Is Gary Moore appreciated in the States?

Well said Ante.

GM much the greater musician. I saw Clapton quite a few times and the difference is absolutely marked. Watching Clapton was an exercise in slick, pleasant, radio friendly tunes - ABSOLUTELY NO DANGER there. Immaculate. Lots of corporate entertainment. Nice and safe. I am no spring chicken myself, but the audience was an Armani cotton field.

Gary almost always blew the roof off. Like Rory Gallagher used to do. It wasn’t just volume but artistry with emotion.

You mentioned Albert Lee, who is a formidable guitarist who has a “country” designation but is a guitar god. Scary. I’ve seen him a lot too. Genius. Clapton had him in the back line as insurance when he was coming back from rehab.
Albert also played with Danny Gatton - another genius. More of him elsewhere I’m sure.

The pigeon holing point is really good also. Many of the people that I have discussed Gary Moore with have not listened to a whole lot of his work. They have him fixed as a certain type of player. I think American A&R people and pluggers didn’t quite know where to go with him. For whatever reason, we have to conclude that the musicians’ musicians often don’t see as much success as we believe they should.

My overall conclusion is a (possibly unfair) reworking of a Sir Thomas Beecham quote:

“People don’t care too much for music, but they quite like the noise it makes.”

 

No, not well known here at all. What is his best hard rock song?

 

A good place to start is his first solo album after leaving Coliseum II: Back on the Streets, that album has blues, jazz, prog and heavy rock as well as AOR (Parisienne Walkways). Check out Greg Lake's first solo album, Nuclear Attack is a great example of Gary playing hard rock. The albums Out in the Fields, Corridors of Power and Victims of the Future all feature the rock side of the man. The Live at the Monsters of Rock album is a great sampler of his playing too.

 

I would also throw Run for Cover into that batch. Same period, similar style and quality.

 

Another Clapton bashing thread!

GM was a great player, though. Not one of my favorites. But he was really good.
10 years ago, me and a friend of mine was blown away after watching a video of him on YouTube.

 

Here are some of my favorites. All a matter of personal taste though. Everyone will have their own. There are too many to list really....

A guitarfest Eddie Van Who-lan eruption opening - which was CUT from the original American release of this album if you can believe that (I had to buy the UK import LP to hear the opening minute back in the day)


An even bigger guitar extravaganza Eddie Van Who-lan opening, Jack Bruce on vocals btw:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9Oo8oWi8uc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDycPo6wt2A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt06PFWkJ1I

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsR-6bunsbI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huYubXNbzKk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zsR-6bunsbI

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IocRCDWB5k

One of my favorite Gary songs but not exactly hard rock/metal - gorgeous - moving - incredible guitar solos - two dueling counterpart melodies that join together in the end - much superior to the redone version on his next album IMO
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MTzNySHIg4

One of the best guitar instrumentals ever:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAeQjuTVmbU

Great cover of a Lizzy classic by Gary..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTAjQoIWhdY

The "new Cream" (Gary, Jack Bruce, & Ginger Baker) - love the opening riff and the guitar soloing, Gary even pulls out a wah which was rare for him:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00lEnG-0zIU


Perhaps his signature song - assisted by Phil Lynott - live
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fcAgmoGeMB4

 

Run For Cover has some great stuff on it, but to me it is a strangely disjointed record, with the extra guest vocalists like Glenn Hughes for instance. Also some of it is overproduced IMO, especially the redone version of Empty Rooms which I find perplexing (why redo a perfect song like that from the previous album but add layers & layers of keyboards etc??).

Being a huge Lizzy fan meself though the two songs with Phil Lynott (Military Man, and Out In The Fields - as well as a remake of Lizzy classic Still In Love With You that was not on the album per se but was released as a single), well it doesn't get any better than that....

 

Great signposts there slipkid. Too many to list indeed.

I should also say that his blues stuff should not be simply ignored just because it has”blues” genre stamped on it. Some wonderfully intense playing whether blasted out or whisper quiet. Even these have some remarkable venom in them. Not everybody can take to his voice but his guitar playing is above top drawer at times.

