Rory Gallagher and the Irish Blues

My memories begin sometime in the early seventies with the “reckless” purchase of a record, Deuce. I say “reckless” only because at the time, long before even imagining a world with all current connections, a record was bought just for the cover, for the name of the artist, by hearsay.  The discovery was a musician with a disruptive emotional charge, a rocker capable of passing from the biting and powerful electric sound of his Stratocaster to the unusual sound (for an Italian teenager at the time) of an acoustic. He wasn’t even ashamed to bring a mandolin to the stage… in the blues! His strength was the same as Big Bill Broonzy or Freddie King, and he was also a devil with a slide.

Twenty years later, a certain number of guitars and many plays behind me, I found myself at the Pistoia Blues Festival listening to him on stage, waiting to find out if he would grant an interview for the magazine Chitarre, which publishes my articles. The Fender Stratocaster is the same as always with the paint almost totally stripped from use. The instrument has become a real icon after historical performances such as the one at the Isle of Wight Festival with Taste.

The meeting takes place in the hotel where Gallagher stays the day after the Pistoia show. He was on fire as usual at the concert, in the best tradition of an artist used to always giving 120% on stage. And his form is pretty good, considering the questionable physical condition of a man awaiting a liver transplant, following the fate of several other colleagues who paid the price for years of alcohol or drug abuse [sic].

The year after, he has the operation, but, unfortunately, the related complications definitively interrupt his path, taking him away in 1995 at only 47 years old. On the day of his death, all Irish television channels and even the BBC will interrupt their programme. His funeral will be broadcast live nationally.

In the summer of 1994, therefore, Gallagher tells me how happy he is with the revived interest in the blues thanks to the wave ridden by Stevie Ray Vaughan, after the boom of New Wave, the spread of synths and drum machines, and, finally, of what he calls “racing guitarists with their Floyd Rose levers.

Below is the interview, which was first published in Chitarre n. 104 (accompanied by musical notation in the original article)

I CAN’T STAND PURISTS

… Even the new generations are passionate about the blues. I have never changed genre. There was a time when, besides me, there were only Johnny Winter, the Fabulous Thunderbirds, John Hammond… these people allowed the blues to go on. And then, of course, Albert Collins, B.B.King… But at that time the blues was still relegated to a corner: now it is spread everywhere.

Yes, every now and then someone rediscovers that the blues is the basis of everything and people are surprised.

Of course. Take Gary Moore… at first he delves into these Eddie Van Halen tricks trying to learn them all, then one morning he wakes up realising it’s a dead end and goes back to the Les Paul and a little amp. Now he’s with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker… they’re not a proper blues band but the music they play is very close, you know Cream…

You mentioned Johnny Winter. The other night I thought you were quite similar in terms of the avalanche of energy discharged on stage, both on the guitar and in singing…

We both play pretty aggressively, we both love slide, but… we’re definitely different. For example, I write ninety percent of the things I play, Johnny doesn’t. He remains largely in the blues canon, while I also use some phrasing taken from jazz, from folk. Maybe I’m a bit more versatile but he’s a fantastic musician: he’s great! If there’s one thing I can’t stand it’s purists … I’ve studied all kinds of blues, Carolina, Chicago, Delta, ragtime blues … I know this music like any other expert … But I like Eddie Cochran, so what? Django Reinhardt, flamenco, so what? What’s wrong with that?

MOTHER IRELAND

Ireland is a rather interesting place for music. My personal impression is that in the Irish tradition, in its great emotionality, there are many points of contact with the spirit of the blues.

If we talk about sadness and melancholy, Ireland is certainly rich in it, if only for its difficult history, and in our music there is enough complexity and use of minor keys to be able to easily define a certain parallel with the blues. This is if we want to see it in an academic way. But there is so much more in Ireland …

However, the impression is that Irish music in general is alive, that it has a soul …

It has a soul, yes. Kids learn on cheap instruments, women play the tin whistle … there is also a great tradition of unaccompanied a cappella music.

What’s really striking is the strength of all the bands that have layered on the revitalization of tradition, starting with Planxty, Bothy Band, etc… and then U2. What do you think of The Edge? He is definitely a very different guitarist from you.

I know The Edge. We have opened some of their concerts. He told me that at first he also played some of my pieces, then he found his style with the use of echo that is characteristic of him … he is a great musician with an original style and also a good person. For me, it is a compliment that he started playing partly with my stuff.

Going back a bit to the beginnings … the English guitarists, Clapton & co. say that as children they listened to the blues on the radio for the first time, especially Radio Luxembourg. Was it the same for you or is your story different?

More ‘or less the same. I listened to Lonnie Donegan’s skiffle and he did songs by Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly… then on the radio I discovered Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Chuck Berry. In Ireland it was quite difficult to find blues records and so I only put together a small collection when I went to England.

And when you started playing, was there competition with English musicians?

Not so much competition, as … it was difficult to break through in England because … well, between Ireland and England there was always a certain friction, you know, but little by little I managed to find a space. At the time, I also went to Hamburg.

AS AGGRESSIVE AS NECESSARY

You are self-taught on the guitar. What are the main influences in your electric style?

Let me think, there are many … from Jimmy Reed to Elmore James, Buddy Guy, Freddie King, Albert Collins … There is not a single guitarist that I have copied or followed in particular to learn phrasing, slide technique … I like what John Lee Hooker says with the chords, his suspended fourths. I like to use licks that don’t necessarily come from blues scales, to invent something different.

There is also a certain Hendrixian touch in the way you sometimes mishandle the guitar. You are much closer to Hendrix than to Clapton with his legendary aplomb …

I don’t use tremolo like Jimi, but maybe I have his same aggressiveness on the instrument, I use some little tricks. In the beginning Eric played much harder, then he got a little into the figure of JJ.Cale … on stage he hardly moves at all. Indeed, he is quite close to the character of the English gentleman.

LIVED INSTRUMENTS AND LITTLE MORE

I see you are still using your famous “battered” Strat on stage. It’s a guitar that’s a few years old now …

It is from 61. I bought it used in 63 (at the age of fourteen, editor’s note). The pickups are the original ones but the coils have been rewound and the frets on the fretboards are now bigger, like the Gibson ones.

On stage you had both Marshalls and a Vox AC30 …

I use the Vox for the timbre and the Marshalls for the volume. The signal from my guitar is separated by a special box and goes, on the one hand, to the two Marshalls (50 watts and 100 watts with 4 x 12 ″ speakers), and on the other to the Vox which provides the mid frequencies, then, it blends these sounds appropriately. The Vox alone is not powerful enough for gigs like this, Marshalls can scream a lot but, especially with the Strat, they are often too sharp … the mids of the AC3O help to soften the sound. The volume is seven for both amps. If you go further, the sound loses too much definition… and then the volume level on the guitar varies a lot. In the studio it’s different, I almost always use the Vox, but also some small amps that I don’t bring on stage, Fender Tweed …

What about the other instruments you brought with you?

A Telecaster they gave me with a Seymour Duncan and a Gibson, my white Tele, also from ’62 or ’63, and a Gretsch Corvette with P-90 pickups. I removed the original ones because they sounded interesting but good bad enough for the slide. Then, an acoustic Takamine and also my old Martin mandolin which, however, I could not use due to time pressure.

Do you use very thick strings?

Just enough. From .012 to .046 on the Strat, 010-.044 for the Tele. Compared to commercial sets, I generally use somewhat thicker basses.