G: Rory Gallagher

ory Callagher began playing

guitar back in County Donegal in

his native Ireland at age nine and

when he was 15 he joined the Fonlana

showband and then later on another

showband called Impact. His first major
international success howevH was in
1966 with the band Taste, who recorded
two albums 'Taste' - 1969 and 'On Th e
Boards' - 1970. The band reac hed th eir

peak at the now legendary 1970 Isle of

Wight festiva l - where they shared the
bill with Jim; Hendrix and Free.
Taste sp lit up in 197 1 and (rom that

point right up until his tragic deat h in

June 1995 at the age of 46 Rory followed
his own very successful solo career
d u ring wh ich he recorded around 14

albums wi th combined sales in excess of

30 million copiesl In terms of style Rory
coveHd more or less cvery bl ues
approach imaginable ~ acoustic blues,
Chicago blues, ragtime, folk blues ,
bott lenec.k blues , Texas blues, boogie
woogie, Miss issipp i Delta bl ues,
Louisiana swamp blues , Appalachian
blues, modern blues and blues rock l As
well as all of these styles there were also

elements of both Irish traditional music

and jan in his approach, particularly
regarding his rhythmic phrasing which
was often very inventive and instantly
recognisable as being his own ...
In t his month's examples we will
unfortunately only scratch the surface
by look ing at his blues/rock approaches
~ yo u would however, be well advisd to
chec k out his albums to hear what a
trul y versat ile, inspiring and crea tive
player he really was.

Have fun !...

Performance Notes

Ex 1 Blister On The Moon - .ntro section

This chordbased intro is made up of three different sections. The
first of these in ba~ O.a contains a simple E ~ DIE passage ~ as yoo
play this make sure you observe the muti ng indications that appear
on the last two 16th notes of bars 2, 4, 6 & 8 ~ these are vital to the
'feel' of the part. The second section found in bars 9-12 features an E
- G ~ C - 0 progression that is played in a manner which is actually
very remi ni scent of the sort of rhythm style Kurt Cobain used in
Nirvana some 20 odd years later! Once again. watch out for the

muted chords during this seclion.

The third section in bars 13-20 rounds the part off with three
different two bar phrases comprising a couple of II. note chord 'hits'
followed by wah wah fills that last for a bar and a half each. After
playing through Ihese as written try comi ng up with some similar
ideas of YOUT own that also last for the same duration ~ having a sel
spau 10 practise fills can often be a very beneficial way of working
on your phrasing.

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Ex 2 What's Going On - .ntro/verse

Whats Going On is one of the best known and most popular
Taste tracks. The intro and verse as shown here has an almost
latin (ee l to it - notice how the accents fall on I , 2 &. 4 in bar I
and I, 3 &. 4 in bar 2. To make th ings even more tricky each

th is ornamentation perhaps a little of RaTy's Irish influence

creeping in? Anyway, you may need to practise this slowly along

accent marks the start of a short hammer-onlpull-off phrase - is

occurs at bar 7 which can easily catch yo u unawaresl

with either a drum mach ine or a metronome in order to get it

'tight', Also, anot her th ing to look out for is the 3/4 ba r that

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Ex 3 Same O.d Story

Rory 's music was fu ll of great grooves and th is R&B flavoured
idea is certainly no except ion. Notice as yo u listen to either
the original or the OTCD versio n how space is left at the end
of each two bar phrase to allow th e bass to come through -

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th is is a good arranging device and certainly helps to create a

li ttle extra listener interes t. As you play th is one you should
aim for a fairly relaxed feel - irs easy to accidentally rush it bewarel

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Ex 4 MornIng Sun - MaIn repeat rl" figure

In common wi th Ex 2, this is another riff that to my ea rs has a
certain 'Irish' flavour to it - perhaps it's all those 16th note
triplets? Notice how (aiter the pickup bar) the main repeati ng
riff starts up which is repeated 12 times in a rowl Try playing

along with it, keeping it in time throughout - it's actually

quite hard not to accidentally rush as you play the hammerons
and pulloffs - so take carel

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Ex IS Messln' WIth The KId (1.lve Ver.'on}

Intro/verse
This upte mpo blues/rock styl e<! track was always a big favourite at
live shows and is certai nl y one of Rory's but known tunes.

