Rock guitar pioneer Paul Burlison died at his Horn Lake home on Saturday after a lengthy battle with cancer, according to family. He was 74.

Known for his groundbreaking 1950s work in the Rock 'n' Roll Trio with siblings Johnny and Dorsey Burnette, David Paul Burlison played on many rockabilly classics including Tear It Up, Honey Hush, Lonesome Train (On a Lonesome Track), Rock Therapy, Lonesome Tears in My Eyes and the song most identified with the Memphis act, an unhinged version of Tiny Bradshaw's jump blues The Train Kept A-Rollin'.

The group, which "epitomized the primal yawp of rockabilly," according to writer Colin Escott, got its energy in part from the electric guitar parts played by Mr. Burlison, whose proto-distortion sound later become a hallmark of rock guitar.

According to Mr. Burlison, his raucous guitar sound was the result of a dropped amplifier at a concert. He liked the results so much, he subsequently jiggled the amp's tubes to replicate the fuzz tone in the studio.

His raw, steely approach influenced future guitarists, especially those from the British rock scene of the 1960s, including Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Eric Clapton. The Yardbirds, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith and Motoerhead are among the many rock bands that later covered the Rock 'n' Roll Trio's tunes, notably The Train Kept A-Rollin' right down to Burlison's oft-imitated guitar riffs.

Said Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page to The Commercial Appeal in 1998: "He (Burlison) was a massive influence to me . . . I don't let too many people play my guitar, but it'd be an honor if he played it."

Born in Brownsville, Tenn., Mr. Burlison moved with his family to Memphis in the mid-'30s. The onetime Golden Glove champion first met Dorsey Burnette in 1949 when both were amateur boxers.

After a short stint in the Navy, Mr. Burlison returned to Memphis and began playing with a country band. That inadvertently led to the guitarist sitting in with legendary bluesman Howlin' Wolf for several months on radio station KWEM in West Memphis and at various club dates.

Around the same time, Mr. Burlison also teamed up with the Burnettes, playing with the siblings for the next few years while he and Dorsey held down day jobs at Crown Electric Co.

Spurred on by the musical success of another onetime Crown employee, Elvis Presley, the trio took a similar stab at fame and moved to New York City, where they auditioned for Ted Mack's Amateur Hour, a nationally broadcast show they won three weeks in a row in 1956.

Recording for Decca subsidiary Coral, the group made a little over two dozen sides between May 1956 and March 1957, after which the trio split up.

Mr. Burlison went back to electrical engineering and opened his own construction/realty company in 1972, which he maintained until the end of his life.

The last surviving member of the Rock 'n' Roll Trio, Mr. Burlison came out of musical retirement when reissues of the group's tunes found their way into the repertoire of the late '70s/early '80s rockabilly revival (the Stray Cats were another group heavily informed by the Trio's legacy).

He toured England and Europe numerous times, performed with the Sun Rhythm Section and, in 1997, recorded a solo album, "Train Kept A-Rollin'," that featured members of Los Lobos and The Band.

His latest album, "Rock-A-Billy Country" was recorded at Sun Studio with rockabilly veterans W. S. 'Fluke' Holland and Jerry Lee 'Smoochy' Smith. Mr. Burlison most recently performed at the Memphis Music & Heritage Festival in August.

Mr. Burlison is survived by sisters Virginia Brook of Southaven and Nora Hunt of Horn Lake; son David Paul Burlison Jr. of Germantown; daughters Deborah Stafford of Lake Cormorant, Laurie Hylander of Walls, Mary Lisa Goff of Horn Lake and Holly Moore of Walls; 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

The viewing will be 5-8 p.m. Monday at Forest Hill Funeral Home South.