It happens every time. I’m having a great conversation with somebody about Rory Gallagher. We’re talking about what a good slide player he was, how Deuce was so underrated, how he couldn’t have found a better bass player in Gerry Mcavoy. And then it happens. I hear those three terrible words “Didn’t Jimi Hendrix…….” And I know what’s coming next. The “we only use ten percent of our brains” of the music world. The “you can see the Great Wall of China from space” of Irish rock music. The “Andrew Wakefield was not in any way a complete joke and a charlatan” of blues rock. I look around, hoping there is a way to escape this myth I have heard so many times, but I am trapped, I cannot escape, and I have to hear those words that I’m sick of hearing, “Didn’t Jimi Hendrix say Rory Gallagher was the best guitarist in the world?”
No, it’s a myth! Stop saying it!
How this story is usually recalled is this, Jimi Hendrix is asked, “How does it feel to be the greatest guitarist in the world?” Hendrix responds, “Ask Rory Gallagher”. This is nothing but an urban legend with interchangeable parts. There are several versions of this, usually it is Eric Clapton/Jimi Hendrix, is asked, “How does it feel to be the best guitarist in the world?” and they respond “Ask Rory Gallagher/Prince/Phil Keaggy. Here, the fact checking site Snopes has an article on it:
So that settles that then. If you continue to say this you are a fibber, and I will tell everyone you are a fibber, and you will be known as the biggest fibber in whatever town or city you live in! But, Rory Gallagher was one of my favourite musicians, and I’m going to explain why.
By today’s standards, Rory Gallagher wouldn’t be considered as technical and precise as for example, Joe Satriani or Steve Vai (nothing against those guys, I’m a fan of them too). Now it’s hard to make a direct comparison, but I’m going to make the argument that Rory Gallagher was not lacking in technical precision, it’s just that he could change from a loose style to machine like precision depending on what was called for, he knew when to play loose and he knew when to give it dead on accuracy, and knowing when to do both was what made him special.
(My apologies to non guitarists, you may percieve the following paragraph of of me talking about pinch harmonics to be mind crushingly boring.)
Listen to this recording of “Messin’ With The Kid”, from Live in Europe, 1972:
Throughout most of the song, he’s playing with feel, not worried about being too technical, but listen to the pinch harmonics from 2:58 on. My goodness, that must have taken hours and hours of practice! To get that so dead on, with so little overdrive (by today’s standards), on the guitar. In order for me to play some pinchies, I have to have the overdrive turned up ridiculously high, but he could do it with low levels of overdrive, and was able to get such beautiful sounds. Some guitarists focus so much on technique that they forget about feel, other guitarists may have a certain distain for practicing their instrument and will miss out on what advanced techniques can offer them, but Rory was the best of both, playing in a loose, wild style where that was what was needed, and machine like precision where that was what was needed.
And his slide playing, my goodness Rory was an epic slide player. Slide playing is not easy, with the finger slide you’re effectively reduced to one finger, but he could make his guitar wail and scream with a slide to an extent that many guitarists can’t when just playing the neck with their fingers:
But I’d like you to notice something else about this recording of “Crest of a Wave”. The lyrics:
Well you can ride on the crest of a wave if that’s where you want to be
But does the look on your face mean you’re really feeling happy
Or do you feel like you’re standing on a wooden leg
Or a poor man much to proud to beg
Or a page from a book that can’t be read at all
That’s poetry, it really makes me wonder what he went through to write something like this. People often talk about how Rory Gallagher’s guitar playing is under recognised, and rightly so, but I wish people would say the same about his lyrics. I think lyrics are so often neglected in music, most lyrics are just “love,love,love,love” etc etc, but Rory wrote some stuff that really made you think. Check out A Million Miles Away, lyrics that seem to deal with being so incredibly lonely:
Why ask how I feel how does it look to you?
I fell hook, line and sinker, I lost my captain and my crew
I’m standing on the landing, there’s no one there but me
That’s where you’ll find me, looking out on the deep blue sea
While the guitar playing is top notch on this one, the guitar isn’t even the central focus, the central focus is the lyrics and his vocals. And his vocals capture the loneliness so much, maybe like many musicians, he could say through his music what he found too hard to say any other way. If a lot of singers sang about being a million miles away, their performance might be so flat and lifeless I might think they are only a half a mile away, but when Rory sings this you know he meant it.
Another side of Rory Gallagher that is often neglected is his acoustic work. If you heard this without knowing you’d never suspect it was Rory Gallagher, it sounds like it could have been one of the greats of Irish trad music:
So the idea that Jimi Hendrix praised Rory Gallagher is bunk.But let’s look at one of those who did praise him. One of my absolute favourite guitarists is Alex Lifeson from Rush. He talks here about what great conversations he had with Rory Gallagher while they were both on tour. And, my two favourite guitarists for pinch harmonics are Rory Gallagher and Alex Lifeson. And here Alex talks about how he learned to do pinch harmonics from listening to Rory Gallagher! Rory Gallagher and Rush went in two different directions, Rush changed their style every few years but always had a particular emphasis on prog, while Rory Gallagher never strayed far from blues rock, but I think Rory Gallagher’s influence can be heard in Lifeson’s playing even decades later.
And as to musical style, that’s what I also liked about Rory Gallagher. While blues and blues rock were in his blood, he probably never thought much about leaving them behind, he still managed to keep evolving and not end up in a musical rut. Check out these two, Bad Penny and Phiby. Bad Penny shows Rory rivalling the best of the hard rock bands, while on the more experimental Philby he experiments with a Coral Sitar, a type of guitar designed to imitate an Indian sitar. (I bought a Coral Sitar copy on the strength of Rory Gallagher’s work with the instrument.)
I’m currently reading this Hot Press interview with Rory Gallagher:
And something I can relate to is that he didn’t seem to be able to switch off that which he was passionate about. There was no taking a break, it was always there. I often feel that way myself, I would want to take a break from my music or my cycling or my astronomy, but it’s like it takes over, and sometimes I will spend hours working on my album or planning a cycling route even though that day I would have wanted to rest. I can really relate to this quote from the interview:
“I don’t know. If I could only be the relaxed type of musician, then I’d be much healthier because I could switch off for a night or go off for a holiday.”
I think I have these same feelings, I can’t “switch off” what I’m interested in often times. But Rory Gallagher talked about how he felt his inability to relax might actually shorten his life:
“My dream would be to be fit and healthy at 65 and still playing, but that’s asking too much of the man upstairs, it really is.”
Rory Gallagher died in 1995, at the age of 47. But in Ireland, he is far from forgotten. People will praise his music in every part of this country, and the same for many parts of Europe. I was nine when he died, so was not familiar with his music. But it would have been wonderful to see him play.
So, Jimi Hendrix saying Rory Gallagher was the best guitarist ever is just another urban legend. But what do you think of Rory Gallagher? I’ll leave you with this unreal performance of Shadowplay and you can decide for yourself!:
Ponderings Of An Autist 