IN
an age where appearance has
at least as much as do with an artist's success as his music, it's both
curious and refreshing to be confronted by the essential Rory Gallagher.
Curious because the
trend is towards more of a dressy stage appearance nowadays, and
refreshing because Rory has attained that most elusive of goals, that
of being unique through being natural.
Rory Gallagher was born, at a very young age, in Ballyshannon, Ireland,
and soon thereafter, his family relocated in Cork. Ireland being a
beehive of shipping, young Rory was soon exposed to the music of
America via country and western music, as well as the blues of Muddy
Waters, Leadbelly and countless others introduced into Ireland by
American sailors. These influences, combined with the rock of Elvis
Presley, Fats Domino, and Bill Haley, helped shape the musical
philosophy of Rory, and they're roots that he's never deserted.
Unfortunately, as Rory headed into his teens and hit the boards with a
band for the first time; the music he preferred to play wasn't too
popular with Irish promoters; what was (and still is) popular were
'showbands', groups that played the top AM hits of the day like so many
mindless monkeys. So, faced with the decision of playing either
something he didn't like or not playing at all, Rory joined a showband.
It was a valuable time for him in that he became accustomed to working
very frequently in a lot of places, an opportunity that comes all too
infrequently to Irish musicians. "It's very hard to make it using
Ireland as 'a base," maintains Rory; "bands usually have to go to
England and work up through the English circuit ... a lot of Irishmen
don't like to leave Ireland and live in England, and when they do,
they've got to go through a lot of starvation and all the rest of
it to make it. Even the cost of going from Ireland to England for a
young struggling musician is quite a bit."
However musically unfulfilling the showband ultimately was for Rory, it
became a direct path to Taste, the first major rock band he was a
member of. Again, though, the band had to do it from England, where
work was more plentiful. It was 1969, and the guitar-bass-drum lineup
was all the rage in England; Taste, with the blistering guitar lines
and throaty vocals of Rory Gallagher, became a standard carrier for the
movement. However, Taste failed to make a lasting impression in
America, where Led Zeppelin, Cream and others like them were being
greeted as the Second Coming. Looking back, armed with the knowledge of
more than ten years on the road, Rory questioned only the business
handling of the band, never its music: "If we'd had more of a chance to
gauge management and things like that, we probably would've stayed
together a bit longer and done better in the States ... I mean, we only
did one tour of the States, with Blind Faith, whereas we should've come
over and worked at it more, 'cuz that was the year of Ten Years After
and bands like that ... "
Once more, a setback turned out to be a blessing. Taste had proven to
one and all that Rory Gallagher as singer-songwriter-musician was a
force to be reckoned with, capable of generating enormous energy on
stage. With the demise of Taste, Rory became a "solo artist," forming a
band consisting of himself, Wilgar Campbell on drums and Gerry McAvoy
on bass, and a new slice of Rory was unveiled to the public; this
version was subtler, relying on a mixture of acoustic and electric
instrumentation to more fully present the music.
And he toured. A lot. In England, Europe and America; he became a
legend of sorts by giving a "lengthy New Years Day concert in Belfast a
couple of years back, the first live music that sad city had heard in
almost two years. At the time, he said he didn't know what all the fuss
was about; sure, there were all the obvious dangers, but the kids
deserved a concert, and Rory remembered being one of those kids. There
are more roots than musical ones that help comprise Rory's philosophy,
and that's the real strength of his music. It's built on a firm
foundation and tapped into a current of honest emotion that glows like
a coal on stage.
In the five years
that Rory Gallagher has been a solo artist, he and his band (Lou Martin
was
added on keyboards in 1973) have recorded eight albums. Their music is
as
timeless and as consistent as the tide; punchy, no-frills rock,
flavored by the
blues and garnished with some country and western. The albums have
delivered
some songs that are the essence of good rock: 'Laundromat,' 'Used To
Be,' 'Walk
On Hot Coals,' 'Tattoo'd Lady,' 'Let Me In' ... the list goes on and
on.
Rory Gallagher's
critics claim that he's too plain, he lacks charisma, his music is too
restrictive. Maybe. But the effects they miss are only useful insofar
as they
augment the music, and on-stage acting in costumes serves the same
purpose;
nobody's ever going to shell out $6.50 to watch a set of spotlights and
laser beams playing over an empty stage. Rory
Gallagher set his course long ago, and has been patiently following it
ever
since. "I'm prepared to wait a longish time to do it right, y'know, and
whenever I hit that point, wherever that point is, I want it to make
sense." To a lot of people,
Rory Gallagher adds up quite nicely right now. Among his other
achievements,
he was a recent winner in The Melody Maker Pop Poll as
Best Guitarist, he's been a requested sideman on albums by Muddy Waters
and Jerry Lee Lewis, he's been invited to jam on stage at the Montreux
Jazz Festival, etc. , etc.
He'll probably be a bit embarrassed by my listing these items like a
roll call,
but that's just the way he is. To
paraphrase the inscrutable Mr. Zappa, Rory Gallagher's only in it for
the
music; the extras are just that....extra.
Rory Gallagher
represents that school of thought in rock that maintains that music is
made by
regular people for regular people, and it's kinda false to make
an artist into
some unattainable idol. Rory Gallagher has always been, and always will
be,
that kid down the street who's in a band. But that kid has placed his
fingers
on a pulse that is common to all ages in all places. He
plays like he's 15 going on 105. And always will.
'
-JIM KOZLOWSKI- From
the October 1976 issue of Rock Around the World, a
music monthly from Boston
reformatted by roryfan
