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"...I Feel The Thunder...I Feel The Fallin' Rain..."
"Link Wray" by LINK WRAY (1971 LP on Polydor Records)
Even as a veteran of secondhand record shops
and a rarities buyer for nearly 20 years at the fab Reckless Records in London
– I'm kind of shocked at the sheer undiscovered classiness of this Link Wray
music. Truthfully I never gave it the time of day back in the day. In fact I
can recall seeing British copies of 1971's "Link Wray" turn up in our
busy Berwick Street shop in its American die-cut gatefold sleeve with his side
profile face – and we’d all sigh.
The same would apply to the other album culled
from these sessions - the single sleeve UK issue of Mordicai Jones by MORDICAI
JONES (a gatefold in the USA with different artwork). We knew from previous
experience that these obscure LPs would sit in our racks for months on end -
until eventually reduced to a nominal amount - someone would buy them as a
curio rather than a sought-out deliberate purchase. How times have changed...
For this superb UK 2CD reissue the simplest
comparison musically is The Band and Folk-Rock Americana. Most fans who worship
the ground that The Band's "Music From Big Pink" (1968) and "The
Band" (1969) walks on – they would never in their wildest dreams look at
the Rock 'n' Roll guitar 'rumble' of Carolina Shawnee Indian LINK WRAY and
think 'Americana' – the beginnings of Tony Joe White, J.J. Cale, Townes Van
Zandt and then onwards into the Indi Folk-Rock of Ryan Adams, The Jayhawks, Bon
Iver, Sufjan Stevens and The Fleet Foxes. But that's what this rather brilliant
little reissue contains. Simple but original Country, Folk, Blues and Roots
tunes recorded live on guitars and upright piano in a converted Chicken Shack
in Accokeek in the State of Maryland on his brother's farm (Doug Wray) with no
overdubs and barely enough electricity. If they had no drums – they simply
stomped feet hard and rattled those loose nails. If the song was quiet - it's
said you can hear bullfrogs croaking and dogs howling outside the miked-up
windows. Throw in Wray's strangely expressive Paul Siebel/Mickey Newbury twanging-voice
and the results are earthy, real, simple and wonderfully melodic. Like classic
J.J. Cale albums from the 70s – each guitar-chug and clever string-bend eats
its way into your heart – each tune is simple and direct and warm and full of
local stories ("Rise And Fall Of Jimmy Stokes"). I can even hear
traces of a hopeful Rodriguez in his vocal style and lyrics - his commentaries
on urban life and people trying to find their way in a mixed up world – elegant
and truthful ("Fallin' Rain" and "Ice People"). There's a
lot to get through so once more unto the backwater shed and that Ampex
3-track...
UK released August 2015 (September 2015 in the
USA) – "3-Track Shack" by LINK WRAY on Ace Records CDCH2 1451
(Barcode 029667073820) offers up 3LPs from 1971 and 1973 onto 2CDs with one
British 7" single edit as a bonus track. The "Link Wray" LP portion of it
plays out as follows:
Disc 1 (63:36 minutes):
1. La De Da
2. Take Me Home Jesus
3. Juke Box Mama
4. Rise And Fall Of Jimmy Stokes
5. Fallin' Rain
6. Fire And Brimstone [Side 2]
7. Ice People
8. God Out West
9. Crowbar
10. Black Rover Stomp
11. Tail Dragger
Tracks 1 to 11 are the album "Link
Wray" – released June 1971 in the USA on Polydor 24-4064 and September
1971 in the UK on Polydor Super 2425 029
You can't argue that the chunky 28-page booklet
scrimps it on details or photos – recounting his career from Fifties and
Sixties 'rumble' style guitar Rock 'n' Roll into these three albums - a 70's
change of gear into Americana where the loud guitars of old are replaced with
downhome acoustic tunes. The fantastic DAVE BURKE and ALLAN TAYLOR liner notes
(co-editors of the "Pipeline" Fanzine on Rock Instrumentals) also do
a lot to unravel the mysterious 'Mordicai Jones' project issued only months after
the failed "Link Wray" album of June 1971. It turns out that the
stunning Terry Reid-type vocals by the fictional Mordicai Jones character are
in fact by Gene Johnson and not the keyboardist in Wray’s band Bobby Howard (as
had been presumed). But the big news for fans (apart from the availability of
this music after decades in the wilderness) is the amazingly clear remasters by
long-time Engineer NICK ROBBINS – a name that has graced hundreds of quality
British reissues. There is nothing lo-fi about these transfers despite how the
original recordings were laid down.
