I know Gary Moore from his obvious hits. But... That's about it. Where should I start, and which are the best versions of his albums on CD?
Apparently Andy Pearce is remastering one of his albums now - hopefully the rest too. Worth waiting for hopefully as he can do superb work imo. I only have the `Run For Cover` Limited Edition Remaster, nonsense. I literally had to obey the album title when the title track kicked in. Horrific is all I can say. Evil, in fact. Avoid.
Yeh i would agree for his solo stuff (70's & 80's) up until he went blues , most of the cd's are not great sounding , i prefer the vinyl pressings ....... i have either owned or heard the original cd pressings & the remasters & neither are great , as mentioned above there is one new remaster coming out in October for his 1st 70's solo album on cd , hoping it sounds good ..... the Blues stuff like "still got the blues" i have just the original pressing from when it came out it sounds really good .
Gary Moore is one of my favorite guitarists but I didn't know he had any "hits" (at least not here in the USA anyways). What are the ones you are familiar with?? Virtually no one here in the USA (that I know) has even heard of him except for those of us who are guitar players (or music nuts). Someone I work with, in his 40's, is NAMED Gary Moore and when I told him that he has the same name as one of my favorite guitar players he had NO IDEA who I was even talking about, he never even heard of him (sigh). Anyways, depending on what type of music you like, that really affects how to answer where you should start. In about 1990 he released a blues album which I thought was OK at the time, an interesting change from his hard rock style, but unfortunately (to me) that led him to release many blues albums in a row - not my cup of tea. If you like blues type stuff then I guess that is where you should start (his blues stuff); I can't recommend any of his blues albums though, all of them bore me to death. If you like metal/hard rock though (like me) I would say that you should start with his glory hard rock/metal period and map out those albums in sequence as they came out with Corridors of Power (1982), Victims of the Future (1983), We Want More (1984 - a live album), Run For Cover (1985), Wild Frontier (1987), and finally After The War (1989). Corridors & Victims are two killer metal/hard rock albums. Run For Cover is similar but he has some guest vocalists on it like Glenn Hughes and Phil Lynott - I don't think it is as consistent as the previous 2 albums but still has some great stuff. Wild Frontier is a little more Irish flavored and has a couple GREAT songs on it but it is marred by an annoying drum machine IMO. After the War is the weakest of this bunch but also has some good stuff too (I would not count the song with Ozzy on vocals as one of the good ones though to be honest). After those I would recommend his diverse album Back on the Streets (which is coming out as a re-release very soon with some bonus stuff). In addition to "rock" songs it has some almost jazzy instrumental stuff, similar to his work with Colosseum II. I'd also have to recommend his "Cream" album with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker called BBM, and his lone studio album with Thin Lizzy (Black Rose). He has other worthy releases in his catalog but I personally would start with those (again if you are a metal or hard rock fan). As far as which ones have the best sound they all pretty much get dissed up here for bacon frying compression/jacked up levels. Thankfully that doesn't bother me & I enjoy listening to his remastered releases, which have some nice bonus tracks - killer stuff like the remake of Thin Lizzy's Still In Love With You with Phil Lynott on Run For Cover or the extended version of The Loner on Wild Frontier.
Well, this is as extensive an answer as you're going to get. And I completely agree - these are the Gary Moore albums to buy. At least, if you like his hardrock/metal phase. I'm a big fan of his playing too. I even own several of the blues albums. I think the first one, 1990's Still got the blues, is the best. If you like his blues outings, you might try that one, along with the follow-up album After hours. After that it all gets a bit samey, although some of his later works tend to have some contemporary influences, like techno (!) rhythms on the aptly titled Different beat album from 1999. The 'Blues for Greeny' album is recommendable - it's a tribute album with Peter Green songs. Soms tasy guitar playing on that one. Of course you should own Thin Lizzy's Black rose album too - some of his best playing is on that album. I must admit I never got hold of the BBM album - I think I should try to find that one. Oh, and by the way - Gary Moore indeed had several hit singles in the UK and European countries. Among them are Out in the fields (with Phil Lynott as a guest vocalist), his 1985 remake of Empty rooms, the Irish influenced Over the hills and far away, Run for cover and Always gonna love you. But his biggest hits were some of those blues songs, like Still got the blues, Oh pretty woman and Cold day in hell. Which editions to get? Depends on your personal taste. Personally I do dislike the remasters for sound quality - they're compressed and bright as hell, but they do have interesting bonus tracks. Seek out the originals wherever possible. They're no sonic wonders, but at least they're crankable. As a big fan, of course I have both the originals and the remasters of several of his albums....
