The guitarist who made Mark E. Smith want to be a musician: “You’ve got no contemporaries”
Mark E. Smith was the sort of fellow who could win the lottery and tell the organisers to stuff it if the bounty took too long to reach his bank account. He was the proverbial misanthropissed and led The Fall like an autodidact of post-punk, in the process, ensuring that they remain a singular and seminal influence, turning the synth sedation of the 1980s on its head, chernobyling banality and upholding the quirkiness of pub culture.
The influence of The Fall today is undeniable. However, few tracks have had the impact and life experience of the only instrumental song in existence ever to be banned. If you can garner red tape and a tribe of musical disciples through a simple riff and drum roll, then you know you are propagating something sordid from the upper reaches of the rarefied realm we call energy and atmosphere. This is exactly what Link Wray achieved with ‘Rumble’.
Iggy Pop once said, “I heard this music in the student union at a university. It was called ‘Rumble’ and it sounded baaad.” For Iggy Pop, this crystalising moment prognosticated his future in a sonic crystal ball, and, needless to say, that future didn’t involve the university. “I left school emotionally at the moment I heard ‘Rumble’,” he concludes. Albeit it’s hard to imagine any civilian life in store for Smith, his experience with the track was much the same.
Years later, The Fall founder got the chance to meet his hero, and unto him, he said: “You kept my head together for fuckin’ years, Link, when I was a teenager and in my 20s. You know, I like Elvis, I like Gene Vincent, but you were the one that kept me together. It is spiritual, it’s that Indian thing: DAANNNG! DA-NA-NAANNGG! If ever I thought about packing the business in, I’d put on ‘Rumble’, full fuckin’ blast.”
When Wray responded enthusiastically to this little Manc’s ardent praise, Smith continued: “You wouldn’t believe it, Link, in Manchester you’re a total working-class hero. I’ve got three sisters, they’re bikers, and they’re all younger than me. They don’t like anything else, but the one thing that the entire family agree on is Link Wray!“
When Wray deflected and remarked: “Elvis was Sid Vicious, man! Elvis was, um, Mark! Elvis was rock ‘n’ roll. He came from the poverty and the pain. He was playing on the Louisiana Hayride for nothing. Then Tom Parker saw this million dollar thing because the chicks were coming in their pants. God zapped something on him that the rest of the country musicians didn’t have.“
Nevertheless, Smith thought of them as equals. “But he was like you, in a way,“ he continued in NME. “Link, because he was on his own. There was no-one else around. There wasn’t even anyone you could say was shit. But it’s still a good place to be. You’ve got no contemporaries. I mean, my group still hasn’t got any contemporaries. People might try and imitate us, or you, and it’s just not the same. That’s why people like you continue. That’s why I’d still go to see you. I wouldn’t go and see Conway Twitty.“
