Artist: Gallagher, Rory
Label: Sony BMG
Release: 1979
Rating: 4.5/5
Rory Gallagher, the giant of white blues, is one of those musicians whose love of music knew no bounds. Whether it’s his legendary battered Fender Stratocaster, a tamburica, a sitar or a harmonica, his love and devotion to the blues managed to pull along plenty of more or less lost souls, who in his honest, often downright naïve interpretation frequently run into a mirror image of themselves. His approachability, simplicity and sincerity, which seem almost impossible to find in the stepmotherly embrace of the music industry, make Gallagher a phenomenon all his own, and the magic formula has to be sought mainly in his wholehearted enjoyment of and devotion to creating.
Top Priority is Gallagher’s sharpest record, and by far his nastiest. After the big success of Photo Finish, the guitarist keeps moving away from his traditional blues-folk arrangements. This time there’s not a trace of the slow, mostly acoustic songs the man entertained us with so well on previous albums. What Rory serves up this time is plain, good old dirty blues rock. With Top Priority Gallagher stays true to his traditional way of communicating: simple lyrics, often clearly autobiographical, which make him very approachable to every listener, and where we often can’t shake the feeling that the guitarist is “toiling away” just for us. Beyond an incredible sense of warmth and understanding, which Rory gives us so selflessly, there’s practically nothing more you could ask of an artist.
Rory invites us along for the ride first with the wild rocking of Follow Me, which sketches out the basic look of the album right from the start. Thanks to McAvoy’s punchy bass playing and a determined drum beat, the energetic song shamelessly screams with a craving for Gallagher’s guitar malevolence. Sleaze you can’t resist. For everyone who still dares to poke further after that opening warning, there’s Philby, where Rory, with his masterful command of the electric sitar, pours oil on the fire by adding a typical Eastern flavor. This excellent dirty blues once again mirrors the guitarist’s incredibly wide range of expression, with which he surprises from album to album. Or not! Because after the initial “pigging out,” the very welcome lighter Wayward Child is already waiting for you, full of optimism, typical of Rory’s restless soul. A song bursting with positive energy, it reaches its peak with the playful mastery of the guitarist’s closing solo, brilliantly backed by the McAvoy – McKenna rhythm section, for whom Top Priority is only the second time working together.
Being a bluesman also takes a good helping of humorous self-criticism. One of the finer examples of that is the wonderfully heavy blues Keychain, a story about a man who tries to slip out of the grip of his past by any means. Honestly, you’ll have a hard time finding anything better than I need a fast train, I’m leavin’ on the double or I’m playing no games, this ain’t no water pistol. For all lovers of raw slide elements, there’s At The Depot, a rock & roll number, whose complete opposite is the angry aunt Bad Penny, perfection in every musical respect. A Southern approach takes care of the song’s basic structure this time, while Rory, searching for new discoveries, picks up the sitar again. With Just Hit Town you’ll be forced to get off your butt and get ready for the explosion of proper “bad ass” boogie blues rock that will quickly take you to a new orgasm. Sex and booze walk hand in hand through Of The Handle too, which brings us to the critical point where your ears are finally in need of a thorough pest-control treatment. This energetic and exciting album wraps up with the bouncy Public Enemy No.1, heavily inspired by Rory’s love of gangster films, which makes the whole thing perhaps stray a bit out of its intended frame near the end of the album. Despite this little “inconvenience,” Gallagher delivers one of the more exciting moments in the history of blues rock music with Top Priority.
Lineup
Rory Gallagher: vocals/guitar/harmonica
Gerry McAvoy: bass
Ted McKenna: drums
Production
Rory Gallagher & Alan O’Duffy
Track list
1.Follow Me
2.Philby
3.Wayward Child
4.Keychain
5.At The Depot
6.Bad Penny
7.Just Hit Town
8.Off The Handle
9.Public Enemy No.1
Album length: 46.48