Really? Here in Russia his ballads are mainstream radio staples - Still got the blues is as overplayed as, say, Hotel California. I think I heard it around half a million times since 1990. Every housewife and what you call soccer mum likes him. And yes, he's a household name unlike, say, Bruce Springsteen or Johnny Cash who 98% of people never heard of.
I would get one of his comps like "Ballads & Blues 1982-1994" to start off with. The remasters are not good, IMO, but the bonus tracks are worth a listen, if you can get them cheap enough. Pat
Of those, Out In the Fields, Over the Hills.., & Always Gonna Love You would be my favorites. And I much prefer his original version of Empty Rooms (from Victim of the Future) over the more keyboard heavy remake (from Run for Cover). How about Military Man (the other song with Phil from Run for Cover?) - did that get any European airplay/recognition? That's another great song, should have been a hit. The song Run for Cover is OK but not hit material to me, interesting that that one did get that status. It depresses me no end, being a huge fan of Gary's metal/rock period, that (IMO) a "blues" rehashing of his (& Phil's) excellent Parisienne Walkways (IE: Still Got the Blues), and the boring blues (again - my opinion) of Oh Pretty Woman and Cold Day in Hell eclipsed his rock stuff, and that he had enough success with the blues stuff that he just kept rehashing it over and over. To have him pass away right when he was preparing to come back to the rock world and release another Irish flavored hard rock album ala Wild Frontier was such a huge bummer. Gary is an artist I would love to see get all his rock stuff redone as Deluxe Editions, master them more to audiophile likings, add tons of unreleased bonus tracks, even do a box set or something like that. I'm still waiting for an official DVD/CD of Live In Stockholm but last I heard (courtesy of a member up here in the know) that project has been shelved (?). I just realized I forgot to mention/recommend his live DVD Phil Lynott tribute show, One Night In Dublin. Except for the lame opening blues track (Walking By Myself) I LOVE that show, hearing Gary cover a bunch of Thin Lizzy songs (+ special guests) is rock heaven for me. And strange to say, being a huge Gary fan, and also a fan of Hendrix, I just don't like his Jimi Hendrix tribute show DVD/CD at all. For some reason I just can't get into it. I'd rather hear Gary playing his old rock stuff, or Lizzy stuff, than Hendrix.
We may have touched on this before in another thread - now that you mention it, what you said sounds familiar. Here in the USA I have never heard a single solitary Gary Moore song on the radio - ever. We are the flipside of what you said, 98% of the population here have no idea who he is and have not heard any of his music. Part of that may be because of his lack of touring over here, which led to lack of industry push? I only remember seeing him live once, he played a FREE show at the Trocadero (a club) in Philadelphia, in the early or mid-80's. I may have seen him open for someone like Rush too but I can't remember.
Which solos (other than the title track) on BR are Gary? I've always wanted to find out for certain...
Here's the rundown - I'm certain the solo in Toughest street in town is Gary’s - that frenzied playing style, with the notes splattering everywhere, has become his trademark. The terrific solo on S&M however definitely sounds like Gorham to me, who also plays the first solo on Waiting for an alibi, after which Gary comes in. On Sarah, Gary plays a guitar synth. Scott does the first solo in Got to give it up and Gary takes the lead on the outro. Gary does all the soloing on Get out of here, while Scott does the solo in the middle of With love, while the melodic playing on the outro is Gary's. There’s no real guitar solo on Do anything you wanna do. Gary and Scott both play harmonies for the song. It's not always easy to tell who's who on this album's twin guitar harmonies, but it's obvious (and he has acknowledged this himself) that Gary's return to TL (for the third time!) inspired Gorham to take his playing to a higher level.
