Friday Feels Like: The Rumble

metal throats thick with gasoline,

heated leather and hot hands,

old hair in the fresh air

that has slept on the swollen, summer grass.

Wanderings in summer means time on the road. And the road up north has flocks of grown men on motorbikes. It’s a powerful roar those bikes have when they pass you, especially en masse, it sort of passes right through your bones.

Rumble is an influential rock instrumental by Link Wray & His Ray Men. Originally released in 1958, Rumble utilized then largely unexplored techniques like distortion and feedback.

The song is one of very few instrumental singles banned from the radio airwaves. Yes, it is dirty sounding. It’s got that old-bar-grime feel- where your head’s gone hazey and last night’s beer smell still lingers on the walls- but it’s a classic.

This song is my put-on-paper example of that motorbike roar. (Aside from Harley Davidson’s “potato, potato” copyrighted sound of their engine).

Enjoy!