Santa at last gave me this DVD, although the Santa looked not unlike me. As with Rory Gallagher Live at the Rock Palast, this collection of electrifying performances once again sets the standard that others should aspire to, although many of them clearly do not even try. It also reminds me, miserable old sod that I am, why I find it so hard to get worked up about bands such as Maximo Park, Coldplay, Embrace, the Doves, the sad American geek punkers like Fall Out Boy, Bowling For Soup, no-hopers like Linkin Park and Green Day and, going back, such appalling aural assaults such as the hugely over-rated Clash and 99% of those pathetic punk rockers. Why are they all such feeble musicians? Why can none of the bass players play bass? Anybody put on their Slits or Adverts LP lately? No? Never Mind the Bollocks? No? The only thing to say about the Sex Pistols is that they were like Motorhead but without the talent , the skill or visual charm.
Those of you familiar with Rory know the score. The first concerts contain the ultimate Rory line-up of Gerry McAvoy, Lou Martin and Rod De'Ath, the latter being surely among the few top rock/blues drummers ever. The first three concerts, from '75, '77 and '79 are really exciting and brilliant, with Laundromat from the 75 concert being one of the best live performances I have ever seen. I am also reminded just how good, witty and musically skilful Rory's own songs are. Also simply hypnotising are Tatoo'd Lady, Take What I Want, Do You Read me and Calling Card (from Calling Card) and all the acoustic numbers. Bankers Blues (Broonzy) and Pistol Slapper Blues (Fuller) are both fantastic, holding the audience spellbound with his acoustic guitar and voice alone.
As most of you know, Rory didn't like pedals or effects at all, so one has many opportunities to see how he uses the tone and volume controls on the guitar with his right hand to produce the sounds he wants, plus a whole variety of "pick" harmonics and use of amp/guitar. As the tone, volume and harmonics change about every five seconds while he plays some incomprehensibly good solo, you suddenly realise why all the Van Halens and Satrianis and Vais, with 8 million pedals and effects, and miles of widdly-woo, are so unsatisfying - it doesn't mean anything. It's just watch-me notes.
Gerry McAvoy's bass is just sensational and his bitter sweet memoir of over 20 years on the road with Rory, including 30 American tours, is well worth reading. It's called "Riding Shotgun".
I cannot single out any particular track because they are all exceptional, and perhaps Rory's exuberant rendition of his hero Muddy Waters' Garbage Man sums up the band and the man: Rory adored urban and country blues and always considered that the proponents, Muddy, Blind Boy Fuller, BB King, Freddie King, Big Bill Broonzy, Leadbelly, Lighting Hopkins and so on were in a different league from him. Not so. Rory brought back the exciting blast of music that was made to be danced to and to be celebrated that somehow got lost in many of the po-faced purist interpreters. We should remember that the magnificent Robert Johnson, for example, played for dances and weddings and in juke joints, not in a sterile "I got de blooze" atmosphere.
I have to say that the last full concert shows a Rory that saddens me. Of course he's better than most people will ever dream of being, of course he loves it and gives it his all - but he looks ill and his hands have liver spots. How guilty do we all feel that Rory sat alone in a dismal flat in London for a couple of years, virtually unvisited, and the year after this he was to die? How sad is it that all those who eulogised him after his death (no names, but "you two" know who you are) never mentioned him when he was alive or even half-alive? All those Irish rock concerts with the dreaded U2, the dreaded Van Morrison, the dreaded Water Boys and the dreaded Sinead O'Connor - but no mention of Rory. However, on the last full concert he does pull out a version of Leadbelly's "Out on the Western Plain" which has some of the best acoustic playing I have seen and blows away, on its own, almost the entite opus of the above roster of Gaelic funsters. I should mention for the musos that Rory uses 4 tunings, standard, open G open D and open E, and that on six electric numbers he plays some of the finest slide guitar you'll ever hear this side of Elmore James or Ry Cooder, sometimes in standard tuning like Jeff Beck. Wonderful.
I remember the excellent Ray Coleman in the old Melody Maker (Ray was articulate, literate and intelligent, like Chris Welch of the same paper. These are now unpopular traits)) telling the tale that at one of the Montreux Jazz Festivals, 1975, the famous American jazz guitarist Larry Coryell (of 11th House fame) was jamming around with other jazzers in a noodling way to a very restless crowd. Along came Rory in his checked shirt, jeans and plimsolls and took the riff by the scruff of its neck, set it going, and presided over one of the best impromptu sets of any Montreux Jazz Festival, still remembered as a lifetime high-spot by many.
He got to play with his hero Muddy Waters (his other huge white influence was Lonnie Donegan) at the London Sessions (available on CD and good in places, but not stunning) and it stands out a mile that of all the usual suspects, Rory learnt from Muddy immediately and played accordingly. He tells how even watching Muddy tune up sent shivers down his spine, like meeting God and being asked to help out.
No, Rory was not about striking attitudes, or being a professionally rude and grumpy grumpy rock star or saving the world, or insulting public figures with the cover of fame to protect him. He was about playing the best, most exciting rock and blues ever and this DVD confirms it with no further words needed. How in God's name all those who claim to have been influenced by Rory can say that, when their playing is so anodyne and lacking in real feeling is beyond me. As always, the viewer is left with a huge sense of loss that Rory died so young, a victim, ultimately, of the grape and the barley. Ironically, two of the bonus acoustic tracks are his own Grape and Barley Blues (covered by the Dubliners, yet) and Tony Joe's Too much Alcohol.
The world lost one of its greatest players and, importantly, nicest and kindest people in 1995: thank God these tapes are surfacing so that others can see what it was like to be in the presence of a master. He didn't change the world, he just made it better.
If you don't believe me, get this DVD and just watch the 75 and 77 concerts. If you can still listen to the Clash, or the Doves, or Coldplay, or Babyshambles, or Green Day, or Lifehouse, or Yellow Card or Embrace, or (shudder) the Magic Numbers without cringing at how much we have recessed musically, I will personally refund the price you paid for the DVD. I have done my best with all these bands and have seen many of them live (the Clash exerience still makes me wake up in a cold sweat, thinking I have died and gone to Hell and watched some hellish rehearsal of no-hopers in Dinton Village Hall) but they are all so feeble compared to this quality. They would have been booed off any stage in any small village hall in the 60s. Not Rory. Oh no, not Rory.
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Outstanding
Special Effects
Good
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Not applicable
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Excellent
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occasions spanning his breakthrough years in the mid seventies right up to the year before his tragic early death at the age of 47 in 1995. This double DVD brings to...
