Around 1977, early rock ’n’ roll revivalist Robert Gordon, an impassioned and frenetic singer, began collaborating with an actual early rock ’n’ roller, guitarist Link Wray. Their work together resulted in two studio albums and several concert tours, including the one memorialized on the new Rumble: Their First European Tour 1978. “Rumble” is the name of the 1958 instrumental hit for which Wray is best known, and it appears on the album in two versions.
The liner notes to this package, which includes two CDs and a DVD, claim that it constitutes the first release of material from these shows. That may technically be correct, though at least some of these tracks have been issued unofficially before, and you can also find other concert recordings by the duo from this period.
Wray and Gordon, who passed away in 2005 and 2022, respectively, are in top form throughout the set, which includes 15 numbers recorded in Bremen, Germany, a full 23-song concert from Rotterdam, Holland, and a bonus track from Amsterdam. The CDs, which incorporate multiple versions of more than a dozen of their tunes, primarily feature covers of vintage rock and rockabilly classics.
Arthur “Big Boy” Crudup’s “My Baby Left Me” and Lloyd Price’s “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” are here, for example, as are Jack Scott’s “The Way I Walk,” Junior Parker’s “Mystery Train,” Eddie Cochran’s “Twenty Flight Rock,” Jimmy Reed’s “Baby, What You Want Me to Do” and Joey Reynolds’ “Endless Sleep.” You’ll also discover a couple of somewhat more recently penned numbers, but they’re likably anachronistic and fit right in. One is Gordon’s own “If This Is Wrong,” which sounds like an early Elvis Presley song; the other is “Fire,” which Bruce Springsteen wrote with the hope that Presley would sing it. (He died before he could hear the demo that the Boss sent to him, however.)
To fully appreciate what Gordon and Wray can deliver, watch the DVD because, in this case, as the saying doesn’t quite go, a motion picture is worth a thousand audio tracks. Featured on the video are all the numbers from Bremen, plus the one from Amsterdam (Cochran’s “Summertime Blues”). Gordon clearly loves this music, as does Wray, whose guitar pyrotechnics in the film are mesmerizing.
The 3-disc set, released on Dec. 12, 2025, is available in the U.S. here, in Canada here and in the U.K. here.
Burger wrote one of the first interview-based profiles of Bruce Springsteen to be published in a national magazine. He has interviewed many other music-world luminaries as well, including Steve Van Zandt, Roger McGuinn, John Sebastian, Wolfman Jack, Tom Waits, Foreigner’s Mick Jones, Billy Joel, Steve Forbert, Tommy James, the Righteous Brothers, Gordon Lightfoot, Deep Purple’s Tommy Bolin, and members of Steely Dan and the Marshall Tucker Band. He has also interviewed many other public figures, such as Suze Orman, Daymond John, James Carville, Donald Trump, Sir Richard Branson, F. Lee Bailey, and Cliff Robertson.
His books include Dylan on Dylan: Interviews and Encounters, Lennon on Lennon: Conversations with John Lennon, Leonard Cohen on Leonard Cohen: Interviews and Encounters, and Springsteen on Springsteen: Interviews, Speeches, and Encounters, all of which are published in the U.S. and Canada by Chicago Review Press. The books have been republished in numerous other countries.
Burger has been the editor of several periodicals, including Business Jet Traveler, from which he retired in 2024. During his 20 years at that
publication, it received more than 120 major editorial awards, including multiple wins for the world’s Best Consumer Travel Magazine in the annual Folio:Eddie competition.
Burger lives in Ridgewood, New Jersey. His wife, Madeleine Beresford, is a puppeteer and former preschool director and teacher. The couple have two grown children.
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