It was posted Saturday morning on the message board that Link Wray passed away sometime last week at the age of 76 in Copenhagen, Denmark, where he had been living for the past two decades. Link is one of rock’n'roll’s all-time greatest guitarists, having been credited with inventing the power chord and influencing countless musicians to pick up and play the guitar. The instrumental bandwagon that dominated rock’n'roll in the late ’50s and early ’60s was led by Duane Eddy and Link Wray. The two were almost opposite ends of the rock guitar spectrum—Duane becoming the only matinee idol of the instrumental era, launching a new hit onto the charts every other month up through late 1963; Link representing the lunatic fringe that churches and PTAs warned parents about. In 1958, his song “Rumble” was banned in several radio markets for being suggestive and promoting juvenile delinquency, which is a pretty impressive feat for an instrumental record. Despite this, the song reached #16 on the charts that year and was his biggest hit ever. Rolling Stone and Guitar World magazines included Wray in their lists of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time, yet he still has not been inducted into the so-called Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (the only two instrumental acts that have been are Duane Eddy and Booker T. and The MG’s). He is, however, a proud member of the Rockabilly Hall of Fame.

According to his official website, Link died on Saturday November 5th of heart failure. He was buried on Friday the 17th.

I will be spinning two solid hours of Link Wray tonight on the 10th Anniversary Episode of The Wayback Machine. I invite you all to tune in live on the Web by going to KDHX.org at 8pm Central Time. In the meantime, please enjoy these MP3s and raise your glass to Frederick Lincoln Wray, Jr.

Link Wray – Rumble (MP3)
Link Wray – Jack the Ripper (MP3)
Link Wray – Ain’t That Lovin’ You Baby (MP3)

More Link Links:
Link Wray – The legend’s official website
Wray’s Shack – Fan site with an online petition to get Link elected into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Link Wray at the Rockabilly Hall of Fame – They know what’s goin’ on.
Link Wray at Wikipedia.org

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Posted by kopper in GaragePunk.com News | 3 Comments »

I just heard that Tim, the bass player in the great In The Red Records band The Lamps, is going to be giving a speech at the Pinball Expo 2005, and he’s gathering some important statistical information as preparation for his speech. Below is the info he’s looking for. So go ahead and just copy the survey, paste it into an email, answer the questions, and then send it off to him at pinball@sharp-ford.com.Feel free to pass this along to anyone you think might be interested.Thanks so much for the help, and as a cheap reward check out this Lamps video for “20″ of Monkey”. . .

IMPORTANT PINBALL SURVEY

1: Have you ever played pinball? Why or Why Not?

2: How often do you play pinball? Why or Why Not?

3: Do you know how to play pinball?

4: Did you know they still make pinball machines?

5: How many pinball machine locations do you know of in your area?

6: What is your gender?

7: What is your age?

8: What city and state do you live in?

9: Any extra thoughts about pinball?

Thanks!

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Yeah, I finally took the plunge off the deep end and decided to set up a blog on the root directory of GaragePunk.com. So sue me. This is really just to serve as a main “portal” (doncha just love these geeky web terms?) to the other main areas of the GaragePunk.com Global Industrial Complex, namely the Forums, the GaragePunk Podcast, and The Wayback Machine site. Other immediate plans include a rather extensive links section for the sidebar which should dwarf the one currently on the Wayback site, and my first homework assignment for myself is to write something up for the “About” page so people that come here don’t think this is a site about, well, anything other than primal, fucked up rock’n'roll and the trashy culture surrounding it. I’m also playing around with the idea of setting up a wiki here, but I’m not quite sure if I wanna tackle that sorta huge project just yet. Maybe later. Like years from now, heh. Anyway, in the meantime, enjoy the goddamn pretty pictures at the top of the screen and come back often!

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