G: Rory Gallagher

R
Dr y Callagh er bega n playinj,!
guitar back in County Donegal in
his native Ireland at age nine and
when he was 15 he joined t he Fontana
shcwban d and then later on anot her
shcwband called Impact. His first major
int ernational success however was in
1966 with t he band Taste. who recorded
two albums ' Taste' - 1969 and ' On The
Boards' - 1970. The band reached their
peak at the now legendary 1970 Isle of
Wight festival - where they shared the
bill with Jim; Hendrixand Free.
Taste split up in 1971 and (rom that
point right up unt il his tragic death in
June 1995 at the age of 46 Rory followed
his own very successful solo care er
during which he recorded around 14
albums wit h combined sales in excess of
30 million copies! In terms of style RoT}'
covered more or less every blues
approach imaginable - acoustic blues,
Chicago blues, ragti me, folk blue s,
bott leneck blues, Texas blues, boogie
woogre. Mississippi Delta blues,
Louisiana swamp blues, Appalachian
blues, modern blues and blues rock! As
well as all of these styles there were also
elements of both Irish traditional music
and jazz in his approach, particularly
regarding his rhythmic phrasing which
was often very invent ive and instantl y
recognisable as being his own...
In t his mon th 's examples we will
unfortunately only scratch the surface
by looking at his blues/rock approaches
- you would however, be well advi sed to
check out his albums to hear what a
tr uly versatile, inspiring and creative
playerhe reallywas.
Have Fun!...
Performance Notes
Ex 1 Blister On The Moon - Intro section
This chord-based intro is made up of three different sections. The
fi rst of these in bars 0-8contains a simple E- DIE passage - as you
play this make sureyou observe the muting indications that appear
on the last two 16th notes of bars2, 4, 6 & 8 - these arevital to the
'feel' ofthepart. The secondsection found in bars9,12feat uresan E
- G- C- 0 progression that is played in a mannerwhich is actually
very reminiscent of the sort of rhythm style Kurt Cobai n used in
Nirvana some 20 odd years later! Once again. watch out for the
mutedchordsduringthissection.
The third section in bars 13-20 rounds the part off with three
different twobar phrases comprisinga coupleof 1' 1 notechord' hits'
followed by wah wahfills that last for a bar and a half each. After
playing through these as written try coming up with some similar
ideasof your own that alsolast for thesameduration - havinga set
space to practise fills can often be a very benefi cial way of working
onyour phrasing.
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Ex 2 What's Going On - Intra/verse
What ); Going On is one of the best known and most popular
Taste tracks. The int ra and verse as shown here has an al most
lati n feelto it - not ice how the accents fall on 1, 2 & 4 in bar 1
and 1, 3 & 4 in bar 2. To make t hi ngs even more tricky each
accent marks the start of a short hammer-onlpull-off phrase - is
this ornamentati on perhaps a litt le of Rory's Irish influence
creeping in?Anyway, you may need to practise this slowly along
with either a drum machine or a metronome in order to get it
'tight' . Also, another thing to look out for is the 3/4 bar that
occurs at bar 7 which can easily catch you unawares!
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Ex 3 same Old Story - Verse

this is a good arra nging device and certa inly helps t o create a
litt le ext ra listener interest. As you play this one you shou ld
aim for a fairly relaxed feel - it's easy t o accidenta lly rush it -
beware!
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Rory's musi c was full of great grooves and this R&B flavour ed
idea is certainly no except ion. Not ice as you listen to eit her
the original or the OTCD version how space is left at the end
of each two bar phrase to allow the bass to come t hrough -

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Ex 4 Morning Sun Main repeat rift figure
In common with Ex2, this is another riff that to myears has a
cer tain ' Irish' flavour to it - perhaps it' s all those 16th note
triplets? Notice how (after the pick-up bar) the main repeating
riff starts up which is repeated 12 times in a row! Try playing
along with i t, keeping it in time throughout - it' s actually
quite hard not to accidentally rush as you play the hammer-ens
and pull-cffs - so take care!
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Ex IS Messln' With The Kid (Uve Version,
Intro/Verse
This up-tempo bluevrcck styled trackwas alwaysill big favourite at
lin shows and is cer tai nly one of Rory's best known tunes.
Technically, there is nothing too hard here; jmt aim to keep it
' tight' and play it With plentyof aggression, attackandaltit ude!

