RORY GALLAGHER

[V8]

In 1977 I was trying to throw together a band and every once in a while a friend would drop into play some harp ,one day he brought over an album of Rory's Calling Card ( produced by Roger Glover) That was the end , put down the SG and got a strat ..picked up Photo Finish, Top Priority,Blue Print,Against the Grain, and later Jinx all on vinyl of course. Regrettably never saw him perform

[yngwie308]

Very cool V8, Rory and his Strat were inseparable, he was one of that guitars greatest exponents.
yngwie308

[NY Chief]

yup!!!!!!!!!!!

[Tone Slinger]

Just talked to a Scottsman (50 somethingyrs old)this morning, who was performing at my son's school this morning. I Know RORY was Irish, but NORTHERN Irish (Belfast) I think (protestant/Scottish). I mentioned Rory, and this guy responded, "Oh yeah, a Wild Man !" I knew what he meant, recollecting in my mind those live 'Messin with the Kid" solo's.

[NY Chief]

He still had the fire even when he got sick.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0if87pp8m8

Here's one for fill!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_3Yerm9 ... re=related

and Rory's last TV appearance...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCFdR388 ... re=related

[csteward]

Just picked up Tattoo on Vinyl. I could have got more Rory albums since they had them, but I was buying other records too, and I was running out of cash fast.


I believe that Rory and Phil Lynott were the best musicians to come out of Ireland.

[yngwie308]

Rory and Phil were beyond mere musicians, they were/are giants amongst Irishmen and continue to provide inspiration for countless others who follow.
Although their personal lives were not very happy, to say the least, their enormous contributions and sacrifice for their art, makes them modern day legends.
Truly we are blessed to have lived through these times with them and I was so fortunate to see Rory in his prime, just out of Taste and with his new band.
Every song was so good and I actually enjoyed the acoustic/harp driven numbers, being such an electric purist at the time, it was a revelation for me to experience such pure blues and music delivered from the soul, with no dilution. And his playing on that battered (even then!!) Strat, was legendary to me, I enjoyed the pinch harmonics (the first I had heard, before even ZZ Top) and the power of his compositions. They were deceptively simple, yet strangely complex.
Rory was a triple threat as a blues man, powerful singing and guitar playing and songwriting. He had no weaknesses in any area!
I still remember a handful of powerful concerts/gigs and Rory's London show that night will last me a lifetime of memories.I vaguely remember the pub, it was triangulated on the corner of two streets, I will have to research it, but I think Islington on the off chance.
He had the AC30 on a chair and no Bassman for that gig.
The first album was out and he was touring around that. I remember Laundromat, as one of the tunes I really liked at that time.
Phil Lynott,, was truly a man out of his time. The darkest son of Ireland, as Gary Moore referred to him in the song Blood of Emeralds, was a walking enigma, powerful as a bandleader and at one with his vision of Lizzy, yet weak as we all are, human with faults, yet able to transcend them, time after time. Just to do one more show, to finish that song, ect.
The more I have read about Phil, it does little to tarnish my image of him, the same with Rory. These were men with musical visions and they lived their lives in the reality of these visions, different yet eerily similar.
Phil's Thin Lizzy was such a powerful band and I remember being in London and Lizzy fans were just that wee bit different than other fans.
They had a harder edge, a rougher exterior, that was almost a reflection of their bands tunes. The denim jackets, with all the patches, I remember and the hard drinking and often fighting, which the drinking I participated in, not the fighting, as that isn't really in my nature.
I never saw Lizzy in the times I was in London, they hadn't broken as wide as later and I was back on the Island.
I just downloaded a Hammersmith Odeon show from 1977, that is just as great as the Live and Dangerous set. This was a band to be reckoned with, and my personal opinion is that with Gary Moore, the band wasn't at its zenith. He is to strong a personality and the clashing with Phil, at that time, led to him replacing Brian and then baling when he had his own issues and couldn't handle the stress of the band and their wild partying.
Those were the days when bands really lived their music and Guns and Roses aside, the result was often mercurial and produced brilliant music that was short lived and burned out quickly, the candle lit at both ends.
Phil was like Bob Dylan in his poetry, yet he tried to live out the narratives of his wild tunes and often tore his flesh on the sharp barbs of the events of these incredible songs. Nobody gets out of here alive, I believe the song goes and it was true for Phil.
That Gary Moore really cared for Phil and offered him the opportunity to share in his success, I have no doubt. When he asked Phil to join him for the Out In The Fields, Military Man sessions, Phil seemed to do all he could to self-destruct the events and even took cash from Ten Records, Gary's label at the time, in a pitiful amount, probably just for drug money, more than likely. Chris O'Donnell, his manager at times, cringed with the memory of the way Phil had sold himself short. Then he partied through the recording sessions with Gary and was too wasted most of the time, so Gary toured without him. The Emerald Isles tour. If you watch the video from that tour, you can see the whole dynamics of his relationship with Gary. Then only one year later, as he lay dying, the whole thing was too painful for Gary to deal with and Gary's absence from Phil's funeral, I totally understand.
The brilliant album Wild Frontier produced as basically a tribute to Gary and Phil's tempestuous musical relationship and strained friendship, stands as Gary's most powerful work to this date, with the great input of Neil Carter.
That Rory, who was the most vehement anti-drug person out there, would succumb to complications from prescription drug issues, which weakened his immune system post organ transplant, is unfortunately very ironic.
That Phil would lose his life in a lost battle with drug addiction, always seemed to be on the cards and was no great surprise when it did happen, but still was shocking for one so young to be taken.
You can't convince me that drugs are artistically enhancing for the creative
artist and that the artist falls easy prey to them, is the tragedy of all this.
Phil said in regards to substance abuse, his name was "Phil Why Not."
It only makes me hate drugs all the more and I am angry that they cause so much misery, mostly to the loved ones left behind as well.
I have mixed emotions listening to the works of both these Irish brothers, but mostly joy from experiencing the real soul and emotion that they so accurately portray in their music and share with us unselfishly.
I often think of those great rock formations, the great giant steps out into the Irish sea, and think that these are paths for these great sons of Ireland to walk out and remain in our hearts and souls, forever.
We will miss them terribly, yet they are always among us in their music.
yngwie308

