Ireland In 50 Albums, No 8: Tattoo, by Rory Gallagher

Irish Examiner

2 days ago

Rory Gallagher was in a sweet spot in his career in 1973, the year he recorded his album Tattoo. It seemed everything was building towards it, the good and the bad. His band Taste had disbanded at the start of the decade, which freed him to set up the Rory Gallagher Band.
He was recording with his heroes, one year with Muddy Waters (1972), the next with Jerry Lee Lewis (1973). Melody Maker magazine voted him Guitarist of the Year in 1972, ahead of peers like Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page and Jerry Garcia.
'Rory was embarrassed by the Melody Maker poll,' says Dónal Gallagher, his brother and manager at the time. 'The magazine was a bible for music fans. He didn't expect it. It was quite something. He had come out of Taste, which had imploded. It wasn't going to destroy his career, but he received a lot of bad press, which he refused to comment on – the other musicians blaming him.'
Rory Gallagher working with Jerry Lee Lewis in 1973.
His bad experiences at the end of Taste had taken a toll on Rory. 'Mentally, they almost destroyed Rory, but he decided to get up and go, and get back out there playing, to forget about the past and move on,' says Dónal.
Gallagher got back on the horse with a vengeance. He had extraordinary stamina. In 1973, he played 160 gigs, including tours in the United States in the spring and autumn as well as hitting venues across Europe. His final gig of the year was on New Year's Eve at Dublin's Carlton Cinema. He also released Blueprint early in 1973, his third solo studio album, while finding time later that summer to bang out Tattoo.
'It was hard to catch your breath back then, the pace he was going at,' says Dónal Gallagher. 'It was a prolific time for him writing, done mostly in Cork. We'd stay at the family house on the Douglas Road. He was in his element. He was working on adrenaline. There was one or two nights, Rory and the band would come back from a gig at one or two o'clock in the morning and set up to record for a couple of hours, or Rory would go in and mix through the night.
'He didn't sleep. At that age, turning 25, you have the energy. Rory was a dynamo. He burnt himself out in the end, but he lived three or four lifetimes.'
Tattoo, by Rory Gallagher.
In July 1973, Gallagher carved out a couple of weeks to put some shape on what became Tattoo. His band was tightly knit at this point. Belfast bass guitarist Gerry McAvoy had joined him in 1971, and went on to spend 20 years riding shotgun. Classically-trained Lou Martin was on keyboards. Drummer Wilgar Campbell, who had a fear of flying, had left by mutual consent and was replaced by Welsh man Rod de'Ath. They were based in London, but it made sense to convene in Cork to rehearse the new album.
'We set up a recording studio at the Shandon Boat Club,' recalls Dónal. 'It was comfortable for Rory because he was at home. The guys loved staying at the Metropole Hotel. They always had great craic around the city. It was a very 'up' period. I'd describe it as his Cork album. It's a strong album from the Rory canon point of view because you've 'Tattoo'd Lady', one of the classics opening it.'
'Tattoo'd Lady' describes the life he was leading at the time: living under a canvas roof, roaming from town to town, like the circus or fairground way of life, and it captures his childhood memories. As a kid, Gallagher loved going to the Mardyke in Cork city to visit the fairground. It always caught them off guard when suddenly it would have disappeared, gone for another year. No trace left behind. The curiosities of the fairground are carved into the song, the shooting gallery, the penny slot machines, the bearded baby, the 'Tattoo'd Lady' herself.
'A track like 'Sleep on a Clothes Line' is also about the band's lifestyle on the road, living like a trucker,' says Dónal. 'For a month or more they never stopped. They kept driving through the night – that was the feeling. I remember my grandmother's bar on Cork's MacCurtain Street. A lot of customers who came in were dockers. They were so exhausted at the end of the day an expression they'd use was, 'God, I could sleep on a clothes line.'
''A Million Miles Away' is a far more sombre song. Rory used to stay in his bedroom for days on end. You'd almost have to bring meals up to him. He'd only come down occasionally. I told him, 'You need to get out of the house, get some sea air.' 'As kids, our grandmother used to take us down to Ballycotton. I remember driving a few us down for the day, my mother and himself. He disappeared out the cliffs. I started to worry because we couldn't locate him. I was heading back to call the coast guard when I saw him waving to me from the far cliff.
'I told him, 'You took the heart out of us. We thought you'd fallen off the cliffs.' He said, 'I just got inspiration for a new song. If I didn't sit down and write it there and then, I was going to lose it.' That I believe to be 'A Million Miles Away', looking out at the ocean, a million miles away, but at the same time he's in the bar with the band after a gig when his thoughts might be a million miles away. While it sounds a very sad song it's about getting peace of mind.'
In early August 1973, Gallagher and his band travelled to London to record the album in Polydor Studios. The fourth track on the album, 'They Don't Make Them Like You Anymore', brought out the jazz influences that permeated Gallagher; jazz was also a guiding light for de'Ath, the band's drummer. The German Carlos Olms was the house engineer working on the album.
'It was very much the experiment of Carlos to have the studio in the basement of the Polydor office block building,' says Dónal. 'In this huge empty basement, he rigged up an echo chamber. It was the early days of echo. You could get a lot of hollowness, which you hear very much on A Million Miles Away.'
Tattoo was released in November 1973. It received a favourable review from Rolling Stone magazine, believing it to be Gallagher's 'brightest and most joyful work, but still contains that streak of meanness which makes his live sets so powerful'.
Donal Gallagher, brother and manager of the late Rory Gallagher. Picture: Ger Bonus
What happened next
Rory Gallagher sold more than 30 million records. In 1975, he jammed with the Rolling Stones as the band auditioned for a guitarist to replace Mick Jones, but Gallagher was happier to continue with his solo career. Through the worst years of the Troubles, he steadfastly gigged every year in Northern Ireland while his contemporaries bypassed the region.
In 1990, he released Fresh Evidence, his final studio album. His health was failing, as alcohol, prescription drugs and 30 years on the road – often gigging 300 times a year – had taken its toll. He died June 14, 1995, aged 47.
Read More
Rory Gallagher and the town he loved so well