Elvis Presley V's Link Wray V's The Residents

This post is from the May 2006 issue of Mojo magazine which looks at the life of Elvis Aaron Presley and also has a CD which provides a mix of 15 cover versions of Elvis tracks, plus I've added a bonus track here not included on the Mojo CD.

Elvis was a hero to most.

"Link Wray is The King!" proclaimed The Who's Pete Townshend in 1974. "If it wasn't for Rumble, I would never have picked up a guitar." And, just as the likes of Townshend, Jeff Beck and Neil Young idolised Wray, so too Link worshipped Presley, who invited him to dinner at Graceland. Wray's ultimate compliment - other than this faithful cover - consisted of naming one of his sons Link Elvis Wray. He sings pretty good for a guy who contracted tuberculosis while serving in the Korean War and had his left lung removed. Sadly, Link Wray passed away on November 5th, 2005.

The Residents are an avant garde music and visual arts group. They formed in the early 1970s and released their first record in 1972, a double-disc 45 RPM recording entitled Santa Dog. They have released nearly sixty albums, created numerous musical films, designed three CD-ROM projects, and undertaken six major world tours. They are still active and will be releasing a new CD in May 2006, entitled "The River Of Crime" and said to be modeled after the radio dramas of the 1940s (from wikipedia). They also released an album full of Elvis covers with 1993's "The King & Eye".