If it wasn’t for the fact that my notes for this 16/4/93 show go over two pages and Link Wray is on one page, while The Sonics are on the other page, then I would have paired Rumble up in a post with Dirty Robber in a “future of car insurance advertising” mash-up.
Rumble was Wray’s debut release in 1958, and it gave him both his biggest hit (Number 16 on the US charts) and his signature tune. It is celebrated as one of the first rock ‘n’ roll records to make use of tremelo and distortion, and has in one sense or another influenced practically every electric guitarist since. When played next to its catchier, more conventional sounding b-side, The Swag, it sounds positively futuristic.
Rumble was a hit despite concerns over its title’s link to gang violence, and its famous two note refrain certainly implies menace and malevolence. I’d imagine it would have been a popular record to play if you saw yourself as a street smart tough guy, and you needed a tune to get you in the mood for a night out.
It’s future use on the Confused.com insurance adverts was but a glint in an advertising executive’s eye when John Peel was including Rumble in his live sets, and some 35 years after its release, it was still entrancing young people who had grown up on music made by artists who had channelled Wray’s style. After playing Rumble on this show, Peel remarked I played that at The Powerhaus last week and lots of interesting young people with skin conditions came up and wanted to know what it was.
Dedicated to my wife, Diana, who used Rumble to brilliant effect as music to end the first half of a production of Much Ado About Nothing, which she directed in 2018.
Video courtesy of n3v05h.
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