Unknown Influencers

[Clay Anderson Johnson]

 

Quite often there are musicians who are unremembered by the general public who had huge influences upon other musicians.

 

One example is guitarist Link Wray who played instrumental Rock & Roll in the late 1950s.  He is from the Mid-Atlantic (DC) area but is probably better known in Europe than the US.  He retired in The Netherlands because of his popularity there.

 

Wray was known for being an innovator of both the Power Chord and the Fuzz sound which was later reproduced electronically.  He did it by punching holes in his amplifier speakers with a pencil years before Keith Richards bought a pedal to reproduce the same sound.  His song Rumble was actually banned in several radio markets because its raw sound was thought to promote teen gang violence,

 

Some people who have acknowledged him as being a major influence are:

• Jimmy Page
• Peter Townsend
• Neil Young (Crazy Horse)
• Iggy Pop

 

You can find many of his songs on Youtube.  My personal favorite will always be Jack The Ripper, a ripping song from a ripping guitarist.

 

Who do you know of who was a major influence although relatively unremembered?

 

Edited February 23, 2022 by Clay Anderson Johnson

[Clay Anderson Johnson]

Update:  We watched Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World last night on Amazon Prime.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B075F9QBW1/ref=atv_wl_hom_c_unkc_1_1

 

It leads off with Link Wray as one of the most important innovators in Rock & Roll.  It features both interviews and performances.  

 

It also covers other Indian artists including Jimi Hendrix, Buffy St. Marie, and Robbie Robertson.

 

***** Highly recommended viewing!  

[Glammerocity]

Link's Rumble currently appearing in the TV ad for confused.com. I suspect Quentin Tarantino is responsible for it getting that far into popular culture.

 

I remember Little Feat being played by crews before the band came on at almost every gig I went to way back when. Probably not so much an influence as a love that wasn't reflected in sales, but locally here, every musician on the scene was a fan. A band's band.

 

Robert Palmer was certainly influenced by them, especially Lowell George's "white boy got the woo-woos" vocal style. Lowell produced Palmer's Sneaking Sally album and the band backed him on Pressure Drop. Bonnie Raitt worked with them and was probably influenced by Lowell in her slide-playing. And I daresay there's a long list of drummers who'd cite Richie Hayward's unique style as an influence. 

 

"Lots of folk talk about the great drummers in rock history. But ask other musicians. Ask bassists and guitarists: Richie Hayward is in a class all by himself." - Steve Gorman, Black Crowes

Edited April 11, 2022 by Glammerocity

[Glammerocity]

Speaking of Little Feat, Lowell George was a big fan of writer and producer Allen Toussaint and his New Orleans sound. Countless others have covered his songs or worked with him, from Lee Dorsey to Paul McCartney and all points inbetween. He was heavily sampled in the early days of hiphop. He wrote Glen Campbell's Southern Nights and produced Labelle's Lady Marmalade. His song, What Do You Want the Girl to Do was recorded by Lowell, Boz Scaggs, Bonnie Raitt and Elvis Costello among others, and On Your Way Down was on Little Feat's Dixie Chicken. He was inducted into the R&R Hall of Fame in 1998 but remains relatively unknown.

 

 

Edited April 17, 2022 by Glammerocity