G: Rory Gallagher

ory Callagher began playing point right up until his tragic deat h in

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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
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 chord·based 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
accent marks the start of a short hammer-onlpull-off phrase - is
th is ornamentation perhaps a little of RaTy's Irish influence
creeping in? Anyway, you may need to practise this slowly along
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
occurs at bar 7 which can easily catch yo u unawaresl

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Ex 3 Same O.d Story Verse

Rory 's music was fu ll of great grooves and th is R&B flavoured th is is a good arranging device and certainly helps to create a
idea is certainly no except ion. Notice as yo u listen to either li ttle extra listener interes t. As you play th is one you should
the original or the OTCD versio n how space is left at the end aim for a fairly relaxed feel - irs easy to accidentally rush it -
of each two bar phrase to allow th e bass to come through - 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 along with it, keeping it in time throughout - it's actually
certain 'Irish' flavour to it - perhaps it's all those 16th note quite hard not to accidentally rush as you play the hammer·ons
triplets? Notice how (aiter the pick·up bar) the main repeati ng and pull·offs - so take carel
riff starts up which is repeated 12 times in a rowl Try playing

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

Intro/verse
This up·te mpo blues/rock styl e<! track was always a big favourite at Technically, th ere is nothing too hard here: iust aim to keep it
live shows and is certai nl y one of Rory's but known tunes. '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' also al how, apart from the \.S bend - 181. i n bar 6 1, it U~ notu
live album , t h is is another example wh ich contains quite t ricky solely taken from the E mi nor pentatonic :seale:
phrasing 50 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
 c: Rory Gallagher
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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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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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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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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,
 G: Rory Gallagher

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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
o utli ne a si mp le desce ndi ng cho rd progrusion of A7 ,
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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
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 Kr.l.pI' which I think worh nk~y. Fin~l1y. 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 £Is 1-4: 'Ta.5te' - Polydor Special Z384 076.
Harvey Band. SfI,' you then. fJ: 5: 'Calling Ca rd' - The G-Men Bootleg Seriu · ESBCD 187
E1: 6: 'Irish Tour 74' - Fiend CD 120
SoURIS: En 7-9: 'A Blue Day For The Blues' - IRS 72438 35783 20
This month's eumples where taken from the following albums: Ex 10: 'Photo Finish' - Chrysalis CHR 1170 OT