Rory Gallagher
Tattoo

THE REVIEW

I have always considered Rory Gallagher one of the most underrated guitarists in the history of Rock. Often, when speaking with people who, nonetheless, are fans of the same musical genres as I am, none of them know the talent of the Irish six-stringer. And when they ask me who Rory Gallagher is, I always respond by telling the (true or alleged) anecdote in which someone asks Jimi Hendrix how it feels to be the best guitarist in the world. Hendrix's response is eloquent: "I don't know, you should ask Rory Gallagher". Personally, I discovered Gallagher thanks to DeBaser and particularly to Trix, who made me listen to "Wonder Who" and "Who's That Coming" (present on the album), and from there, my love for this Irish guitarist was born (and I will always be grateful to Trix).

"Tattoo" is the fourth studio album by Rory Gallagher, who had embarked on a solo career after his experience with Taste, a power trio styled after the great super-groups like Cream and the Jimi Hendrix Experience. The album follows the successful releases of the excellent "Deuce" from 1971 and "Blueprint" from 1973 (the same year as the release of "Tattoo"). The album is produced with the collaboration of excellent musicians, such as Gerry McAvoy on bass, Lou Martini on keyboards, and Rod de'Ath on drums.

While Rory Gallagher's first albums are predominantly blues-oriented, the same cannot be said of "Tattoo", in which the group and Gallagher himself prefer to explore various musical realms, almost as if to demonstrate that the album should contain the essence of the European blues man's technical-musical repertoire. And so here are how the 9 songs present themselves (two will be added in the remastered edition of 2000: the acoustic country "Tucson, Arizona" and the crazy boogie-woogie "Just A Little Bit"): opening the album is the classic blues rock of "Tatto'd Lady", in which, however, there is never missing that touch of melancholy a bit typical of Gallagher's style. The same style is maintained in "Admit It" and "Sleep On A Clothes-Line", in which Rory Gallagher shows off musical talent and breathtaking solos in succession, with absolute ease. The first "novelties" are represented by "Cradle Rock" and "They Don't Make Them Like You Anymore": the former is an energetic Hard Rock that borders on early Heavy Metal. Such "heaviness" had not yet been seen in Rory Gallagher's albums. Heaviness that is synonymous with energy. In the latter, however, the group tries to delve into jazz territories, with excellent results. There is also room for the most classic, pure, and hard blues, as in the acoustic "20:20 Vision" and the already mentioned "Who's That Coming", complete with slide riffs on the resonator guitar (commonly known as Dobro).

A special mention, on the other hand, deserves (in my opinion) the best song on the album and surely one of the most moving "ballads" in the history of Rock: "A Million Miles Away". Melancholy takes over in a hotel bar where there are lots of people having fun, drinking, and listening to piano music. All this does not affect me because I would like to be a million miles away from that place, and during the solo, an oniric journey begins, a detachment of the mind from the body and from the place where I am. And when the solo ends, we realize that the journey was long, so much so that the bar has emptied, the pianist has gone home, and the bartender is so tired that he's fallen asleep in a corner, but why I am still here, I still do not know. I would just like to be a million miles away from here.