[NY Chief]

More KILLER Rory.

NO one put more heart in his playing than Rory

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33Jaodra7AY


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1zsRRt1 ... re=related


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYYbK2sD ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fhxa572B ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ECMzXBQ ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmLu-4Iz ... re=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yr2bILCU ... re=related

[NY Chief]

Last TV session?

Humble (and great!) to the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCFdR388 ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

and moonchild, one of my favorites...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ShTaAuYcIlY" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[yngwie308]

Awesome Mike, it is never too often to remember the Protestant Irishman Rory Gallagher, who I first hear pinched harmonics from, not the Rev. Willy G!!
Love ya Rory!!
Dave

[Brian Wallace]

I just came across a 1982 Fender catalog I have that has Rory on the back cover.

[Tone-Freak]

I saw Rory two times once in the early 70's in a large bar in Houston. Freakin unbelivable. I thought his studio stuff was great but OMG live wow. Played his heart and soul out for like four hours of loud soulful bluse and rock. Then in the 80's unbelivable again so wailing you could not talk which I loved but my girlfriend hated Another great 4 hour show WOW

[carlygtr56]

I've always been a Rory fan and have collected his shows thru the years.

Seen him three times. The first at MSG, just after the Live album was out, maybe 72 or 73. Great show.
Saw him in 76 at Shea Stadium , then in the 80's at My Fathers Place in Roslyn, NY

[NY Chief]

....ever since I seen his bassman head literally erupt in flames on In Concert!

[yngwie308]

Here is a cool clip about Rory's original battered Strat...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxWi_FPa ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lr5ZtZMB ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nqsVgul ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCAk-_ms ... re=related" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
yngwie308