In recent weeks I have went with bands that are a bit different or as calls them "whiney". 🤣
I had a chat with who did a good three tunes last week and I said to myself that this week I will go back to the man who got me into the guitar in the first place. A
Mr Rory Gallagher. A famous guitarist from Ireland who told his mother when he was 14 that he was going on tour. Rory was humble, quiet and unassuming but when he got on the stage, he put in some performance. Guitarists such as Slash and even Jimi Hendrix have Rory in their best guitarists of all time. When he was not touring, many of Rory's fans would call to his door in Douglas Cork and Rory would invite them in for a cup of tea and just talk music. How many rockstars would do that??
Sady Rory passed away in the late 80's but his music lives on and there is actually a Rory Gallagher festival every year that takes place in Ballyshannon in June. I'm gonna head this year. Tribute bands and Rory Gallagher fanatics head there and everyone just has a great time apparently so I will make my way up this year for the first time.
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Rory is famous for having the most beat up guitar in rock. His famous 1961 Fender Stratrocaster that he purchased in Crowleys music shop Cork in 1963 on credit. He was rarely separated from it and Fender even made a replica of the Strat with all its embellishments. A replica of the guitar also hangs on the corner of a street named after him in Templebar Dublin.
Rory was a proper rock n roller and he was a guitarists guitar player. There are a few players on Hive such as and
. But even when he is using things like a slide. He makes it look so bloody easy that it pisses me off. He does this thing as well where he does more with his right hand like pitched harmonics and muting certain strings that makes his sound different to the others.
His two best albums are live ones. Live in Europe and Irish Tour Live. He is one of the only musicians that is actually better live than in the studio because the songs are faster and he improvises which he was fantastic at. When I moved to Germany I got this flat beside a place called the Messe Grugga in Essen and it was like deja vue. I was landed in a city that I never heard of before but I heard of the fucking Messe Grugga. It annoyed me for a couple of years until one day I looked at the Live in Europe sleeve of his album. He bloody recorded most of it in the Messe Grugga Hall beside my flat.
I have 3 songs in mind for the best taster of Rory. You will feel sorry for his bassist and drummer trying to keep up with the guy. The little nods to them telling them they are going for another verse is always very funny because the two boys are wrecked. Ger McEvoy was considered one of the worlds best bassist and he was with Rory everywhere he went. He looks like he is just loving life. Two of the three songs have gone off Youtube so I had to source them. Now crank the volume up to 11. It's one more than ten, (It's Eleven) and sit back and enjoy.
1. Messing With The Kid
My favourite of his live performance is this one.
Messing With The Kid. I know the song title didn't date well and it is actually a cover of a really really old blues song but I thought it was unreal. There are so many versions of this on Youtube but this one is the best because it just cuts off the harmonica and the keyboard. It's just Rory and the two lads having a jam. After 3 minutes things start getting going and you see the real talent in action. I just love when he sings and plays the same notes on the guitar and then they are having such a jam that Rory decides to get the band to keep going. You have to smile. This was in the Beats Club in either Bremen or Berlin. The Germans loved him. Hope this one plays for you because it's awesome and I spent the whole of Saturday night until 3am searching for the fucking thing on the google.
https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x39qqp9
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2) Bullfrog Blues.
Another live version that was one of my favourite also disappeared off Youtube. Luckily a HD version of the whole concert replaced it. There is one song I love because the French crowd are rocking around him at the end and to be at the concert would have been magic. The 70's hairstyles are hilarious. It made the hair stand on my neck this one. It always makes me smile.
This song is the last one from minute 30.00 until the end. It's just a classic rock n roll song. He uses his slide for the solos in this song. It is just mad how good it sounds. Sliding is a craft and it takes years to master. Also if you watch the video now you know where AC/DC's lead guitarist got his little dance across the stage from. I just love how close the audience get to him. It's hilarious. Imagine that happening nowadays. He gets up on his amp at the end and there is this roadie holding onto it for dear life.
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Shadow Play
I loved this one because of the Mick Jagger stuff he was doing with his guitar in this live concert. It is a ten minuter. Worth the watch. During one of his solos he leaves the guitar face down on the ground and just goes off on a walk. He then starts giving out to it and goes back and gives it a tap. It makes a sound as if it doesn't want to get up. It is talking back to him. He starts pulling the wire reeling the guitar in and it starts making weird noises like some kind of monster. No wonder the guitar was in absolute shite. It's funny. Meanwhile his backing bands hands are falling off because the tempo is off the charts. You have to laugh at the level they were at as musicians. There are Youtube videos that study what he actually does. It reminds me of Voodoo Child by Hendrix where Fender engineers didn't know how Jimi got some sounds out of his guitar during the song. This video is the one video that you would think he is a bit full of himself but he would come off stage and be this shy guy again. Everyone loved him.
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So these are my three tune Tuesday for this week. Thanks to for being the hostess with the mostess with this weekly thing a majig.