Year: May 1972 (CD 2005)
Label: BMG Japan Inc. (Japan), BVCM-37641
Style: Blues, Blues Rock
Country: Cork, Ireland (2 March 1948 - 14 June 1995)
Time: 59:26
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 400 MbFor
some reason, I bought this album via mail-order. It was 1972. I was
fourteen years old and I paid the going rate of around ?2.25 (in postal
orders) to the record store I’d seen advertised in ‘Sounds’ magazine.
For two weeks, I rushed home from school in excited anticipation of its
arrival. After what seemed an eternity, it arrived … with a note stating
my remittance was (I think) about 25p short. Yet the nice, ever so
trusting people at the record store just asked I send another postal
order with my next order.
However, by the time I‘d saved enough from
my paper round to buy my next LP, I’d discovered Listen Records and
Virgin Records in Glasgow. I never did order from the mail-order store
again. A few months later, I read in ‘Sounds,’ the company had gone
bust! Was it my 25p that sent them over the edge? I’ve carried that
burden of guilt now for fifty-one years!
The record itself, though:
this was ‘big boys’’ music! A mix of self-penned and rearranged
standards, the seven tracks blew me away with their intensity. Driven by
the furious bass playing of Gerry McAvoy, and crashing drums of Wilgar
Campbell, Rory’s searing Stratocaster playing cuts through like a knife.
His playing has everything – little flecks of jazz inspired backing to
his quieter vocal moments; big, chunky heavy riffs, like in his own
composition, ‘Laundromat,’ and of course, the blues! Whether it be fast
and loud as in the opening’ ‘Messin’ With The Kid’ or the slower, almost
metronomic ‘I Could Have Had A Religion,’ Rory pre-empted, and
answered, the query posed by Deacon Blue, seventeen years later: yes –
not only can a white man sing the blues, he can damn well play them too!
Yet,
though heavily blues influenced, ‘Live In Europe’ has such a variation
in sounds that it remains fresh and exciting from start to finish – even
after over fifty years of regular play!.
‘Pistol Slapper Blues’ is
an acoustic cover of Blind Boy Fuller’s song from ‘nineteen twenty
something or other,’ as Rory himself says; ‘Going To My Home Town’ is
one of Rory’s own compositions – a real stomper of a track, the famous
Strat being swapped for a mandolin.
‘In Your Own Town’ is another of
Rory’s, this time almost ten minutes of heavy blues and spectacular
guitar playing. Album closer is ‘Bullfrog Blues,’ another ‘traditional’
blues song written the Twenties and re-arranged by Rory. It’s a truly
explosive ending, with terrific bass and drum solos thrown in for good
measure. The production and sound quality is top notch, something that
can’t be said for many ‘Live’ albums and I can attest the album truly
replicates the sound and atmosphere of a Rory concert. Not only was
‘Live In Europe’ my proper introduction to heavy rock, it also took me
down the rabbit hole of blues music – a tunnel I am still exploring.
It’s influenced my music of choice from a spotty fourteen year old to
grumpy old git, and remains the most treasured record in my collection.
(onceuponatimeinthe70s.com/2023/09/23/my-all-time-favourite-album-rory-gallagher-live-in-europe/)
01. Messin' With the Kid (06:25)
02. Laundromat (05:12)
03. I Could've Had Religion (08:35)
04. Pistol Slapper Blues (02:54)
05. Going to My Home Town (05:46)
06. In Your Town (10:03)
07. What in the World (07:40)
08. Hoodoo Man (06:02)
09. Bullfrog Blues (06:45)
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