THE YIN AND YANG OF RORY GALLAGHER

First of all, start with this YIN selection to hopefully rock your day.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83u_152Rtak&feature=related

It's not an actual Rory Gallagher video, it's one of those homemade slideshow deals, but the sound is pretty good on this clip of this song, called Crest of a Wave.

Secondly, I straight out copped the title of this article from one of those in my blog roll, Banjo's Place. I hope he doesn't mind, what with me admitting this and all. I read his page often and he's got a lot of interesting stuff to say. Funny to boot. Banjo's Place. Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

I'm sort of O-C when it comes to what I'm listening to at any given moment. My taste is global, it is nearly all encompassing and it is so broad that it is annoying to most people. Amongst most of my lead guitarist buddies, I am annoying because of my constant talking about Rory Gallagher.



I have damn near every album Clapton has made since his days with John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers to near the present day. I'm not near as fond as the post VH1-Unplugged era as I am of the pre VH1 Unplugged era. I've spent months at a time listening to nothing but Derek and the Dominos, fascinated with every aspect of their live and studio creations. I even have a two disc bootleg set someone gave me years ago of the Derek leftovers and outtakes from their studio sessions.

You can safetly say I'm an Eric Clapton fan. He's not to be compared to Rory, and they are each great in their own way. There is no greater guitarist amongst them, or among any of the other great guitarists of the 1960's and the 1970's in the blues rock genre. You simply can't compare apples to oranges, even though a number of great players like Beck, Page, Clapton, Gallagher, Keith Richards, Johnny Winter, Jimi Hendrix and other great, stunning lead guitarists came of age during the mid-sixties.



I'm sure there are some great guitarists I left off that list. Certainly, Mick Taylor, Brian Jones, George Harrison and John Lennon need to be on that list as well.


The point is, I'm in a Rory phase right now. Next month it might be a Zeppelin phase or listening to early Jane's Addiction or the first Guns and Roses album. I might be in a 70's Jimmy Buffett or Eagles listening jag, with a little Linda Ronstat "Heart Like a Wheel" thrown in for good measure.

And it goes on, from country to bebop jazz to fusion to even Morrocan trance music.

But Rory music has one thing I find compelling: Soul, Passion...in short, the blues. He had a way of venting some of his demons, I suspect, through his vigorous and simply moving playing. There's a yin and a yang to it, a dark and a light side, counter-balancing each other as they move within the circle around each other. Sometimes, the yin and yang happen in the same song.

I hope that some of these postings might turn someone on to Rory. He wrote some great songs and played some phenominal guitar. Rest in Peace, Rory.