Rory Gallagher
Irish Tour '74

THE REVIEW

Once upon a time, there was a steamboat, one of the many that sailed along the Mississippi River. Having reached the Gulf of Mexico, where the river flows out, the steamboat found itself in the middle of a storm, the current became stronger, and the boat sailed for months and months in open sea, blindly. "Laaaand!" cried one....."Yes, but where the heck are we?!" replied another. And the third "In Ireland!"....And the fourth "And how do you know?" "They all have red hair and are drunk from morning till night"....

Then we all know how these things end, after months of forced abstinence the sailors had to let off steam somehow and, from one of these "outbursts", Rory Gallagher was born.

Yes, because how else does one explain that an Irishman can play the blues this way?

Imagine a less polished and shiny Clapton (I know it's hard, especially the Clapton of recent years) sweaty and drunk, getting on stage violently abusing the guitar in every way and spitting dirty blues in the face of his audience, all in a venue where the stench of beer mixed with cigar smoke and sweat could make an animal vomit: that's "Irish Tour".

Yes, because the blues, like jazz, doesn’t belong in a recording studio! It can’t breathe, it feels compressed, it suffers from claustrophobia!

You need a live album and, for this writer, "Irish Tour" is a great album that every guitarist, but not only, anyone who loves blues/rock, should have!

Technique, grit, sweat and steaming passion, all washed down with a huge mug of Guinness!

Rory Gallagher has passed away. The operation that sixteen years ago was supposed to give him a new liver (his was consumed by alcohol) didn’t go well. He was 47 years old, "Too Much Alcohol" the title of one of his songs.. .Now I turn everything off, grab a beer from the fridge, light a cigarette and go back to listening to him...I'll leave the analysis to someone else.