A world away from his previous style of
instrumental Rock 'n' Roll guitar – the two more Folksy albums were not well
received at the time. "Link Wray" barely scraped into No. 186 on the
American album charts in July 1971 (lasting only 4 weeks) - while the pseudonym
"Mordicai Jones" project advertised in early June 1971 but not
released until November simply confused people and most ignored it. Let's get
to the music...
The openers "La De Da" and "Take
Me Home Jesus" set the tone for the "Link Wray" album – The Band
recording Americana with two-fingers held up to 24-track mixing consoles.
There's Washboard melodrama to the catchy "Juke Box Mama" which
Polydor USA put on the flipside of the 45 for the beautiful "Fallin'
Rain" (Polydor PD 14096). We get a little Elvin Bishop and J.J. Cale with
the very cool chugger "Rise And Fall Of Jimmy Stokes" which
chronicles a boy with a shirt on his back trying to make it in the big city.
It's amazing to think now that something as obviously lovely and topical as
"Fallin' Rain" with lyrics like "...where kids lay bleeding on
the ground...there's no place where peace can be found..." didn’t make an
impression on the radios of the day – very Mickey Newbury and Eric Andersen.
The hugely likeable "Fire And Brimstone" opens Side 2 in style – Jug
Band music with a Mungo Jerry commerciality. "Ice People" bemoans the
Red Man’s fate on the Reservation and again Link's vocals remind you of Levon
Helm at his touching best. The ragged electric lead guitar in "God Out
West" is the nearest nod to his loud 'rumbling' style of old (that guitar
sound would turn up on the outtakes album "Beans And Fatback" in
1973). The acoustic-slide Blues of "Crowbar" reminds me of James
Taylor's "Steamroller" on "Sweet Baby James" where Link
tells his girl "...I'm a crowbar baby and I’m sure gonna ply you
loose..." (how very gentlemanly of him). The opening flickering mandolin
strums of "Black River Swamp" suit an impossibly laconic melody
that’s full of Southern Soul (voices and guitars recorded for pure feel). Wray
means it as he sings "...I can hear them bullfrogs croaking...calling me
back to my childhood...down here in Black River Swamp..." The album ends
on the only cover version – a fantastic Bo Diddley guitar chug at "Tail
Dragger" (written by Willie Dixon for Howlin' Wolf). I'm a sucker for
slide bottleneck guitar and this baby has guitars going on everywhere as Link
does his best Chester Burnett vocal growl.
One of the Backing Vocalists credited simply as
'Gene' on the "Link Wray" albums turns out to be GENE JOHNSON – the
principal vocalist for the Mordicai Jones album and project (not Bobby Howard
as was long thought). The moniker of Mordicai Jones might have been Polydor's
way of dealing with the fan backlash/indifference to "Link Wray"
(hide him behind some other band). The booklet also reproduces in full the
gatefold artwork of the American LP (the shack pictured in the woods nestled in
a canopy of trees). The inside photo on the inner gatefold was used by British
copies on their front covers and reduced to a single matt sleeve. The inner
right side of the gatefold was used as the artwork for the rear of the British
LP and the album didn’t show until early 1972 (about March) where it was met
with as much non-interest as it had been in 1971 USA.
So why did it all fail – why don’t you know
about these albums? I suppose you could say that all three records lacked an
overall impact to make them classics of the day – but in hindsight - these Countrified
Americana albums by Link Wray make for a fabulous listen - offering up music
that gets to you after repeated listens – music you want to champion and rave
about.
A stunning release then from Ace Records of the
UK and a reminder that there’s so much great music out there to still find and
cherish. "Link Wray" from 1971 is an album you want in your life.
Properly impressed I am...
