Gary Moore

[GuitarGeek]

So, tonight's listening pleasure comes courtesy of guitar legend Gary Moore. I remember reading about Gary in Guitar World circa 1984, but didn't really get to hear much of his music until a few years later, when I rescued a CD copy of Victims Of The Future from used bin at the original Record Exchange on Coventry Road, and I've been a fan ever since.

Tonight we're starting with Corridors Of Power, his 1982 album. His rhythm section on this album happens to be Neil Murray and Ian Paice who had both just left Whitesnake. This is one of a handful of Gary's hard rock albums that I've never owned before, but I remember seeing the video for Always Gonna Love You on VH-1 Classic probably about 15 years ago (I don't remember ever seeing it on MTV way back when).

Anyway, this is a cool record. He does a good cover of Free's Wishing Well. Which I actually first heard on his Emerald Aisles concert video/documentary. I didn't know at first that i twas a cover, Gary at this time had a habit of writing "topical" songs (e.g. Murder In The Skies, Out In The Fields, etc), so I reckoned this was aonther one of those, this time dealing with the The Troubles.

There's a couple sort of ballad type things, notably Always Gonna Love You, which deserved to be a hit, but I guess it wasn't (at least not Stateside, it wasn't). But mostly this is a pretty go for the throat heavy rock record. Years later, I read that he got pushed further in that direction than he actually wanted to go in, but I thikn the upshot is pretty golden

[Mythos]

My favorite and only LP & CD by Gary, is Grinding Stone, it is extremely progressive for those who care about that sort of thing...!

[GuitarGeek]

My favorite and only LP & CD by Gary, is Grinding Stone, it is extremely progressive for those who care about that sort of thing...!

That's one I've never heard. I remember seeing it on CD at Borders circa 2002. Seems whichever label licensed that one, G Force, Dirty Fingers, and Live At The Marquee and reissued them all at the same time. I got the other three, but never got around to picking up Grinding Stone.

[ronmac]

Great player. I should have seen him in the early 90s at a local club. I don't think he came to the states anytime after that.

[Joe F.]

I have the two Skid Row albums he's on, plus Thin Lizzy's Black Rose. I saw him open for Rush in '84. Great player.

[rcarlberg]

I enjoyed him on "What's My Line" with Peggy Cass.

[GuitarGeek]

I have the two Skid Row albums he's on, plus Thin Lizzy's Black Rose. I saw him open for Rush in '84. Great player.

Black Rose is my favorite Thin Lizzy album. That was another one I got when the CD reissue came out, this time on Metal Blade Records. They licensed the last five albums the band did, all the ones after Live And Dangerous. I remember when they all turned up at a record store, and I flipped that one over, saw Gary Moore's name and visage on the back cover, and decided I had to have it. Great album!

One of the things I brought home with me from my trip to Amsterdam in 2006 was an LP copy. I'm sure if I looked a little harder, I'd have been able to find one Stateside, but it just so happened I went into this record store in Amsterdam, and that was one of the things I saw that I decided I had to have.

[rapidfirerob]

Collosseum II was a terrific project, my favorite with Gary.

[kid_runningfox]

Big fan here of Gary Moore's hard rock/metal period - particularly 79-85. His playing was never less than stellar, his lyrics...not so much. Some cool tunes, though, and it's a shame that some of the albums from that period (Dirty Fingers, Live at the Marquee immediately spring to mind) are now somewhat hard to find. Personally, I'm in a distinct minority that hated his switch to blues in 1990, especially Moore's particularly white, yuppyish take on the blues. That said, it was what he wanted to do at the time, and it was very commercially successful, so who am I to judge?

[Scrotum Scissor]

I really liked his work back in the 80s when I was a "hard rock" fan. Now I can't stand it, but that goes with most of what I fancied then. His 'Still Got the Blues' turn was way worse, though.

But I can still listen to Grinding Stone. There's that obvious clue from Steamhammer, Taste etc. (espec On the Boards) and the power-trio jazzy blues-rock thing that I always enjoyed.

[Zeuhlmate]

He is great on BBM, emulating Cream-Clapton way better than Clapton himself ever did since.

I wish though, that Bruce had sung all the tracks.

[spacefreak]

From his "solo" works I only like Grinding Stone.

His 'Still Got the Blues' turn was way worse, though.

I find it very difficult to listen to such stuff myself.

[SteveSly]

My favorite Moore album was always "Wild Frontier" . Great bombasatic rock with a great band. I only got to see him live once with Thin Lizzy on the Black Rose tour tour, and he was great.

[Dave (in MA)]

I enjoyed him on "What's My Line" with Peggy Cass.

To Tell The Truth

[GuitarGeek]

Big fan here of Gary Moore's hard rock/metal period - particularly 79-85. His playing was never less than stellar, his lyrics...not so much.

I think he was one of the better lyricists of that era. He put a lot of thought into songs like Murder In The Skies (which was about the Korean commercial jet that got shot down the by Russians), Victims Of The Future, Out In The Fields, I Can't Wait Until Tomorrow, etc.

Some cool tunes, though, and it's a shame that some of the albums from that period (Dirty Fingers, Live at the Marquee immediately spring to mind) are now somewhat hard to find.

