There has always been a certain mystique surrounding the electric guitar in the world of rock music. Even though there’s nothing too flashy about its design, there’s something about putting that six-string across your back and playing the fastest music that you can that has enthralled millions of teenagers to pick up guitars that have been stuck in their closets and learn how to play them. While 90% of great guitarists look up to Jimmy Page as one of their main inspirations, the Led Zeppelin guitarist thought that the rock instrumental ‘Rumble’ was enough to make any kid fall in love with the guitar.
Before Page had heard any distorted guitar, though, he was already playing the kind of skiffle that was all the rage around the English club scene. Page may have been more than happy playing the kind of mindless blues songs that everyone was playing, but his ear was drawn to the kind of music that made his hair stand on end when he listened to it.
Even though Chuck Berry and Little Richard may have lit a fire underneath many of Page’s peers, Link Wray was a different animal when he stepped onto the scene. While he may have brandished a guitar, he was looking to make the kind of music with a bad attitude right from the get-go.
Not liking what he originally heard coming from his amplifier, Wray punctured the speaker that he had with a pencil to give it a distinctive growling sound. Listening back to what he made on ‘Rumble’, he definitely succeeded in making it sound heavier, playing the kind of rough-and-tumble blues by just playing a handful of chords.
It looks like the easiest thing in the world to many experienced guitar players, but the attitude behind the song is almost impossible to reproduce. It was even menacing enough to get the track banned from radio in the US, thinking that it would cause riots in the streets because of its scary tone.
Despite one of the single dumbest bans in the history of music, that couldn’t stop ‘Rumble’ from slowly having an effect on the rest of the scene. Pete Townshend would claim that the piece was one of his personal favourites, and even Iggy Pop would remember that the song got him into music.
For Page, there was still nothing that could touch Wray’s style, recalling at The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, saying, “It’s the essence, it’s just a masterpiece. Just sort of melted into the fibres of my body and my consciousness as far as the drama that you can set up with six strings. It’s the sort of stuff that can’t be taught. It’s the sort of stuff that you feel, and you can take on board if you’re lucky.”
Given where he went with Led Zeppelin, it’s almost as if Page used the song as a springboard for his own creativity. Quickly adopting that kind of harsh tone in the studio, half of Zeppelin’s finest moments feel like an extension of what Wray had done, including the strange fuzzy tones on ‘Ramble On’ or the raw sexual groove of ‘Whole Lotta Love’.
Then again, Page hit the nail on the head about not being able to teach someone how to play like that. Having that fire in you is something that you’re born with, and the most celebrated guitarists in history still have that fire that ‘Rumble’ had only hinted at.