Military man was the B-side of Out in the fields, which was released a few months prior to the album release. I loved both tracks and saw it as the prelude to what most definitely would be a killer album. Not hard to imagine that I was a little disappointed when the album finally was released. I don't want to deepen your depression, but I forgot to mention that Walking by myself was another Top 40 hit overseas. I can see where you're coming from. I don't dislike his blues stuff - I got several of these albums. But I do feel they tarnished Gary's legacy somewhat. I was really enthusiastic when the Still got the blues album was released back in 1990. I was glad that its enormous success put him huge talents in the spotlights of the general public, but he started repeating the success formula with the second blues album. It just felt like he made the same record over and over again even since. I wish he would have kept those blues albums as something nice on the side. Instead, he made a whole new career out of it. Of course he had a right to, but I wish he would have returned to his harder rocking roots. As you said, a shame that it never came to be due to his untimely death.
Well said, I'm very much in the same camp as you. I LIKED Still Got The Blues when it first came out. Thought it was a cool change of pace and was glad to see him get more recognition & respect from outside metal circles. I never expected him to keep going with blues at the exclusion of rock though. Losing the rock stuff that I loved so much made me hate the blues stuff more than I should. At the time it came out I used Still Got The Blues to try to turn some friends onto him who were not into metal/hard rock but did appreciate great guitar players, and one especially who was a blues fan but not a rock fan. To my surprise my blues friend HATED the album, said it was garbage made by some poser who couldn't play "the blues" to save his life! Go figure. I'm such a huge fan I continued to buy his albums through the blues phase, even tons of CD singles, but couldn't stomach the blues stuff anymore, and stopped at some point (the last one I still have is the third one - Blues Alive). I didn't really like Blues for Greeny either although I did buy it - looking now on my "Irish" guitarist shelf with my Gary/Thin Lizzy/Rory Gallagher CDs I can't find that, guess I must have sold it (ironically I was curious now to listen to it again but oh well). For the original poster asking for recommendations - or Gary newbies just reading this thread out of curiosity considering checking him out - take great care to avoid his non-blues solo albums that came out in the midst of his blues "period" (about 1990-2008). Dark Days in Paradise (1997) is excruciatingly bad overproduced adult oriented pablum (it has some good songs but I can't stomach the adult pop type production), A Different Beat (1999) is god awful electronica & I will never understand why it was even released, and Scars (2002) while a step in the right direction back to rock, almost like Gary trying to be Stevie Ray Vaughan, is just plain putrid - avoid those albums at all costs if you are just checking out his catalog for the first time, because if you hear those first you may write him off permanently.
Really? I'd always understood that Gary handled all lead guitar work on that album. The songs sound far more like Gary than Gorham to me. Just compare with Gorham's lead guitar work on Bad Reputation, there's little similarity. The solos on With Love and Waiting for an Alibi in particular scream Gary Moore. Didn't Gorham complain (jokingly) at the time because Gary's lead guitar work was so ferocious he couldn't keep up when playing harmonies? Regarding the upcoming Back on the Streets remaster, I really hope this is the start of reissuing Gary's entire catalogue, because he's one of my favourite musicians and unfortunately his existing CDs sound pretty crap.
