Singles Released This Week Years Ago

 

When I started this series, I didn't really have any great expectations as to which songs would appear on these pages. In the meantime, I really enjoy listening to these songs again after many years or even just watching the videos.

1972: At the height of glam rock, you can't get past Gary Glitter and I thought long and hard about whether I should give a pederast a forum.

1978: Warren Zevon released his masterpiece Werewolfes Of London

1979: Frank Zappa released Bobby Brown and his reckoning with the American dream so bluntly that it was banned in the United States.

1969: A Song from The Who's rock opera Tommy. Still nice watching Elton John playing pinball.

1965: A classic song by Them with the very young Van Morrison.

1970: The movie Easy Rider started when the when the main characters bought drugs for their journey and accompanied this with a song by Steppenwolf.

1965: Bob Dylan and a rare video

1962: A little bit of soul by Arthur Alexander. Willy DeVille made a fantastic cover of this song.

1979: The Pointer Sisters were successful with Bruce Springsteen's Fire. But I prefer the version by Robert Gordon with the great Chris Spedding on guitar.

1979: This year's one hit wonder

Live Music In German Television

Back in 1978 a collaboration between Link Wray and Robert Gordon was shown on TV. Robert Gordon got his first merits as a member of the punk rock bank Tuff Darts showed up in the 70's at CBGB's. Years later he turned into rockabilly and old school Rock 'n' Roll and made a collaboration with the legendary guitar player Link Wray who is famous for it is effective work on guitar sound. This is a footage I remember darkly seeing it the first time. Right now I think it is a classic collaboration that still works decades later.

Twanging Tuesday # 4

Robert Gorden is an American rockabilly musician who played in other genres like rock 'n' roll, punk rock and alternative rock as well. After playing in a local band that was influenced by Gene Vincent and Eddie Cochran he joined the punk band Tuff Darts in the middle of the 1970s. You can hear them on the compilation Live at the CBGB's. In the 80s he turned to rock 'n' roll again and started a collaboration with two great guitar players: Link Wray and Chris Spedding.

Too Fast To Live, Too Young To Die

Rumble

Currently I'm in the mood for some rockabilly. While browsing in my records and my hard drive I always noticed the name of Link Wray. His style of guitar playing has influenced so many musicians from different stylistic direction significantly.

Building on the overdriven, distorted electric guitar sound of early electric blues records, his 1958 instrumental hit "Rumble" by Link Wray and his Ray Men introduced "the power chord, the major modus operandi of modern rock guitarists, making possible punk and heavy rock. The stalking, menacing sound of "Rumble" (and its title) led to a ban on several radio stations, on the grounds that it glorified juvenile delinquency. Nevertheless it became a huge hit, not only in the United States, but also the United Kingdom, where it has been cited as an influence on The Kinks, The Who, and Jimmy Page among others.

The reason, why he's in instrumentals is, that Wray served in the US Army during the Korean War, and contracted tuberculosis, which laid him up in a hospital for a year. His stay concluded with the removal of a lung, which doctors predicted would mean he would never be able to sing again.

This video is a good example for his attitude to Rock 'n' Roll

Link Wray - Rumble

End of the 70s he collaborated with the Retro-Rockabilly singer Robert Gordon for some records.

Robert Gordon & Link Wray - Woman