Listen to the way the guitar break ramps up and delivers a life saving solo to a fairly standard blues. It’s in a minor key which is blast central for Gary. He just keeps notching it up bar after bar and it leaves blues and melds into rock. For those not interested in foreplay it starts at 3:42 into the track



He used to open his set quite often with this one (below). Again, from his blues period but some of those chops are steaightahead rock and played with total commitment.

https://youtu.be/brR12abu9Y0

 

I 4got about Nuclear Attack being on that Greg Lake album. Gary also does it himself on his Dirty Fingers album IIRC. I think I prefer Gary's solo version but would have to go back & compare the two.

Corridors of Power/Victims of the Future (need both the USA & UK versions) / Wild Frontier would be my 3 fave Gary albums (all hard rock).

There is no album called "Out In the Fields" though. That (most excellent) song is one of the tunes he did with Phil Lynott on the Run For Cover album.

 

Much like Rory Gallagher neither really ever caught on here in the US.

I think in Moore's case he never really had hit singles and his music was so diverse that he never established an identity here.

A real shame as both men were so I incredibly talented.

 

Rory at least toured over here a lot (headlined only clubs afaik, although I also saw him open for Rush in an arena, which did not work IMO). Gary almost never played over here apart from Thin Lizzy.

 

No, he's not in the States. I don't personally know anyone that knows who Gary Moore is. I've heard of him, but I don't know any of his music.

 

He is by me. I jumped on board with Wild Frontier and Run For Cover (at the time they came out) and stayed on board from there.

 

Gitters - meet Gary:

 

Covering George Harrison

 

And something completely different and entirely beautiful (don't miss the end):

 

In a bit of Jeff Beck mode:

 

The Loner is such a moving instrumental. Great melodic guitar lines. I once got a UK Guitar mag that had transcriptions of the whole song along with a CD of backing tracks for it so you could play along with a backing band. I learned the whole song (in a weird key like G#m or something like that, I 4get) thanks to that mag. Not like I could play like Gary but was able to impress some friends at least.

 

I would assume it was in A-minor and you were supposed to tune down a half step?

 

Yeah, that was pretty cool! Thanks! I'll have to checkout some more of his stuff.

 

Same thing - Aflat = Gsharp

(Actually that is not the case as far as the scales go I believe, but to me it is the same in my primitive understanding if just talking about the notes on the fretboard A flat/G sharp. I'll look for the mag though & see what it says when I get time....)

 

A-minor is not A-flat. A-minor has a root on A but uses the flat 3rd.

A-flat has a root on A-flat or G-sharp, a half step lower.

 

Yes sir. I was talking about the notes (A flat = G sharp), for example the same position on the fretboard, not the keys/scales associated with chords. I am not up on scales for keys, where the root is or that sort of thing. I never got further on the guitar other than just playing what I hear my head, yes, I am a hacker.

Although I gave it up about 15 years ago when my best friend/bass player died, very long story...have not been able to touch it since, although The Loner has special significance as I did play that in his house after he died in his basement practice room to kind of say goodbye, set up some amps with the backing tracks, his wife went out so I could blast away at top volume for a couple hours...one of his dogs came down and freaked out though like he was there near the steps, stood there barking at "him"..was quite freaky...occasionally he appears to me in dreams wanting to jam on this and that but maybe that is just my subconscious. Anyways I am digressing here, sorry to get off track...

 

I know this is not the all-purpose Gary Moore thread (not sure which ones are still running) but I should mention that it's been ten years since he passed.

Also this: Campaign For Belfast Statue Of Guitar Legend GARY MOORE Gains City Council Support

 

Since I am not at all a blues fan, I will not compare Moore to Clapton or Page with blues as the metric. Blues is outside my purview.

But based solely on his chops and vocabulary, Moore is a better player.

Moore, even if you think he was inferior to Clapton or Page playing blues, he could still do it. But there is no way Clapton or Page could get close to playing the stuff Moore played with Colosseum.