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Ex 6 Cradle Rock (Uve Version, - Intro/maln riff

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Taken fTom the opt'ning t rack on Rory', c!aMic ' Insh Tour 74'
live album, this is another eumple which ccntams qurte Incky
phnsl ng so It m.ly be a good idea to tan your nme and work
through II slowly. bar by bar if neceSSolry. Notice howthis riff is
similar in approach to Peter Green's classtc Oh Well riff and
G: Rory Gallagher
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G: Rory Gallagher
Ex 7 Contlnenta' Op - 'ntro/ma'n riff
This t u m p l ~ kicks off wit h an intro which is playtd in wry
much .to ' cut off style - make sun that you obul'Yt the lCO)
symbols during this put. The next section which runs from
bars 9-16 futu rn a frw bars which contain ' sil log.J;insl lour'
phrasing; as you play these you shoul d try to ket p thtm as even
as possible. List en elesely, the n play along wit h enber the
original reronhng or the OTCDversion if you t ntounttr any
problrnu WIth this ~ l

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Ex B The Loop - Main theme
71lr Loop ISapparr ntly the name gtven to the rarsed railway
which runs round the centre of Chicago - hence the tra m
noues at the start 01 tnt origmal version! n us piece you may
a lso reccgmseas being tnt theme from the TV program ALlttlt
BII Of Fry And Laurie. It is basedon .to st raight up-tempe 12 bar
boogie WOOgttIChle.tgo blues in th e by of C which is pla.yd In .to
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basia lly uses the same melodic passagelfingtring thr ouahout
which is SImply trarupesed up and down the neck as 1M chords
change. On the OTCD I also playd it an ocUw lower to fill it
out a bit - )'OU shouldn't haw any problems in comi ng up with
your 0'NI1 fingeri ng for u us part.
G: Rory Gallagher
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Ex 9 Public Enemy No1 - Introlverse
Bars } .I:\ of this Texas style blues intra rely fairly heavily on
funky double-stop (two-not e) bends. As you play these you
should use t he Side of your RIHthird finger to hrre t he G and
B string.s - assisted by finger s one and two. If played correctly,
the upper note 01 each double-stop ten the Bstrmg) should go
up by a semitone and the lower note fC string) should go up by
a tone. The final four bars of this example again use double
stops only t his time they ar e played 'st raight' and are used to
out line a si mple desce nd ing cho r d pr ogr ess tcn of A7,
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Ex 10 The Mississippi Sheiks - Inbo and 1st
verselbrldge/chonls
Thu eumplc is one of my penonaI favourites! The original wnion
features Geny McAvoy on baM and Ttd McKenna on drums (who
incidentallyhas playedwith mybanda few times in the past!). I fed
that this is a great example of inventive chordal embellishment _
noti ce how Rory adds many fills and suspensions throughout
which always keep things interesting. Another common thing that
occurs here is the way in which he doubles his vocal 1i ne in bars
10-11 and 14-15 (he abo did this in the inlro of last month's
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Unplugged pitce OuJOn7he 1 t ~ D 7 1 PmIJ.
Incidentally, on the ori ginal wl'$ion the 'scrapes' that II(t\lT at
the start of the piecesound to me like theyma),haw been achievW
by using the mic stand as a bottleneell! On the OTCD I used a
pick scrape which I think works okay. f'inally. you might notice
howsimilar thegroove andstructure of this exampl e is to the Pearl
Jam trackAJiue- Jwonder if it wasperhaps an influence?
G: Rory Gallagher
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Next month we will take il look at H for The Sensahcnal Alex
Harvey Band. See you then.
Sounu:
This month's esaronleswhere taken (romthe following albums:
Exsl -4: 'Taste' - Polydor Special 2384 076.
Ex 5: 'Calling Card' - The c-xenBootleg senes . ESBeD 187
Ex6: 'Irish Tour 74' - Fiend CD120
En 7-9: 'ABlue Day For The Blues' _ IRS 72438 3578320
Ex l (): 'Pho to Finish' - Chrysalis CIlR 1170 OT