Radio Exile | Outloud – Rockin’ Robert

Outloud – Rockin’ Robert

By Dan Berkman August 1, 2008 Post a comment | Email the author

Howdy y’all. Welcome to Outloud. In this week’s installment I am going to be gracing you with a performance by a band formed by Link Wray and Robert Gordon. Hopefully the name Link Wray is familiar to you already, if not then it is definitely time to do some homework. Among Link’s many great achievements in rock and roll was inventing something that every rock band uses, no matter if they call themselves hardcore, emo, rockabilly, or punk rock – the power chord.

If you don’t know who Robert Gordon is then that is just fine by me, since even I didn’t know who he was until about two years ago, and I spent all day online digging up videos or reading music history books.

Gordon grew up as sort of anachronism. At the height of flower power, free love, and the Grateful Dead, Gordon was picking up records from Stax, Sun and Motown and driving muscle cars and slicking his hair back. Eventually in the mid 70s, he discovered about punk, which he considered a return to rock and roll glorious past. He moved to New York and joined the punk band Tuff Darts, which were contemporaries of The Ramones, Blondie, The Talking Heads, and Television. Here is what the boys sounded like. Oh and the song is called “Head Over Heels”.

While recording the Tuff Darts self titled debut album, which would prove to be their only record, a record producer heard Gordon’s soulful croon and asked if he could send the recordings to his buddy Link Wray. Gordon being a fan quickly agreed. The pair decided to get together and write an album. The results were Robert Gordon and Link Wray. The two put together a band and went on tour together. There record and live shows were a hit Although not solely responsible, Wray and Gordon’s project revitalized rockabilly in the minds of young people. Arguably the highlight of their work together was the single “Red Hot”. Give the track a listen.

“Red Hot’ [mp3]

The pair recorded yet another album Fresh Fish Special in 1978 but split up on tour. Due to the short length of the duo’s career together footage was almost impossible to find until I found this little gem of a performance I am going to share with you right now. Sadly, I don’t know much about the performance other than it comes in three parts and it simply rocks! Enjoy!

Part 2 of this performance features a rare lead vocal by Link Wray himself. Wray was a veteran of the Korean war and while there he suffered a bout of tuberculosis that caused him to lose one of his lungs His doctors told him that he shouldn’t really sing again, which is why he focused so heavily on the guitar and for the most part kept his music instrumental. In special situations like this he would damn common sense and sing anyways.

After the split up of their partnership Gordon continued making rock and roll records with different guitar players for major label RCA. In the early 80s he was dropped and returned to obscurity releasing records on smaller independent labels. Just at the time Gordon’s career was dipping, rockabilly was once again championed by and another group of Americans who just happened to be big Gordon fans – The Stray Cats.

EXTRA CREDIT

The “hit” from Gordon and Wray’s second album was “Fire” a song written by Bruce Springsteen, who actually plays piano on the track. How cool is that Springsteen, Gordon and Wray all on one track? I think you should check it out.

“Fire” [mp3]