grainy-redundant
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[bomp] Rock 'n' Roll instrumental godz
This reminds me of the time we caught Link Wray a couple years ago. Kinda
disappointing in that the band was pretty metallic sounding and Link
insisted on playing looong versions of only a handful of his tunes. Case in
point, he played about a 10-minute "Comanchi" until he blew his amp. After
the opening band (the Chickens, I think came to the rescue by lending an amp
within 5 minutes or so, what did we hear? Ten more minutes of "Comanchi"!!
THIS IS ALSO TRUE of Link Wray... the problem I see with Link is that his
music is really based on the interplay of the bass creating drama for the guitar
rhythms... it's about drama, and he plays with this bass player who is
stupidly rushing through everything because its "punk" to do so... but it saps the
key element of drama out of Link's music... that's what makes "Rumble" and "Jack
the Ripper" so intense, is the drama, let alone his other tunes playing on
that.
Duane Eddy, on the other hand, stands among the best concerts I've seen in my
life. He had Hal Blaine on drums, Steve Douglas on sax, Don Randi on
keyboards, Ry Cooder on second guitar (the "Al Casey" role) and I've forgotten who
the bass player was... this was 1984 at the Wilshire Theater... he also toured
for a little bit opening for... Huey Lewis & the News... with that same lineup,
and of course the whole thing got going at Don Randi's club The Baked Potato
on Cahuenga. Now, who can expect to have a band like that, it's not possible.
But Link Wray and Dick Dale really need to have that kind of respect for
their own music, because they may be the most important guys of the Rock 'n' Roll
Instrumental genre out there, but their shows don't do much to prove their
value. There are probably musicians right on this list that can do better than
the chumps playing with Link Wray and Dick Dale now.
There's a huge interview with Steve Douglas that I did coming in Dumb Angel
Gazette #4, a real career summary about working with Duane Eddy, Phil Spector,
Brian Wilson, Jan Berry and a really overlooked thing... his tenure as a
Capitol Records staff producer in the mid-'60s. Steve died over 10 years ago...
but it's been longer than that since the last D.A.G. came out. That interview
has been too long in the can.
Domenic Priore
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