Interesting. I haven't checked in ages, but I remember Dirty Fingers, Live At The Marquee, and G-Force all being reissued circa 1999-2000. Those were all issued by Jet Records, originally, but I think G-Force was the only one that Gary actually authorized/consented. As I recall, Dirty Fingers was an album that had actually been shelved, presumably his planned followup to G-Force. I don't know the specifics, but Jet put it out after Gary's subsequent success during the Corridors Of Power/Victims Of The Future period (during which time he was working for a different label). . He said that the record wasn't even finished, it was rough vocals and rough guitars all the way around. Likewise for Live At The Marquee.

I don't know if it was deliberate, but Jet's gambit with Dirty Fingers and Live At The Marquee probably undercut him a bit. In the space of like a couple years, six albums came out:
Corridors Of Power
Victims of The Future
We Want Moore (live album)
Rockin' Every Night/Live In Japan (as the title suggests, another live album)
Dirty Fingers
Live At The Marquee

I don't know why both We Want Moore and Rockin' Every Night exist, as they seem to have been recorded very close to each other, so why there were two live albums so close together, never mind a third one, seems a bit weird to me. I get why Rockin' Every Night was done, because everyone who goes to Japan makes a live album there. But then why do We Want Moore so soon afterwards?!

Personally, I'm in a distinct minority that hated his switch to blues in 1990, especially Moore's particularly white, yuppyish take on the blues. That said, it was what he wanted to do at the time, and it was very commercially successful, so who am I to judge?

I've never really heard the blues stuff, apart from one or two songs here or there. I have this vague memory of him having a video on VH-1, which I saw exactly once, for one of those early 90's blues records. Then some years later, the barmaid at work put what she was a Gary Moore CD on. It was a blues tune I remember hearing, but with way too "metal" guitar tone for the style of music.

But yeah, he apparently got tired of trying to compete in the metal field. He said after After The War flopped, he didn't spend several months again in a studio with a drum machine, writing and recording new songs and fighting with A&R guys who were presumably telling him to do something more mainstream (e.g. "Can you make it sound more like Poison?"). So he did that first blues record, and it did so well, it just sort of changed the trajectory of his career. In my opinion, not for the better, but then, like I said, I have the impression went further down the heavy rock rabbit hole than he intended. (shrug)

[moecurlythanu]

I only have one of his solo albums, Wild Frontier, bought after "Over The Hills And Far Away" was played on Empty V. I liked it's Irish Music - Hard Rock hybrid, despite the 80s production. I saw him once at a small venue in Cleveland, circa 1987-88, and while the performance was very good, he only played for an hour. Maybe 65 minutes. That's the shortest show from a headliner in my concert going career, as far as I can remember.

[kid_runningfox]

My favorite Moore album was always "Wild Frontier" . Great bombasatic rock with a great band. I only got to see him live once with Thin Lizzy on the Black Rose tour tour, and he was great.

That really where he lost me - the cod- 'Oirishness' of that album was so cornily cheesy that I still find it difficult to take seriously, even taking into account Moore's background. TBH, Thin Lizzy just did that sort of thing way better than Moore ever managed - as did bands like Hosrlips.

[GuitarGeek]

My favorite Moore album was always "Wild Frontier" . Great bombasatic rock with a great band. I only got to see him live once with Thin Lizzy on the Black Rose tour tour, and he was great.

Man, I would have loved to have seen the Black Rose tour. As I said earlier, that's my favorite Thin Lizzy album, I bet they were awesome. I think about the only Thin Lizzy show I would have liked to have seen more was when they opened for Queen (which, I believe also had Gary on guitar, who had been recalled after Brian Robertson broke his hand in a bar brawl).

Gary and Thin Lizzy were an interesting thing. He was in the band on at least three different occasions, and one of the last things Phil Lynott did before he went home was singing on Gary's Run For Cover album (I remember the review in Guitar Player referring to it as "Lynott's final recordings" or something like that, which was actually how I learned that he had passed away, I think). It's too bad Gary couldn't stay in the band permanently.

BTW, here's the Emerald Aisles documentary/concert video from circa Run For Cover. It has the videos for Out In The Fields (which I actually remember seeing, I think, once on MTV), Empty Rooms and Murder In The Skies, as well as lots of cool concert footage, and even Gary demonstrating the SynthAxe:

[GuitarGeek]

To Tell The Truth

Would the real Gary Moore please stand up?

[GuitarGeek]

To Tell The Truth

Would the real Gary Moore please stand up?

[Plasmatopia]

Personally, I'm in a distinct minority that hated his switch to blues in 1990, especially Moore's particularly white, yuppyish take on the blues. That said, it was what he wanted to do at the time, and it was very commercially successful, so who am I to judge?

Count one more in your minority.

[AdventAlan]

Greetings,

Love Gary's fusion work in particular, especially with Colosseum II. One of my favorite tracks from his Back On The Streets solo album (that's very much in the same style):



I've never heard Grinding Stone, so I'll have to check that out soon as well.

Cheers,


Alan

[AdventAlan]

Hi again,

I also recently found out that I'd seen him play with Thin Lizzy in 1977, when they opened up for Queen. (I wasn't that familiar with TL at the time, so I didn't have a point of reference about the lineup change for this particular tour.)

Cheers,


Alan

[Jerjo]

the cod- 'Oirishness' of that album was so cornily cheesy that I still find it difficult to take seriously

This may be the most "English" sentence I have seen this year. I have no idea what this means but I'm fascinated.

I was never a big fan of Moore's lyrics and his voice was, I guess, acceptable. But ye gods, the playing and that tone. That fat, glorious guitar ton

[Zeuhlmate]