Friday, November 9, 2007

FIRE AND BRIMSTONE

FIRE AND BRIMSTONE by Link Wray.

Bill here. Corbett asked me to post this for him:

Well, it's the weekend and I'm in San Antonio, so I'm keeping it short
and sweet today. Plus, I was kinda long-winded about the Everly
Brothers
...OK, really long-winded!

Today's artist is Link Wray. Wray had his biggest hit, "Rumble", on Cadence in the late 50's. He was primarily known as a guitarist and
seemed to go underground during the 60's, doing his own thing--mostly running his Maryland farm. However, the advent of the Band's first record lit a fire under Link Wray (as it did to all sensible people except maybe Marc Bolan who was otherwise occupied with alien hobo wizards) and he returned with an eponymous LP in 1970 that is truly amazing.

Credit goes to Bill for the "discovery" of this record. Today's song
is taken from "Link Wray" and it rocks HARD. This is one of the toughest, most intense slices of country-blues I have ever heard. Not only does it rock, it rocks acoustically--anyone who has ever done some home recording knows how difficult this can be. In addition to its musical charms, this song has some righteous lyrics about, well, fire and brimstone. Wray invokes some wicked Satanic imagery,
convincing me of his status as a true rock and roll badass.

So, sit down, open a beer and prepare to be amazed by the evolution of our last 50's rocker not content to let life pass him by! Enjoy the weekend and I hope to see you back here soon for my next series--"Folk Rock Redux--Blowin' Minds!"!

LISTEN.

Photo: Kit Carson Home, Taos, NM.

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2 comments:

bill said...

I've spent a few minutes trying to remember where I found out about that Link Wray album (and the one after it too!), but can't place it. I think on I Love Music though, which is a favorite resource. For those of you that got a copy of the Total Destruction To Your Catfish CD we did, this song was on it. And to get a flavor for old school Link Wray, we also posted his cover of Please Please Me a few months ago.

Looking forward to Corbett's next series, and we'll do that on a schedule where he can keep it going regularly, maybe one week a month or something. We'll see. Have a good weekend all!

soonergooner said...

So you were able to mitigate your blogdrawals OK? Corbett has done well this week, thanks again. LW is one of my most favs in trying to wade through all the tunes you left, thanks again. Still donno how even Kathy missed them the first time by... I copied the Steve Goodman anth for her this week and passed it along only to find she said we used to play him quite a bit. It must be truw, as woodstock, I don't remember it...