Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin paid homage to guitarist Link Wray and inducted him posthumously into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by performing his 1958 hit “Rumble” during the induction ceremony. Wielding his red Gibson EDS-1275 with its iconic double-neck silhouette, Page thunderously ground out the opening phrases of “Rumble.”
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Accompanied by drums and upright bass, the song has a steady, thrumming beat that Page kept time to by stomping his heels. The song was conceived in 1958 by Link Wray & His Wray Men, and is often touted as being the first rock ‘n’ roll song to explore using distortion and tremolo. Distortion is used with electric guitars to produce a gritty or fuzzy sound. Tremolo describes a trembling sound, either in volume or with rapid note repetition. In the late ’50s, rock ‘n’ roll hadn’t yet utilized these tools.
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Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Inductee Link Wray and the Origins of “Rumble”
Link Wray and his band debuted the song in early 1958 at a local sock hop in Virginia. The song was a huge hit, and the audience demanded an encore four times that night, according to a tribute from online music magazine Perfect Sound Forever. The song had a rough introduction. It eventually caught the attention of Archie Bleyer of Cadence Records. Bleyer hated the song, but his stepdaughter adored it, so he conceded and released the single through Cadence.
At the time, with the title “Rumble,” there was some hesitancy surrounding the song. Since “rumble” was a slang term for a street fight, there was fear the song would lead to juvenile delinquency. The song was subsequently banned in multiple radio markets in the U.S. Despite this move, it was a hit in the U.S. Additionally, “Rumble” was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.
The influence of “Rumble” is felt in so much music of the past 65 years. The Hall of Fame calls Link Wray “the original punk, the inventor of the power chord, and the architect of a sound that laid the foundation for metal, punk, and every genre that relies on raw, untamed noise to convey its message.”
Featured Image by Theo Wargo/Getty Images for The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
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