It was Rory Gallagher’s then label, Chrysalis Information, who inadvertently named his tenth album. High Precedence, the brisk follow-up to 1978’s well-received Photograph-End, arrived on the again of a vastly profitable US tour which resulted in constructive press at residence and overseas, scary Chrysalis into revealing that their “top priority” was the discharge and promotion of the prolific Irish star’s subsequent album.
Although Gallagher selected the phrase because the document’s title to remind the corporate executives of their promise, Chrysalis had good motive to assist him each inch of the way in which. They noticed he was in high-quality form creatively and, as Photograph-End had already demonstrated, he had the resilience required to sidestep the post-punk period’s revolving door of fads and fashions.
Again to the necessities
Gallagher had, nonetheless, made a number of adjustments of his personal. He reshuffled his band’s personnel previous to Photograph-End, retaining longtime bass lieutenant Gerry McAvoy, however stripping the line-up again to a muscular energy trio accomplished by ex-Sensational Alex Harvey Band drummer Ted McKenna. As he advised North America’s Document Overview in April 1980, he’d discovered this course of reinvigorating.
“There’s something about a three-piece,” he mused. “You’re really back to the essentials, it’s very rhythmic and aggressive, and I like that. With keyboards, you’ve got extra texture and all that, but it cuts down the free-form style. I’m happier in a three-piece band.”
Gallagher’s workforce had recorded Photograph-End at Dieter Dierks’ studio exterior Cologne in Germany. They determined to return there for the High Precedence periods as they loved the complicated’s relaxed, but artistic vibe. The document they emerged with, nonetheless, was each bit as pressing and compelling as its quick predecessor.
‘I just do my own thing, whatever it is’
High Precedence opened with the anthemic, shape-throwing “Follow Me” and the tracklist was once more lengthy on exuberant rockers comparable to “Wayward Child,” the atmospheric, Southern rock-styled “Bad Penny” and the thrilling “At The Depot,” with the latter quantity affording Gallagher the chance to let rip with some really imperious slide guitar.
Aside from “Keychain” and the smoldering “Off The Handle,” the Cork man’s blues influences had been much less evident than regular, however a number of important stylistic departures greater than redressed the steadiness. To this finish, the entire band carried out with swagger to spare on the atypically funky, Hendrix-ian “Public Enemy No.1,” whereas the evocative, noir-flavored “Philby” discovered Gallagher drawing unlikely comparisons between the infamous double agent Kim Philby and his personal stressed rock’n’roll way of life.
“I love that whole espionage thing,” he advised Document Overview. “I thought there were some parallels to the rock world. It’s a spy song and he’s the ultimate spy. I added the electric sitar to give it a slightly exotic feel and there’s some mandolin on it also. I hope to do more songs like that, using more unusual themes.”
Making blues-based materials come alive
First launched on September 16, 1979, High Precedence was rapidly embraced by Rory Gallagher’s fiercely loyal fanbase and it quickly discovered favor among the many period’s extra tuned-in critics, comparable to Creem’s Michael Davis, whose overview sagely famous that “after a decade on the boards, he can still make blues-based material come alive”. 4 a long time on, that remark nonetheless holds true: the exhilarating High Precedence has barely aged a day. Certainly, its inherent freshness exhibits precisely why this singular performer was at all times proper to observe his coronary heart and eschew the business’s continuous turnover of tendencies.
“Well, I just go doing my own thing, whatever it is,” Gallagher mentioned in 1980, illustrating this level. “I think it’s modern and valid and moves in its own way. The next thing you get is new wave and that’s not that different, it’s back to basics, which is where I’ve been all along. I think good rock’n’roll and blues are timeless – it’s not a fad.”
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