{"id":270031,"date":"2025-11-18T17:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T17:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/270031\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T17:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T17:01:08","slug":"the-one-band-neil-young-would-travel-back-in-time-to-see","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/270031\/","title":{"rendered":"The one band Neil Young would travel back in time to see"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Neil<\/p>\n

(Credit: BBC iPlayer – Video Stilll)<\/p>\n

Tue 18 November 2025 14:55, UK <\/p>\n

Neil Young<\/a> doesn\u2019t follow crowds even when it comes to hypothetical time-travelling endeavours.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While many folks in possession of a blank ticket stub to the past might venture to the Cavern Club for an early Beatles show or take up a spot by the front of the stage when David Bowie killed off Ziggy Stardust, the \u2018Heart of Gold\u2019 goes back to a rather less revered outpost in music history. But it\u2019s one that shaped the world as we know it all the same.<\/p>\n

In 1958, or there or thereabouts, in a field in Fredericksburg, Virginia, or there or thereabouts, an edgy young band full of youthful vigour were about to play at a drab country fair on the outskirts of the outskirts. This was not your typical epicentre for world-changing cultural movements <\/p>\n

A DJ asked this naive young band to play \u2018The Stroll\u2019 by The Diamonds. Through giddy, nervous energy, this request summoned an involuntary nod. The problem was that none of the band had ever heard of the track. What they improvised in its place would go on to change music forever. The band were Link Wray<\/a> & The Ray Men, and the song was \u2018Rumble\u2019.<\/p>\n

Neil Young was dubbed the \u2018Godfather of Grunge\u2019, but he decrees: \u201cLink Wray\u2026he was the beginning of grunge<\/a>, way before anyone you know.\u201d There are also arguments that Wray is the \u2018Godfather of Punk\u2019 and a thousand other off-shoots spun out from the sheer atmosphere of \u2018Rumble\u2019. Necessity is the mother of invention, and placed on the spot to play \u2018The Stroll\u2019, the band went into overdrive and still has many reeling.<\/p>\n

Wray\u2019s brother, Doug, was on drums. He was not renowned for his subtlety, and by all accounts, his kit trembled like a flat-pack wardrobe on a fault line when he played. On this occasion, he beat out a rhythm with the wrong end of his sticks, further amplifying the wallop. Meanwhile, Wray strummed out a few heavy, sustained strolling chords laden with vibrato. Finally, in order to hear the guitar over Doug\u2019s maelstrom, a microphone was placed in front of a punctured amplifier, and the blown-out sound caused a frenzy.<\/p>\n

In an era of relative music conservatism, this was something to behold. The Kinks often get credit for inventing heavier forms of music because they slashed an amp with a razor, but Link Wray did this years before. When the Ray Men struggled to replicate \u2018Rumble\u2019 in the studio, the innovative band thought on their toes and punctured holes in the equipment to up the distortion. As Iggy Pop would later state when \u2018Rumble\u2019 forced him to leave college and pursue rock \u2018n\u2019 roll: \u201dIt sounded baaad.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the track proving a hit, such a controversial hit, in fact, that when Steven Van Zandt introduced it to the Rock Hall, he quipped: \u201c\u2019Rumble,\u2019 [is] the only instrumental in history to be banned for its lyrical content,\u201d Link Wray & The Ray Men began to understand the power of dark \u2019attitude\u2019.<\/p>\n

So, they became legendary for the atmosphere they concocted at their live shows. They harnessed an image of rock \u2018n\u2019 roll outlaws and enamoured a cult following of fans brave enough to attend their mystic concerts. Much like the cool effortlessness of Rumble, these shows were baaad.<\/p>\n

So much so that Neil Young said<\/a>: \u201cIf I could go back in time and see any band, it would be Link Wray & The Ray Men.\u201d That\u2019s high praise indeed, but without them, he very well might be a labourer in some unknown Canadian industry, so old Young sees the time trip as a pilgrimage of sorts.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credit: BBC iPlayer – Video Stilll) Tue 18 November 2025 14:55, UK Neil Young doesn\u2019t follow crowds even…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,111218,128,23564,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-270031","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-link-wray","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-neil-young","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}