar and beefed up the sound considerably.
Pathway studio has always been regarded as London’s answer to Sun with its distinct sound and 8 track analogue technology.
Link only made one other studio album in the 80s and these recordings are by far and away the best of that decade from him.
Here you gotta deal with Links’ ace instro stuff as The Wild One, Shawnee, The Joker, Green Hornet, Hotel Loneliness, The Flying Wedge (Drag Race), American Sunset, Viva Zapata as well as fine vocal tunes Beautiful Brown Eyes & Elvis covers Little Sister & Love Me Tender.
Listen to the GROWL, Listen To The BEAT! Dig!!!
SURFADELIC 