slipkid, awesome photo! Thanks for posting this beauty! I saw Rory at a club called Mississippi Nights in St. Louis back in the late 70's...man could he play a guitar (but we all know this)!!! One of the greatest live performers!
Thanks. I got a lot of great shots that night. Used to host those (& other live photos) on my website, got some cool feedback from musicians who discovered them later, long story. Was a goal of mine to get that Rory shot in an album release some day though. Rory's nephew Daniel who is involved with the remasters told me they were going to use a bunch but in the end they only used three of mine, and they are so small in the StageStruck CD booklet that they lose their impact. Oh well. Still wondering if a vinyl remaster might include any of them & they might look better in the larger album sleeve (or they could just stick with the original artwork though). I think I posted some more shots in another Rory thread up here, just search the forum if you want to see more. Or go to Rory's official forum, I put some in a thread up there a long time ago too.
I picked up against the grain today which is my favourite Rory Gallagher album I also have a UK first pressing.and A west German inntercord CD. Was very impressed to be honest but I will play it occasionally
Yes sorry not very impressed bit too bright slightly less bass still a nice listen though I have all men UK copies from the debut up to calling card. The vinyl was also lovely and clean nice and quiet
I first heard Rory with that album and it's always been one of my two favourites by him (the other being Tattoo).
I'm posting this for no particular reason other than I think it's a great photo (and I'm also eagerly awaiting the arrival of the newest reissue of Irish Tour '74 on vinyl)....
Great? Its an awesome photo! Thanks for sharing and love that guitar...let us know how Irish Tour sounds...
Thanks for the inspiration to spin "Live In Europe" one more time. Just got my Thorens TD160 back up & running on Wednesday and was skimming this thread whilst wondering what to spin.
Woe to the band that had to follow Rory Gallagher on stage! In 1975, Rory toured the US as the opening act for BTO, if you can believe it. I wonder how they "took care of business" after Rory's set.
For me, Tattoo through Top Priority are just BRILLIANT albums. Really, up to and including Stage Struck, he was just on a roll. After that it tailed off a bit (as did his health, sadly)
Just ordered one of my favorites if not my favorite "Top Priority" 2018 vinyl version from my local shop today...$29 (expensive bugger)...one of the few I do not have on vinyl. Will get it next Friday and will give feedback on the sound. Was picking up Miles Davis - Agharta, Music On Vinyl version, and could not resist going after Top Priority...it was meant to be I say.
The only Rory album I have is Calling Card and I really like it. I am looking for some advice on which of his albums to buy next. Can you guys recommend 2 or 3 of the best Rory albums other than Calling Card? I was thinking from what I have read on this thread that next I should get Live In Europe, Against the Grain, and Top Priority. It seems a few people are speaking highly of these albums.
You should buy "Irish Tour 1974." It was his finest hour and a far better representation of his on-stage greatness than "Live in Europe."
Like many of us, I have been listening to his music since the days of Taste... Here are my thoughts... Taste - On The Boards...an absolute must have title to have and a great representation of his early sound...rock, blues, and even jazz blend together to make some killer music Top Priority and Photo Finish...two of my favorites and these represent his harder rock sound, Against The Grain is a great one as well. Deuce and Blueprint...earlier releases that capture his awesome style of playing and his love of the blues Live albums...Irish Tour seems to get most of the call outs, but I will take Live In Europe over that one, a personal favorite, but Irish Tour is incredible as well, Stage Struck showcases his harder edge. I would add titles as you can...I would bet as you listen to more of his music, you will easily want more than another 2 or 3...
