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The Eighties represented for many popular artists of the Sixties and Seventies a true "point of no return," also and especially due to the explosion of genres, even very different from one another, such as Punk, Iron Maiden and company’s Heavy Metal, Disco Music, Pop, and New Wave, just to mention the most fashionable genres at the time.
The career of Rory Gallagher is no exception: after the Hard Rock period of the second half of the Seventies, concluded with "Stage Struck" in 1980, the versatile Irishman embarked on a difficult period in which his problems with alcoholism began to emerge more and more evidently. Nevertheless, his musical production, faithful to his Rock/Blues creed, continued with another excellent album released in Germany in 1982, along with the indispensable Gerry McAvoy on bass, Brendan O'Neill stepping in for Ted McKenna on drums, and with the support of Bob Andrews on keyboards and Dick Perry (ex-Pink Floyd) on sax with Ray Beavis. This album bears the unequivocal name of Jinx.
This is an unequivocal title (translated from English as "spell" or "curse," "jinx"), because it is from here that the excellent Rory begins to question his life as an authentic anti-Star of Rock and on his personal problems which he sublimates, especially, in two masterful Rock/Blues ballads that probably form the core of the album: "Easy Come, Easy Go" and "Jinxed."
The first highlights the artist's all-too-underrated vocal and songwriting skills, as seen from some of the lyrics (translated by the excellent Fabio Rossi):
"From easy victories and easy defeats, now you are no longer so carefree. [...] / "It used to be easy to win, easy to lose, lately, you only hear sad notes. [...] / "Closed within yourself, you must come out immediately. Come on, try again, and you'll hear a different melody."
The second is another fabulous Rock/Blues composition where another sorrowful tale of Rory’s condition unfolds, perpetually searching for himself amid failed loves and various mishaps, like some sort of "evil eye" (that is, the famous Jinx), a kind of "shadow cone" from which he cannot escape.
In the same vein seems to be “Signals”, another excellent Rock/Blues performance, while the space for Hard Rock tinged with Rock 'N' Roll is dedicated to tracks like "The Devil Made Me Do It," dedicated to Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochrane, two of the Rock 'N' Roll idols loved by Rory, "Big Guns" with some sounds that, especially in the riffs, seem to wink at the melodic lines even of the "Sex Pistols," and the muscular "Bourbon," where his (often excessive) passion for good old whiskey (or in American English bourbon, indeed) emerges.
With "Double Vision," the use of the famous "slide guitar" returns forcefully, here played in the style of Muddy Waters (another undisputed idol of the Irish artist), as does in "Ride On Red, Ride On," a track actually written by bluesman Iverson Minter known as Louisiana Red with a blatantly anti-racist background.
"Loose Talk," a track in which Rory not-so-implicitly criticizes the manipulation process of artists present in a certain record label, closes in a very worthy manner another excellent album where Rory shows even more the desire to make real music and, above all, "played" music, defying the modernity of the time represented by "plastic music" or worse still by easy listening which he consistently avoided in his life like the plague.
Tracklist Lyrics and Samples
01 Big Guns (03:33)
Well, you think you're sitting pretty,
But you're sitting on a powder keg.
Well, you think you're standing steady,
But you're weak as a matchstick leg.
Well there's a rumble in the city,
There's a call out for your head.
Now isn't a pity,
You're future's just a lump of lead.
But now you're running scared you've got no place to run,
You're caught between the law and the Big Guns.
Yeah...
Well, it's a long way from the pool halls,
To the rackets and the petty crime.
Well, you thought you were a tough one,
But you've bitten off too much this time.
You've stepped on the wrong toes,
Now look who you've upset.
Well, you walked on the wrong turf,
You got your picture on the police gazette.
Well, now you're running scared, got no place to run,
You're caught between the law and the - Big Guns.
Yeahhh..
Your back's against a wall, you don't like it there at all.
Now your world's about to fall, you got no friends you can call.
Well, you never felt so gritty,
Well, the sweat's pouring down your back.
You're like a tiger in the jungle,
And you can't find your way back.
You haven't played your cards right,
You hadn't seen the signs.
Well, you tried to run the whole game,
Now you've come to the end of the line.
Well, now you're running scared, you've got no place to run.
Now you're face to face with the Big Guns.
02 Bourbon (04:06)
Well, he's drinking down the bourbon like it was soda pop,
Trying to quell a feeling he knows ain't gonna stop,
He's mortgaged out his blood for one more chance to breathe.
He had the D.T.'s for breakfast, the shakes till noon,
He picked up his bag and left the motel room,
His head is held high but his heart is on it's knees.
Well, he packed his guitar and his bar-room tan,
Gotta get some miles behind him as fast as he can,
Another destination, some place else to play.
Well, he left a life behind him in some old trailer park.
They tried to make it work; it was ruined from the start.
He had to shake the rust, it became time to leave.
It's a honky-tonk engagement,
But there's no better place to play.
His face feels like crazy pavement,
It's getting more lined every day.
Well, he's gonna write a letter and try to explain,
She says he's too old to have these growing pains,
But something keeps him moving, living on through the night.
But as the night approaches, a change is in the air,
His heart is pumping fast, he's got no cares.
The music befriends him, it can take him anywhere.
It's a honky-tonk engagement,
But there's no better place to play.
His mind feels like crazy pavement,
He's getting crazed out every day.
Well, he's drinking down the bourbon like it was soda pop,
Trying to quell a feeling he knows ain't gonna stop,
He's mortgaged out his blood for one more chance to breathe.
He had the D.T.'s for breakfast, the chills till noon,
He picked up his bag and left the motel room,
His head is held high but his heart is on it's knees.
04 The Devil Made Me Do It (02:53)
Well, the devil made me do it, do it, do it
The devil made me trip and fall
The devil drove me to it, to it, to it
Till I had no chance at all
What did I do that was so bad, to go and get myself arrested?
Just hit town to have some fun, but I ended up in the trash can
There I was in the witness stand, my eyes turned towards the jury
Trying to recall what went wrong last night, but it won't come right back to me
Well, the devil made me do it, do it, do it
The devil made me trip and fall
The devil drove me to it, to it, to it
Till I had no chance at all
The lawyer said, "Son, won't you plead the fifth, and don't speak unless requested"
Using all the words at his command, his skills were sorely tested
Then, to my complete surprise, they went and called a hostile witness
The devil himself, well he took the stand and that's where my case rested
Well, the devil made me do it, do it, do it
The devil made me trip and fall
The devil drove me to it, to it, to it
Till I had no chance at all
What did I do that was so bad, to go and get myself arrested?
Well, I was just in town to have some fun, but I ended up in the trash can
There I was in the witness box, my eyes turned towards the jury
Trying to recall what went wrong last night, but it won't come back to me
Well, the devil made me do it, do it, do it
The devil made me trip and fall
The devil drove me to it, to it, to it
Till I had no chance at all
Well, the devil made me do it, do it, do it
The devil made me trip and fall
The devil drove me to it, to it, to it
Till I had no chance at all
Well, the devil drove me to it, to it, to it
The devil made me trip and fall
The devil drove me to it, to it, to it
Till I had no chance at all, till I had no chance at all
Till I had no mind at all
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