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Quickly following in the footsteps of a trio of Rory Gallagher releases over the past two years, a new album ‘Best of’ offers an excellent compilation of the guitar master’s work.
The dozen solo studio albums made during his lifetime and the support of his band Taste are distilled into a 30-track compilation that offers both a comprehensive representation of his studio recordings and the different faces of Gallagher, who died in 1995. in the 47 years.
While other recent releases were firmly aimed at die-hard Rory fans, The Best of Rory Gallagher offers an entry point to a new generation of music fans.
The compilation also drops a previously unreleased shot of Gallagher’s work on Jerry Lee Lewis’ 1973 album Sessions, which sees the man from Cork singing and playing the Rolling Stones’ (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction ‘.
The year before, Gallagher had been featured on Muddy Waters’ London Sessions album, and with a similar approach, ‘The Killer’ found himself assisted by top British musicians such as Peter Frampton, Albert Lee and Kenney Jones in the English capital.
Daniel Gallagher, Rory’s nephew and Best of Rory Gallagher compiler, tells the story of that unique recording and shares his thoughts on some of the album’s tracks.
“While they were in the studio they were nominating songs to record and then someone said Mick Jagger could come to the sessions. And Jerry Lee Lewis said, ‘Okay, we have to do a Stones song with him. “Looks like Rory or the producer nominated ‘Satisfaction.’
“But Jerry Lee Lewis didn’t know exactly what it was like. I guess Rory or someone started playing the song so they could hear it go and shout the lyrics and apparently Jerry Lee Lewis was appalled at how suggestive they were. A surprise considering ‘Big balls of fire!’ Apparently, he felt the musicians were cheating on them.
“So he turned to Rory, and obviously Rory is very nice and polite, and he said, ‘Is this a real song? Is it true? Can you sing it for me?’ “And there’s a great picture of Rory standing over Jerry Lee Lewis as Jerry Lee Lewis looks at him and Rory sings it to him.
“I heard an interview with Rory and Rory said Jerry Lee said, ‘Can you come in and sing the first take so I can hear how the tune goes?’ “I’m sure he was very nervous about it, but he came in and did the guitar and vocals on the first take with Jerry Lee joining him. And it was eventually lost on tape in the Universal archives in America and luckily I managed to locate it. When I heard Rory’s interview saying he had done a take, I thought, I have to find this tape somewhere, and thankfully it still existed.
“You always worry when you hear something like that that it’s really only half a take, and they don’t finish the song. But the fact that it was a full take was really fantastic.
“Albert Lee and Peter Frampton were in the session and they’re both on the track. I think the only thing missing from the track is a really good solo from Rory, but instead you get a Jerry Lee Lewis Fender Rhodes keyboard.”
“It is the only cover [on the ‘Best of’] besides ‘Satisfaction’ and ‘Catfish’, which is a traditional blues. With ‘All Around Man’, I think these are Rory’s best studio blues recordings.
“It’s a song that sounds so good. It’s really interesting. It’s an old Bo Carter song, but Rory practically rewrote the lyrics. Because the original is quite suggestive of what the man around might be doing with the wife and Rory takes it. in your own style.
“Unlike other bands that didn’t give credit to the original blues artist that they covered and claimed as their own songs, Rory could rewrite the whole song and still know that the inspiration is Bo Carter. He still gives her credit for the song. I think it’s a really cool track.
“I was trying to think of a really brilliant studio blues song, because I think Rory, when you live, you get things like ‘I wonder who’ and ‘What in the world.’ Playing those songs live, the blues guitar work he does is just phenomenal. And I thought that for one in study this is my favorite. His slide solos are really great.
“I was thinking about what would and wouldn’t go in and the last one to go in was ‘Cruise On Out’ from the Photo-Finish album. He was pitching it with a couple of others.
“It’s a really fun song with great lyrics. Again, it showed a different side of Rory because it’s almost rockabilly. So it’s not like a rock song or a blues song.
“It’s a fun rockabilly song about Fats Domino and those kinds of artists. And I know my dad [Rory’s brother and tour manager Donal] He’s a huge fan so I put it on him. I think that’s what influenced him.
“Being a ‘Best Of’ I would hate for that if it was strictly blues. Hopefully to broaden Rory’s fan base and the arrival of new people, I don’t want them to think that Rory was just heartfelt, painful blues songs about a broken heart. So I picked some really fun and upbeat songs like ‘Edged in Blue’, Cruise on Out ‘and’ Philby ‘.
The variety of the collection is important. You can hear on ‘Cruise on Out’ how much fun she has playing that song, so it deserved to go in.
“When you talk about the best guitarist in the world and whatever, they have a lot of strings in their bow, but I think Rory is quite extraordinary in the different attributes that he brings to the guitar, and that’s why ‘Out of My Mind’ was on. .
“Because his finger on it, it’s almost a Doc Watson country blues song. I’d be very surprised if some of the other guitarists could fall for that country blues, a really fast finger style, like Rory. He really nailed it. And that. he is there to show the diversity of his interpretation. “
“It is such a beautiful song. Rory did a really good line in a kind of heartbroken melancholic song, like ‘A Million Miles Away’. You always have to find a good place in “Best of” to place them. You can’t open it with it. [chuckles]. You can’t open a ‘Best of’ with him and then everyone feels sad about themselves.
“It does some really good ones and I thought ‘I Fall Apart’ is the best to include.” ‘It’s Happened Before, It’ll Happen Again’ “I wanted to showcase Rory’s sax skills from his Taste days. It was either that or ‘On the Boards’ by On the Boards, and I love the riff of ‘It Happened Before …’
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