Originally called “Oddball”[1] during its first live performances, “Rumble” is a song that is so important within the context of rock n’ roll that it may very well be the reason for the deification of the electric guitar. Note: I am not saying that this song is more important than Les Paul. Les Paul gave the world the first real electric guitar, and he was an amazing guitar player. But Link Wray‘s “Rumble” was a phenomenon that installed into hundreds of thousands of kids the ubiquitous notion that an electric guitar was a powerful source of Cool, Sex, and Rebellion.
Imagine that you are living in America in April of 1958. Try to picture yourself living in a world with The Beaver or Donna Reed (or whoever); picture yourself living in a world with no Beatles, no Rolling Stones, no Motown. Try to picture a world with essentially no experimentation of the electric guitar—no distortion, no feedback. Now, scroll down to the bottom of this post and listen to “Rumble” and then scroll back up here when you are finished.
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The power of this song and the originality of this song is nearly impossible to convey. This track, not even two and a half minutes long, encompasses everything that is raw and sexual about an electric guitar. The sexuality of rock before “Rumble” resided mostly in image: Elvis’ look and hip-shaking movements is the gold standard of what we typically think of, but in general the look of a band or an artist (think: anyone from Little Richard to Johnny Cash) typically[2] superseded a lot of the music that was being made early on. And, yes, you could make the argument that Wray’s image helped him too (he looked like a cool kid at the time with a propensity to wear black leather) but, just as no one had ever heard a white kid perform like Elvis, no one had ever heard a guitar played like Link did on this track—so twangy and so distorted towards the end that it feels like it is being nebulously radiated from your speakers.
In the documentary It Might Get Loud Jimmy Page listens to “Rumble” in one of his rooms and makes these sweeping arm movements on his air guitar (while sporting a beaming smile, no less) in tandem with the sound of Link Wray’s real chords emanating from the very expensive speakers in the room. It is by far one of the best scenes of the documentary, it not only humanizes Page[3] but it also deifies “Rumble.” Watching Page react reverently to the song while it plays, you realize the impact that this song had on an army of kids who were suddenly seized by the idea of playing the electric guitar.
To be sure, there were songs before “Rumble” that foisted the idea of Cool onto kids and there were songs before “Rumble” that made groundbreaking use of the guitar. But Link Wray kicked everything up another notch. “Rumble” was a rockabilly guitar instrumental that became a new school inspiration for countless rock, blues, and country artists.
This song proved that, even at a slow and deliberate pace, the electric guitar is not merely an instrument but a force of nature and a living object that can force us to view the world differently.
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[1] And, thus, this is why the studio version of the song starts with someone saying, “Oddball, take two.”
[2] I stress the word typically here because in some cases (see: “Folsom Prison Blues”) the lyrics of the song are so profoundly great that they transcend any image of the artist in question.
[3] You see him as a wiry, elder statesman of rock enjoying a spontaneous moment rather than a twelve-string deity with black hair covering most of his face.
