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He employed his two brothers, Link and Fred as drivers. Vernon Wray, Link’s elder brother founded his own taxi firm in 1950. However, in 1950, things were looking up for his family. He was determined to improve his technique and playing. From the moment he bought the guitar, Link practised non stop. He chose a Vega electric guitar, which he purchased from a Sears and Roebuck catalogue. Not long after this, Link got a job as a messenger at the same dockyard.Īfter two years working at the dockyard, and scrimping and saving, Link had enough money to buy his first electric guitar in 1949. Things were looking up for the Wray family. Their destination was Portsmouth, Virginia, where Link’s father and elder brother Vernon got job as pipe fitters at a dockyard. Then in 1947, when Link was eighteen, the Wray family were on the move. This brought some much needed money into the household. Initially, he got a job delivering groceries and picking cotton and tobacco. The outcome was, that Link had to leave school. Link was about to leave school.Īfter a teacher threatened to whip Link, there was a fracas. He had mastered the guitar.This was just as well. For Link, it was part of his musical education, which was going pretty well. As Link sat there, he listened and learnt. When they threw open their windows, the music spilled out. Some of the Wray’s neighbours enjoyed the blues.
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He spent a lot of his spare time listening to the blues. Having showed Link how it was meant to be played, Hambone left Link playing his guitar, However, every time the circus passed through town, Hambone stopped by, to see how his pupil was progressing.īy the time Link Wray was sixteen, he was more than proficient guitarist. It was a masterclass from Hambone, who was just as comfortable playing drums and horns.
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He showed Link open chords, and how to play the guitar with his fingers and even a knife. Realised the young man was struggling, the stranger, who called himself Hambone, showed him how to tune and then play the blues guitar. Then one day, a member of a passing circus saw Link playing his guitar. Link tried to teach himself, and used to sit in the porch strumming and picking his guitar. When Vernon showed little interest in his guitar, fourteen year old Link Wray picked up the guitar. However, somehow, Link’s mother and father found the money to buy his elder brother Vernon an acoustic guitar. The house had dirt floors, and didn’t even have electricity. His disability cheque allowed the family to survive the depresson…just. Link Wray’s father had been pensioned out the US Army. To make matters worse, the family were poor.
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They had no option but to hide under their bed, until the Klan left. In the local community, African Americans and Link Wray’s mother feared for their life. At nights, the Klan came calling, wearing their white capes and carrying burning crosses. North Carolina in the thirties was Klu Klux Klan country. However, this caused problems growing up. Link Wray’s mother was a Shawnee Indian, and later, Link Wray was proud of his heritage. That’s when Link Wray was born in Dunn, North Carolina, to Fred Lincoln Wray, Sr. The Link Wray story began on May 2nd 1929. However, they’ve been inducted, unlike Link Wray. Really, do The Beastie Boys belong in the Rock ’N’ Roll Hall Of Fame? Similarly, does disgraced DJ, Alan Freed, who became embroiled in the payola scandal of the early sixties deserve to inducted into such a prestigious institution? There are many others whose inclusion is debatable. Unlike some who’ve had the same honour bestowed upon then. A musical pioneer had been treated shabbily. When the great and good gathered in 2014, Link Wray wasn’t inducted into the Rock ’N’ Roll Hall Of Fame. Nearly eight years later, on October 16th 2013, somewhat belatedly,it was announced that Link Wray had been nominated to be inducted into the Rock ’N’ Roll Hall Of Fame. Link Wray died in Copenhagen, Denmark, on November 5th 2005. They’re the perfect introduction to Link Wray, who sadly, died ten years ago. Sadly, neither in life nor death, Link Wray never deserved the recognition he so richly deserved.Īce Records are trying rectify this, with the release of 3-Track Shack, a two disc CD set which features three albums, Link Wray, Mordicai Jones and Beans and Fatback. He’s regarded as one of greatest guitarists in musical history. As a result, several generations of guitarists, owe a debt of gratitude to Link Wray. They were all influenced by Link Wray, whose 1958 instrumental hit Rumble, popularised the power chord. Jimmy Page, Neil Young and Iggy Pop all have one thing in common.