Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A must-own CD, May 16, 2002
Rory Gallagher is the only musician for whom I am an unapologetic evangelist. Is he the best guitarist, the best showman, the best songwriter, the best singer? No, but he was one of the best all-around practicioners of blues-based rock. This is arguably his best album and I consider Side Two of the original album the best side of any of his LPs. I was disappointed that the guitar intro to "All-Around Man" was changed in the remastered product, but that's my only complaint. This album contains some of my favorite Rory songs, "Lost at Sea," "I Take What I Want," "All-Around Man," "Out on the Western Plain," and "At the Bottom." I agree that this was a transitional LP in Rory's solo career, marking a slight style change from his previous work. I never get tired of listening to "Out on the Western Plain," one of my top 3 Rory songs ("Crest of a Wave" and "Sinner Boy" being the other two). If you're new to Rory, this is one CD you must have (lots of people tout his live work over his recorded stuff, but I'm not one of them).
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9 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of Rory Gallagher's greatest albums, January 25, 2005
First, I want to comment on the reviewers who give this a one star rating based on what they claim is bad mastering. I no longer own this on LP (though I did at one time), but from the tone of the two reviews blasting the mastering, you would imagine that this was an unlistenable disc. That is an absurd claim. Having not compared the LP and the CD side by side, I can't speak on which is superior, but I will state categorically that no one not doing such a comparison would suspect that the CD is badly mixed. Dropping this from five stars to one based on some slight differences in recording quality is simply absurd.
No one need be afraid of this disc, and I can promise that anyone unfamiliar with Gallagher or this album will be astonished upon listening to it for the first time. Of the guitar gods of the sixties and seventies and eighties, Gallagher remains the least known. Gallagher's curse was that he was an extremely great guitarist, but only a very good songwriter and singer. Upon the departure of Mick Taylor from the Stones, it is rumored that Gallagher was approached to join the band. If true, the possibilities are tantalizing. Gallagher was not merely a better guitarist--whether slide, pick, or acoustic--than Keith, Brian Jones, Mick Taylor, or Ronnie Wood, but was a powerful performer in his own right. Much like Taylor did in his stint with the band, Gallagher, much more firmly rooted in the blues than Wood, would have kept the band focused much more on its roots, and he possibly could have made the Stones the world's greatest rock and roll band than they ended up being. Can you imagine what he would have been able to do on a song like "Tumbling Dice"? Gallagher was also nearly as strong a vocalist, with greater range, than Mick Jagger. It is one of the great could-have-beens in the history of rock.
Gallagher's musical skills are simply off the chart. There are only two musicians in all of rock that are, as far as I am aware, capable of both singing and playing a lead guitar part at the same time. Jimi Hendrix was one, and Gallagher the other. Though Gallagher wasn't the visionary that Hendrix was or as gifted lyrically on his guitar as either Hendrix or Richard Thompson, he can make his guitar sing like few in the history of rock. This disc is filled with a host of amazing moments where Gallagher makes his guitar an extension of himself, expressing his voice as easily with his instrument as others can their voices. With Gallagher he and his guitar are one. Just listen to the way the guitar counterpoints his singing in "Ain't Too Good," or the astonishing slide guitar throughout "Souped Up Ford," the latter featuring some of the greatest playing in all of Gallagher's catalog. Indeed, the only rock performer I know who surpasses Gallagher on on slide guitar is Duane Allman(check his slide work on "All Round Man"). And lest one think Gallagher's playing depends on doubletracking, I strongly urge them to pick up one of his live albums.
As much as I love Gallagher, his songwriting, while strong, is not usually quite up to the level of his playing. This album, however, contains one of the strongest set of songs of any album, perhaps not up to the level of his best album TATTOO, but among the best after that. And I'm not sure he has ever played better than on this one. There is also a wonderful blend of styles and change of pace. For instance, right after "Souped Up Ford," which is pure adrenaline, he moves into the more deliberate "Bought and Sold." Later we get a slow blues with "All Round Man," a lyrical number in "Lost at Sea," and towards the end a magnificent version of Leadbelly's oddball Western song "Out On the Western Plain," with some of the most deliciously fanciful lyrics in the history of American music ("What was the greatest battle ever on the Western plains?/When me and a bunch of cowboys ran into Jesse James").
Any fan of rock, blues rock, or great guitar needs this album. And I promise you that not one in a thousand music fans will complain about the sonic quality of the album.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great performance, but..., February 14, 2002
By A Customer
Like so many people I replace favorite vinyl with the new C D
versions-REMASTERED! EXTRA BONUS CUTS! This is one of my all-time favorites but somehow the record sounds much better! The vocal on Souped-up Ford makes me cringe. On the old vinyl release the vocals were more in the background-where they needed to be. I've never noticed such a change for the worse in any other updated C D I've bought. Am I the only one who noticed this?
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