THIS IS THE 1971 US ORIGINAL PRESSING on POLYDOR Records. Released on a Red Polydor label. Comes in a gatefold cover with the front side specially cut following Link Wray's profile. The cover is in VG+ condition: normal wear and without any major deterioration BUT light discolouration/wear on spines/corners, cut-edge (near bottom left corner), surface ringwear, yellowing sticker mark on rear (top left corner), left spine is readable; for details see photos. The vinyl is in VG+ condition [few light clicks] and plays wonderfully and without lessening in sound quality.

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LINK WRAY

with BILLY HODGES, BOBBY HOWARD, DOUG WRAY, STEVE VERROCA,

Link Wray may never get into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, but his contribution to the language of rockin' guitar would still be a major one, even if he had never walked into another studio after cutting "Rumble." Quite simply, Link Wray invented the power chord, the major modus operandi of modern rock guitarists. Listen to any of the tracks he recorded between that landmark instrumental in 1958 through his Swan recordings in the early '60s and you'll hear the blueprints for heavy metal, thrash, you name it. Though rock historians always like to draw a nice, clean line between the distorted electric guitar work that fuels early blues records to the late-'60s Hendrix-Clapton-Beck-Page-Townshend mob, with no stops in between, a quick spin of any of the sides Wray recorded during his golden decade punches holes in that theory right quick.

1971     LP     POLYDOR RECORDS      24-4064 STEREO

PRINTED IN U.S.A.   ORIGINAL PRESSING

GATEFOLD COVER (Unipak Style)

HEAVY CARDBOARD COVER

NOTES: Comes in a Gatefold cover with the front side specially cut following Link Wray's profile.

Barcode: none

LABEL: POLYDOR -  RED LABEL - BLACK TEXT

Catalog on cover: (front & spine) 24-4064   (rear) 24-4064 (2425 067) 

Catalog on labels: 24-4064  2425 067 (POLP 80197) / 24-4064  2425 067 (POLP 80198)

Matrix / Runout, Side A (Etched): POLP 80197-1C  ∆15895 (1) LH  (Stamped): STERLING,  MR(circled)

Matrix / Runout, Side B (Etched): POLP 80198-2C-REPL. ∆15895-X  (Stamped): STERLING,  MR(circled)

On labels: rim text "Manufactured by Polydor Incorporated, New York, N.Y.""

On back cover: Tracklist + Credits

Recorded at Wray's Shach Three Track, in Accokeek Maryland

Printed in U.S.A.

tracklisting

Side A: LA DE DA - TAKE ME HOME JESUS - JUKE BOX MAMA

RISE AND FALL OF JIMMY STOKES - FALLIN' RAIN

Side B: FIRE AND BRIMSTONE - ICE PEOPLE - GOD OUT WEST

CROWBAR - BLACK RIVER SWAMP - TAIL DRAGGER

grading

RECORD VG+ but (please, read above description)

SLEEVE VG+ but (please, see pictures and read above description)

 Link's old fans were thrown for a loop when, in 1971, the man made a comeback after several years along the margins with a self-titled album that set aside his big slabs of fretboard fuzz in favor of a loosely tight fusion of country, blues, and roughshod folk-rock. Recorded in a homemade three-track studio fashioned in an abandoned chicken coop on Wray's Maryland farm, Link Wray lacks the muscle of the man's legendary instrumental sides, with acoustic guitar, piano, and mandolin anchoring these sides as often as Link's electric, and there's a down-home mood here that lacks the switchblade intensity of Wray's most famous music. But the rough passion of "Rumble" and "Rawhide" certainly carries through here, albeit in a different form...(AllMusic)