L.P.BLOCKBUSTER
Gallagher- The best things
that happened to Irish beat
For many weeks people asked: What's going on? Where has Gallagher got himself to? Is he recording? Has he got a new band? He was recording, of course. The result is ten tracks on an album titled simply 'Rory Gallagher'.
If you know Rory from Taste, well the new Gallagher is not very far removed. Here he plays lead guitar, alto sax, harmonica, mandolin and sings ten of his self penned, self-produced songs. It's just the greatest thing to happen to Irish beat since Van Morrison came up with 'Astral Weeks'.
A track-by-track look:
SIDE ONE
Laundromat: Opens a bit like 'What's Going On' - a fast driving number with some really exciting guitar patches from Rory. It's a half-rock, half-bluesy piece... "Baby bad times come and go, don't have no clothes to put in the machine. Down and out like an old stray cat', Rory sings of having a bad time...
Just The Smile: Acoustic guitar intro, it's an easy-on-the-ear melody that swings along nicely. Some very effective bongo playing from Wilgar Campbell (I think) as Rory sings about a girl whose personality and smile can warm up a room.
I Fall Apart: Nice lyrics on my favourite track of the ten, with some really great guitar from Rory. Opens gently, but builds as Rory sings about his run-around love. Closes with an amazing build-up on guitar that sounds like a thousand strings. A Rory Gallagher love song is about the best description I can give this number.
Wave Myself Goodbye: To use Rory's own words, Vincent Crane plays some nice 1928 blues piano on this the first real blues thing on the album. It's a bit like "At the Bottom' - the solo thing Rory used to do with Taste. Grows on you with every play.
Hands Up: Back to a kind of Taste thing with Rory punching home the lyrics on a number in which the new men really come into their own. Great overall sound. It's hard to notice any real difference here from the Wilson/McCracken set-up.
SIDE TWO
Sinner Boy: Easy guitar intro with Rory singing out front. This is the fav number of a large number of people I played the album to. Again there are shades of Taste.
For the Last Time: This is very much Rory Gallagher from beginning to end. His solo on this one is really something. He takes the guitar from one end of the scale to the other and it's a real delight. This is a long track--over six minutes- but not a second is wasted.
It's You: Kind of country feel about this and Rory sings in a very relaxed style. It's a happy-go-lucky type of number strongly featuring the mandolin. A very good track, it not outstanding.
I'm Not Surprised: Atomic Rooster star Vincent Crane strongly featured again here on the second bluesy thing. It's a catchy melody that stays in your mind with Rory singing very well.
Can't Believe It's True: The longest track at 7:15 it features a beautiful sax solo by Rory. It's a bit like the title track from 'On The Boards', but faster. Strong guitar solo here too with the Cork lad really showing us what guitar playing is all about.
There may not be a 'Same Old Story' on it or maybe it's going to take a lot more plays before a real lasting Gallagher track shows up. It's certain to be a massive seller and one that will put the Cork lad on the very short list of super group stars.
Pat Egan
STUD- A SURPRISE
Stud took me by surprise. I suppose I expected a taste of Taste and here and there, I got it. But otherwise, their new album is a mixture of lovely songs and one piece of self-indulgent non-music.
I can't get over the musical delightfulness of Turn Over the Pages and Song, both acoustic tracks. Maybe I have a hang-up about acoustic music, but they sound so much better when they are gentle and writing melodics rather than stereophonics.
The lyrics, too, are most appealing and they manage a nice fusion of hard and soft in Horizon- one of the two long tacks on the album.
The other mammoth track is called 1112235. It is piece of musical nonsense really. It features percussion (good percussion at that), but as a musical piece, it is a joke and a long one at that. It seems such a pity to make a good album and throw in something which might appear to be avant-garde, in fact almost de rigeur, and find that it rings hollow.
Inevitably, a certain amount of hang-over from Taste shows through here and there, but I think Stud are and will be far more listenable than Taste ever were.
Perhaps it is because no one person dominates Stud, Richie McCracken and John Wilson play to one another quite naturally and Jim Cregan has a voice that can go from folk to rock effortlessly and his guitar playing is complementary rather than obtrusive.
On the face of this album, Stud should be very big. Certainly their music is taking in lots of variation, which is very good and if they continue along what seems to be their instinctive lines, rather than the Tasty memory, they must have their place in the forefront of progressive groups.
Shay Healy
These articles come from issue Volume 4 #48 of New Spotlight 1971 (Ireland)
reformatted by roryfan
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added 2/19/12