Search - Taste (R. Gallagher) :: Taste

Born on the wrong side of time ... indeed.

CU82 | Atlanta, GA | 12/19/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Having no clue what I was getting when I first bought this back in the early 70's, I have to confess that I am now certainly quite biased when it comes to the music of Rory Gallagher. I'm guessing that it was the spring of 1973 or so when my parents took me shopping and I found my way to the music department and discovered a bin loaded with discounted cassette tapes. I was in my very early teens (i.e. not yet driving) and my musical knowledge was still pretty limited. What I saw in the bargain bin looked to be a collection of blues based rock bands with a few psychedelic holdovers from the late 60's: Fleetwood Mac, Cold Blood, Country Joe & The Fish, Ten Wheel Drive, and Dave Mason were the ones that I had my eye on. This would be a personal purchase made from my very limited funds so I could only afford one (even at the discounted price). The decision was made even more difficult when I dug down deeper into the bin and found Taste's first album. The cover art caught my eye so I scanned the song titles to see if I could tell what type music this cassette might contain: "Blister On The Moon", "Dual Carriageway Pain", "Hail", "Born On The Wrong Side Of Time" ... it sounded quite interesting. But, should I choose something based on a cool cover and interesting song titles instead of selecting from bands that I had at least heard (via older cousin's and friends) or heard of? Absolutely!



Fast forward 30+ years and I still hold this release in such high regard that I make sure that it is always packed in the car when I take a long trip. It is a uniquely pure-yet-raw collection of tunes. The tone and the volume/power that comes through in the band's playing on songs like "Born on the Wrong Side of Time", "Sugar Mama", "Blister on the Moon", "Same Old Story", and "Dual Carriageway Pain" are so brutally honest and emotional that to refine it for the sake of polish and precision would totally defeat the purpose. The softer (but not soft!) cuts like "Leaving Blues", "Hail", and "I'm Moving On" are pristine in comparison without sacrificing any of the emotion or grit. Richard McCracken's bass and John Wilson's drumming on "Leaving Blues" set the tempo perfectly for Rory's slide guitar bursts and their steady presence in Hank Snow's country blues/shuffle "I'm Moving On" really makes that number swing. The synchronization of Rory's playing with his vocal delivery on "Hail" is the reason that this song still rates among my favorites in all of his catalog. Similarly, Rory's sing-the-notes-he's-playing free-for-all on "Same Old Story" is another special treat. The hard rock treatment that Taste gives to the bluesy "Catfish" is, in a word, EXCEPTIONAL. There are hard rock tunes out there that don't have the kick that Taste's reworking of this blues classic has. Cactus fans, think of what that band did with Howlin' Wolf's "Evil" and you'll have a good idea of what I'm talking about.



The raw emotion and passion displayed on Taste's first release and the impressive creativity found on their second offering, "On The Boards", has seldom been matched by bands with far greater output to their credit. It is a shame that this band did not endure."

A major debut from the guitarist's teenaged guitarist

Mr. Thomas Thatcher | Salisbury, UK | 01/24/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Like other reviewers, I saw Rory at a festival and was hooked. It was Woburn Abbey in 1968 and we had already had our ears reamed by a quite dreadful performance by Hendrix - out of tune (horribly), out of time (woefully), perfunctory, noisy, uninspired. In fact, I wonder if the Great God was like this on stage more often than not. Anyway, on the Sunday evening on came Taste and just blew Hendrix and his foul noise away - and I was very far from the only one to think that although few would admit it today since Hendrix has been canonised.



I went to see the band at the Marquee very shortly after that (Rory, Norman Damery and Eric Kitteringham) and Rory told me that they had done a few sessions and had one single on the Irish Major Minor label - Blister on the Moon c/w Born on the Wrong Side of Time. After a long hunt I tracked it down and played it to death.



After more gigs than people realise in this line-up, Gallagher formed the band that plays on this, the first "real" Taste album. The two Major Minor tracks are repeated and show an already good feel for composition. The epic "Sugar Mama", which was a tour de force on stage and used to include Summertime and also a Chim-chiminee riff, comes off well here, very raw and basic, although recorded in the back of a Mini, I guess. "Hail" is a very odd acoustic song with wierd words, with a small quote from Bach in the instrumental section. "Leaving Blues" is good, well played and thoughtful, and shows Gallagher's love of country blues artists such as Blind Boy Fuller, Scrapper Blackwell and the composer of Polk Salad Annie, the hugely impressive Tony Joe White. Dual Carriageway Pain starts with a searing riff and a good punchy rock song follows. To avoid track listing, the whole album is a canny mix of acoustic, blues and almost rock songs that showed Rory's ability in all fields as well as pretty good support from Ritchie McKraken and John Wilson, playing a lovely snappy Rogers kit. Movin' On is a lovely country shuffle with a nice elctro acoustic solo, very well sung.



"On the Boards" followed this which was a real groundbreaker and featured the solo of solos on "What's going On?", as well as Rory's first foray into alto sax, because "nobody can make it sound how I want" he told me.



Taste is a very good debut from three young lads and shows that Rory was to become a major force, which he did. The new live DVDs available from Amazon remind us that he becaame arguably the most exciting player in a basic no effects, no pedals format. He was never ever boring and this CD is worth every penny.



Later he went on to record with Muddy in "The London Sessions" which for him was like meting God. For the record, his contributions to the album are light years ahead of all the other usual suspects. Even from the early days, Rory "got" the blues.



My son watches the DVDs all the time. He manges to resist Green Day, Yellowcard, Fall Out Boy and all these other noise merchants. There's hope.

"