Technically, th ere is nothing too hard here: iust aim to keep it

'tight' and play it with plenty of aggression, attac k and attitudel

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Ex 6 Cradle Rock (Uve Ver.'on} - Intro/maln rIff
Taken from the opening track on Rory 's classic 'Irish Tour 74'
live album , t h is is another example wh ich contains quite t ricky

phrasing

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it may be a good idta to lake your time and work

through it slowly, bar by bar if neceuary. Notice how this riff is

similar in app roach to Prttr Crn n's dusic Oh Well riff and

also al how, apart from the \.S bend - 181. i n bar 6 1, it

solely taken from the E mi nor pentatonic :seale:

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Ex 7 Contlnenta. Op - .ntro/ma.n
This fxample kic ks off with an intro which is played in very
much a 'cut off' style - make sun that you observe the (CO)
symbols during this pari. The nut ~eetio n which runs from

bars 9-16 features a few bars which contain 'six against fOUT '

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phrasing: as you play these you should try to ke~p them as wen
as possi ble. (.Isten closely, th en play "lung will, eilhe r tiL.
original recording or the OT CD version if you encounter any
probl ems with this aspect.

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Ex B The Loop - Ma'n theme

The Loop is apparently the name given to the raised railway
whkh runs round the cen tre of Chicago - henu the train
noi5eS at the start of the original version! This piece you may

also recognise as being the theme from the TV program A Little

Bit Of Fry And Laurie. It is based on J straigh t up. lempo 12 bar
boogit woogiefChicago bl ues in tht kty of C which is p\.ayed in a

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Jany 'swmg' mannrr, As you can see from the mU!!c ,I t

basically uses the 5amr melodic pa.ua.gelfingering throughout
which is simply tl'lUlsposed up iUld down the neck a.s tht chords
change, On the OTCD I also played it an octa~ l~r to rill it
out a bit - you shouldn't ha~ any problrms in coming up with
your own finge ring for this part,

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Ex 9 Public Enemy No1 - Intro/verse

Bars J-8 of this Texas style blues inlro rely fa irly heavily on
funky double-stop (two- noll' ) bends. As yo u play th eu you

dlould use the side 01 your RIH third finge r to barre the G and
B strings - auisled by fi ngers one and two. If played correctly.
the upper note of each double-stop (on the B string) shou ld go

up by a semitone ami the lower note (G string) shou ld go up by

a tone. The final fOU T hars of this exa mp le again ust double
slops on ly this lime they art played 'stnight' and are used to
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Ex 10 The MIssIssIppI SheIks - .nfro and 1st

verselbrldge/chorus
This example is one 01 my ~nonaI ~urirul The original version
features Gerry McAvoy on bass and Ted McKenna on drums (who
incidentally has played with my band a few times in the past!), ) letl
that this is a great eIalJlple 01 inventivt chordal embellishment notice how RoT)' adds many fill, and &u.pens;ons th roughou t

which always keep things in teresting. Another common thing that

occurs here is the way in which he doubles his vocal1ine in ban
10- 11 and 14-15 (he also did this in the intro of last month 's

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Unplugged piece Out On The WesJOInI Plom) .

Inddmtall)" on the original vtrsion the 'scraptS' that occur at
the start of the piece sound to me like they may have been achiewd
by using the mic stand as a boltlenecld On the OT CD I used a
pick

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you might notice

how similar the groove and structure of this example is to the Pearl
Jam track Alive - I wonder if it was perhaps an innuence?

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Next month we will take a look at H for The Sensational Alex

Harvey Band. SfI,' you then.
SoURIS:

This month's eumples where taken from the following albums:

Is 1-4: 'Ta.5te' - Polydor Special Z384 076.

fJ: 5: 'Calling Ca rd' - The G-Men Bootleg Seriu ESBCD 187
E1: 6: 'Irish Tour 74' - Fiend CD 120

En 7-9: 'A Blue Day For The Blues' - IRS 72438 35783 20
Ex 10: 'Photo Finish' - Chrysalis CHR 1170 OT