Mordicai Jones

Mordicai Jones
Studio album by Link Wray
Released	1971
Recorded	1971
Genre	Country rock/Folk rock/Roots rock
Length	39:28
Label	Polydor
Producer	Steve Verroca
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Link Wray chronology
Link Wray (1971) Mordicai Jones (1971) Be What You Want To (1973)

Mordicai Jones is the 1971 album by pioneer Rock & Roll guitarist, and Shawnee Indian Link Wray. The music is a blend of Blues, Country, and Folk rock. The standout tracks are "Walkin' in the Arizona Sun", "All Because of a Woman", "Son of a Simple Man", and "Days Before Custer". Gene Johnson, not Bobby Howard, is "Mordicai Jones", and sings lead vocals. The rhythm tracks were recorded in 1971 in an old chicken shack on Wray's Maryland farm. The vocals were recorded in New York City. Bobby Howard, an original member of the 1960s DC club band The British Walkers, invited Gene Johnson, then of the DC club band Billy Budd, (with whom both Howard and Johnson and session guitarist Lance Quinn had played in '69 at DC's legendary Bayou nite club)to come to New York to sing back-up on Link Wray's "comeback" album on Polydor. After the Wray album was completed, the production team set out to produce an album for Howard, for which rhythm tracks had been recorded at Wrays Shack. Howard, always temperamental, got mad and walked out, and Gene Johnson became the voice of Mordicai Jones. Howard never laid down a single vocal track for the Mordicai Jones album. Johnson was at the time performing with the DC recording band Tractor, which had just finished an album with Gamble and Huff, an R&B production team out of Phillie. Johnson would not sign a contract with the Link Wray production team and thus was asked to give up all rights to being Mordicai Jones. He took the money offered and ran.

Track listing

1. "Walkin' in the Arizona Sun" (Link Wray/Steve Verroca) - 2:53
2. "Scorpio Woman" (Link Wray/Steve Verroca) - 3:47
3. "The Coca Cola Sign Blinds My Eye" (Link Wray/Bobby Howard/Steve Verroca) - 6:24
4. "All I Want to Say" (Link Wray/Steve Verroca/Gene Johnson) - 3:12
5. "All Because of a Woman" (Link Wray/Steve Verroca) - 3:20
6. "On the Run" (Link Wray/Bobby Howard/Steve Verroca) - 5:45
7. "Son of a Simple Man" (Link Wray/Steve Verroca) - 4:22
8. "Precious Jewel" (Roy Acuff) - 2:14
9. "Days Before Custer" (Link Wray/Steve Verroca) - 4:01
10. "Gandy Dancer" (Link Wray/Bobby Howard/Steve Verroca) - 3:30

Personnel

• Link Wray - electric guitar, steel guitar, bass
• Doug Wray - rhythm guitar, background vocals
• Bobby Howard - keyboards,
• Bill Hodges - organ, piano, harmonica, background vocals
• Steve Verroca - drums, percussion, background vocals
• John Grummere - electric guitar, background vocals
• Norman Sue - bass, background vocals
• Ned Levin - background vocals
• Gene Johnson - lead & back-up vocals

Production

• Producer: Steve Verroca
• Recording Engineer: Chuck Irwin
• Mixing: Chuck Irwin
• Photography: unknown
• Art Design: unknown