There is a short thread up here from about 5 years ago called "Help me learn about Rory Gallagher" where people make some recommendations . You should check that out for some advice. There are other Rory discussion threads as as well with this kind of thing but I can't remember 'em all. Help me learn about Rory Gallagher In that thread I posted this below which was a copy of some stuff I said in yet another thread but added some other comments at the same time...hope this helps (I changed the FONT below to distinguish it easier as being from my old post) but it is 5 years old so some things have changed since then. His catalog has come out again - possibly twice (?) - I can't even keep track of how many times, is very confusing. And some archival Taste stuff has come out too - the 4 CD "I'll Remember" boxset which is both studio albums (Taste and On the Boards) along with many demo and live tracks, the "Live at the Isle of White" CD and DVD releases. Old post follows (which are comments from an even older post copied into that 2013 post etc): ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ There has already been a couple threads about folks wanting to get into Rory, asking questions etc, so I'll basically repeat what I said a couple times already. All just my opinion of course. Copying verbatim what I said from another thread... >>>>>>>>>> Depending on what kind of music you are into, different Rory albums may or may not appeal to you. Regarding studio albums, if you dig more blues oriented & less hard rocking type stuff, then start with his earlier albums like Rory Gallagher (1971), Deuce ('71), Blueprint ('73), or Tattoo ('73), or his last records Defender ('87) or Fresh Evidence ('90). Out of all these I like his first one the best. If you dig more rock oriented records then go for his period starting in 1975 with Against the Grain. This is my favorite Rory stretch of records since I am a hard rock guitar fan, not that much into "blues"; this was when he switched to Chrysalis Records - Grain ('75), Calling Card ('76), Photo-Finish ('78), Top Priority ('79), and Jinx ('82). All that being said, when recommending a Rory album for a potential new fan to start with, I always recommend Calling Card. It is a very diverse record with some great songs, styles ranging from rocking vs. blues, acoustic vs. electric etc. My favorite Rory album is actually Top Priority though, a harder edged record with killer guitar tone and playing. Live album-wise, the early ones ( Live In Europe & Irish Tour '74) are blues heavy (reflecting his albums of the time) so I prefer the Stage Struck ('80) live album since it covers Rory's mid-period more rocky albums. Then of course there is the recently released Notes from San Francisco lost album which is a recording from '78 which he wasn't happy with (he went back to the drawing board and recorded/released Photo-Finish instead), that also has a killer live show with it from 1979 or so. There's also other stuff that's come out in recent years. BBC stuff, Beat Club sessions, Montreux, etc. An acoustic oriented rare track thing (Wheels Within Wheels). <<<<<<<<<<< Additionally I should try to warn you about the potential confusion you might run into if buying Rory albums on CD; there are different versions available, not just different for masterings but also for being REMIXED. Originally his albums came out on CD via Intercord/Capo (out of Germany I believe). That was how I first was able to get Rory on CD anyways. The releases on Intercord used original album mixes and seem to be sought after for "natural" sounding masterings. These are now all out of print afaik. I think some were also released on Castle (?) or IRS/Capo that are also original mixes but different masterings from the Intercords (?). Most of his albums were first re-released on CD around 1999 or so on RCA/Capo/BMG (?) but many were also remixes, some having strikingly different versions of the original songs (different instrumental parts, extra or missing verses, etc). The albums that were remixed for CD are: Rory Gallagher (1st) Deuce Against the Grain Calling Card Photo-Finish Top Priority Jinx About a year ago Rory's estate started a reissue campaign of all the albums using original mixes this time around and restoring the original artwork. Prior to this the album Photo-Finish had never even been available at all in original unmixed form on CD afaik. All of these new releases can be had really cheap btw. Afaik these all came out as digipacks via Sony/Capo/Legacy so that is one way to try to tell these apart from the other releases. The last round of these remasters just came out this past week (StageStruck (live album), Defender, and Fresh Evidence). Some fans dis the reissues that have also been remixed, feeling the remixes are unnecessary, unneeded, unwanted, misleading, sacrilegious, that they are painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa etc etc etc, but I happen to like them simply because they are different; it gives me a way to hear the music in a different light. I don't even have a preference for the albums remixed vs. not, but for historical reasons it is probably better to hear the albums as they were first then explore the remixes later if you're interested. As far as his pre-solo band, Taste leans more to blues than rock. Those albums have still not come out remastered/reissued/etc. I don't know if those are even still in print or not. All the ones I have are on Polydor. As some others have said the best way to get into Rory would be to go see him play live which sadly is not possible anymore; he was an incredible performer and his music came across at a different level in a live setting. Seeing him live is what really made me a big fan.
Thanks. I looked around and found on the web where there are some other shots I took from that show. I thought I put some up in this forum but can't find 'em....if you want some other things to look at while listening to Rory try this... This is another of my favorite shots. Think it was at the start of the show. Before he took off his denim jacket and got down to bizness. That is hosted by Milo on his fansite shadowplays.com with a couple other of my photos as well as others. His site has loads of interesting info to read whilst listening to Rory. http://shadowplays.com/blog/ And I totally 4got about this but I have about 50 shots from that night hosted on my old photobucket account. Unfortunately photobucket went to hell and doesn't allow stuff to be linked to on other forums but try this. This is a shortened link using tinyurl.com to to a slideshow on photobucket of those shots: Rory Gallagher - Ripley 1982 Slideshow by Herman Munster (pretty funny, my photobucket username must be Herman Munster!) If that does not work then try going to it this way as not a link pasted in here, copy it into your browser and change the $ to be a "." and the # to be a "/" tinyurl$com#y8av4npz There are a series of shots (unfortunately scattered around out of order) there where Rory is jumping up in the air and sticking his strat into the low ceiling over the stage. Cool stuff but I guess you had to be there.
