Rory Gallagher: one of the Greatest

     So I actually remembered that I have been wanting to post about one of my all time favorite artists. He is one that not many people (or at least the ones that I have spoken to) have heard of. His name is  Rory Gallagher. He is another British artist that is of a similar style of Eric Clapton. He is Rock/blues but is more of the Rock persuasion. This man is my main inspiration for playing electric guitar or just for playing in general. He plays a Fender Strat as I do. I actually found him fairly recently say in the past year. Sadly, he died at the young age of 47 as a result of liver transplant complications. R.I P.  The structure of his music I found very unique because he used simple chord structures so it is very easy to pick up. Yet, he did these solos and improvs that were simply mindblowing. Also, when you watch him perform, you can tell just how much Rory thoroughly enjoyed playing and performing. I would recommend Rory Gallagher to anyone who plays and is trying to learn Rock guitar

This picture rather captures a sense of his talent and his thorough enjoyment of what he did.

This is one of my favorite songs and again captures his essence as an musician

The First Genre: Progressive Rock

      Out of all the genres, I have decided to start out with Progressive Rock because I feel that Rock is one of the biggest cultures of music (aside from Classical, which we shall get into later hopefully because classical is more or less the base from which all other genres stem).
      I shall start off with The Beatles. This British band formed in 1960 under the lead of John Lennon. They headed the British Invasion of music into the U.S.  Before their debut, they were club players and would perform in local clubs around Liverpool which was their hometown. They also went through several members before they had a final set of members. Their final lineup consisted of John Lennon as vocalist/backup guitar, George Harrison as lead guitarist, Paul McCartney on Bass/Backup Vocals and Ringo Starr as the Drummer.
When they were fairly new, in 1963 they aired a few performances on The Ed Sullivan Show where they played their debut LP "Please, please me." This group also made several films. The likes of which were lighthearted and entertaining. These films featured many of their great hits. The names of them are
1. A hard Days Night
2. Help
3 Magical Mystery Tour
as well as a cartoon by the name of Yellow Submarine
I have seen A Hard Day's Night and Help. If you enjoy The Beatles I would recommend these films. I would say that some of their best albums are their early works such as Rubber Soul, A Hard Day's Night, Help and Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band which is actually a later Album

Here is one of their early songs from the 60s

"Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends"

     The show is about to begin, you hear the roar of the crowd down to a dull. Then, right when the first member makes his appearance onstage the crowd rises as one in a deafening roar and you are taken on a journey from which there is no going back.

     My purpose is simple. To give a guide to those people who seek out good music. I have listened through nearly every genre. Granted, there are some that I myself do not particularly care for but have still tested those waters just to see if anything substantial surfaced. However, these recommendations are simply from my personal tastes and some of you may not particularly care. As I said before I listen to nearly every genre. My base that I have spanned out from is Progressive Rock. I hope you all enjoy and I look forward to supplying what ever help I can concerning any questions that may arise.

     The title of this first post is a quote from the british band Emerson, Lake and Palmer(also known as ELP). this phrase became their show opener. it is the beginning a 20 min piece called Karn Evil 9. This band took  Classical and Rock and combined them into a successful career. Each member had intense Classical training. Keith Emerson on keyboards and synth. Greg Lake on bass/guitar and Carl Palmer on Drums and Percussion. The fascinating thing is that instead of having a lead guitarist, they swapped out for a bassline and the keyboard/synth took the place and created a very unique sound. granted there are some songs with acoustic guitar. This band was very successful in the 70s and even somewhat in the 90s. They are just one of the many old Progressive Rock bands that left a successful mark in the music industry.

Here you can see the song that they would open their future shows with. This was also before greg played bass. Even so, notice how the keith takes the solo with his keyboards.