In terms of chart positions, "Parisienne Walkways" and "Out in the Fields" were Gary's biggest hits. As far as blues/rock goes, it's common knowledge among fans that he didn't like touring After the War much and actually enjoyed playing the blues in hotel rooms more than the actual shows. I do think that the better songwriting can be found on his non-blues albums (and that includes Dark Days in Paradise, which I think has some fantastic tracks), but he just seemed a lot more relaxed and natural on Still Got the Blues. I'm not suprised that your blues friend didn't like the album, as something like "Texas Strut" is still very heavy stuff. I guess the album was a bit of a transition. The songs I find myself hearing most often on the radio are definitely "Still Got the Blues" and "Empty Rooms" (the 1985 remake, unfortunately). Behind that are tracks like "Parisienne Walkways", "Out in the Fields", "Friday on my Mind", "Over the Hills and Far Away", "All Your Love", "Walking By Myself", "Cold Day in Hell" and "Separate Ways". I've never heard "Oh Pretty Woman", "Always Gonna Love You" or "Run for Cover" on the radio. Or "Military Man", for that matter. That song is spoiled for me due to the fact that the studio version sounds incredibly lifeless. I got to know the track in its live incarnation and that rocks a hundred times more, even with Phil missing. I hate those e-drums on Run for Cover, overall... Re: "One Night in Dublin" - I saw both the DVD and the blu-ray and was fooled by the bluray proclaiming "HD"...the sound is absolutely terrible and I have to turn it down to half of my usual listening volume to get away with the clipping all over it (and even then it sounds terrible). I'm pretty sure it's not my settings because other blurays sound just fine. Is the DVD just as bad? As far as recommendations go, I have the following: Original releases - Blues Alive, Close as you Get, Live at Bush Hall 2007, Blues for Jimi (self-made CD extracted from the DVD), Bad for you Baby, Live at Montreux 2010 2002 remasters - Victims of the Future, We Want Moore!, Run for Cover, Wild Frontier, Still Got the Blues, After Hours Compilations - Best of the Blues (2CD), Back on the Streets: The Rock Collection, The Platinum Collection (3CD), Ballads & Blues (remaster/reissue CD+DVD Collector's Edition) Collections - Blues for Jimi, 3 DVD Set (Live at Montreux 1990, Blues for Jimi, Live at Montreux 2010) What should I get next? (And keep in mind that I'm pretty open-minded, so words like "pablum", "god awful" and "putrid" do seem rather irrelevant for anybody who likes something beyond hard rock/metal...)
I never quite know what to make of G-Force. There are some great songs on there but I hate the feedback effect on all the guitars. It pretty much ruins it all for me.
Without a doubt, this one, if you only get one... His first "real" heavy rock/metal album. The guitar is incendiary. The songs are great. Jack Bruce sings one of the songs - End of the World - which features some pretty mindblowing fretwork. The album also has a metal cover of Free's Wishing Well. Victims of the Future picks up where that one left off btw. If you dig Victims you need to check out Corridors of Power. Probably my favorite Gary album btw. After that I would have to say check out Back on the Streets for a cool diverse collection of songs/styles. If you're still interested in more Moore I would say to round out your rock years collection with Dirty Fingers, G-Force, After the War (which has an incredible version of Roy Buchanan's The Messiah Will Come Again), and the early live albums Live at the Marquee and Rockin' Every Night Live in Japan. And don't forget BBM's (Bruce Baker Moore) Around the Next Dream.
Thanks, the problem with Corridors is that I have a lot of the songs already on compilations (Wishing Well, Cold Hearted, Rockin' Every Night, Always Gonna Love You). But I guess I need it for the studio End of the World with Jack Bruce.
I saw someone claim in another thread about Gary CDs that Wild Frontier sounded much better in the original Virgin edition compared to the remaster. In particular, "Thunder Rising" was claimed not to have the wildly fluctuating average volume that it has on the remaster. I was going to ask in that thread, but it was closed. Can anyone affirm this? Ideally, I'd like to see some waveforms comparing the two versions. Because if it's true, then I must get the original version. TR is one of Gary's greatest songs, IMO.
I have not heard either one of those, but after comparing other Moore albums the original CD is probably better than the remaster. It won't hurt to buy the earlier one, anyway.
Here's the waveform of Thunder Rising from the original CD I have from 1987 (10 Records DIXCD56): And this is the remaster from 2003 (Virgin/EMI MOORECD6): The remaster is a little louder but not alarmingly so to my eyes, and at least it is not totally brickwalled/clipping off the charts either (not even close). I don't have an original version on "Virgin" though. The 10 Records that I have was a UK import and the first time available on CD afaik (??).
