And Then

Rory Gallagher - Irish Song Writing

What is it that these Irish chaps have got, then? Boomtown Rat Gerry Cott once suggested that it was the old Celtic story-telling tradition manifesting itself in powerchorded format. Take “Rat Trap”, for example —very long for a number one single, but it tells a story which, presumably, people got into. Unless it was just the sax riff. Rory G. tends to agree.

“Lyrically I think there's a little twist that some of the Irish writers have, like Lynott has, and Van Morrison of course. Some people think that there's a slightly different sound to the Irish groups. A lot of Irish writers tend to write little stories, it's a good point actually. Semi-Celtic legendary or mystical things. Van used to write semi-autobiographically in things like ‘Madame George’ or ‘Cypress Avenue’.

“Bob Geldof is a different writer, his writing is more journalistic, more modern. It's not as unconscious as the way Van would write, Van doesn't sound like he sat down and worked at it. Bob's writing is a very structured, methodical kind of writing, but then again, why should he be like Van Morrison by any means? We all write in different ways. That's where it should end — any more speculation other than the fact that Irish groups are good is just superfluous.”

Rory went on to shed a little light on his own creative processes.

“I've written stories, but more like from an American flashpoint. I've written things like ‘Last Of The Independents’ as a gangster running away. ‘In Your Town’ is (from the ‘Deuce’ album on Polydor) is about a jailbreak, about a load of gangsters going over the wall. I write other kinds of songs too, I try to keep my writing allied to the actual force of the music as much as possible. ‘Mississippi Sheiks’, that's about a country blues group that actually existed on the streets of the South called the Mississippi Sheiks. They're dead now. They were just a fiddle and guitar duo, they used to make some really nice music. In the song I kind of go into a time machine and go back in time. It's a slow rock song, and I just try and conjure up the atmosphere of the time, y’know. Songs can come in all kinds of ways."

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