My Seventies Music

Category: Seventies Blues Rock

  • Gary Moore – “Wishing Well”, “Parisienne Walkways”, “Don’t Believe A Word” And “Still Got The Blues (For You)”

    Cover of 1979 Gary Moore album "Back On The Streets"
    As I mentioned previously, British (actually Northern Irish) rocker and guitar legend Gary Moore has made the Free track “Wishing Well” very much his own, and in fact, until the other day, I always thought he wrote it!

    Here is his studio version of “Wishing Well”

    This is Gary Moore playing “Wishing Well” live in Belfast, Northern Ireland (his home town) in 1984:

    And live in Sheffield, England, in 2007, as far as I can work out (in any case it’s Monsters Of Rock):

    In this 1979 clip Gary Moore plays a song by (and with) Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy, “Parisienne Walkways”, which was included on his 1979 album “Back On The Streets”:

    As a contrast, here he plays another Phil Lynott track from 1976, “Don’t Believe A Word”, also on the “Back On The Streets” album from 1979:

    Anf finally, though written well after the Seventies, “Still Got The Blues (For You)”:

    I think this is probably my favourite Gary Moore song.

    What’s yours?

    Paul

    Update: Gary Moore died in February 2011. R.I.P. Gary, your sound will be remembered for a long time.

  • Free – “All Right Now” and “Wishing Well

    Free was a UK band that had a strong influence on many other bands, with songs like “All Right Now” and “Wishing Well” being covered numerous times by many great musicians.

    These have included Gary Moore as well as later acts that singer and writer Paul Rodgers and other band members went on to play in – such as Bad Company, and the touring combination of Paul Rodgers and remaining members of Queen.

    Here is a live version of Free playing “All Right Now” in 1970 at the Isle of Wight Festival in the UK:

    And here is the original “Wishing Well:

    I wish you well…

    Paul

  • George Thorogood And The Destroyers – “You Got To Lose”, “Madison Blues”, “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”, “Ride On Josephine”, “I’ll Change My Style” And “Delaware Slide”

    Album cover of "George Thorogood And The Destroyers" (1977)
    The George Thorogood And The Destroyers album of the same name came out in 1977, with a track list (largely covers of blues evergreens at that stage) that included “You Got To Lose”, “Madison Blues”, “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer”, “Ride On Josephine”, “I’ll Change My Style” and “Delaware Slide”.

    Now GD and T, as they are sometimes known, or also George Thorogood And The Delaware Destroyers, are not exactly mainstream, so you didn’t hear a lot of them on the radio where I lived.

    In fact you didn’t hear them at all, and it wasn’t till I returned to New Zealand from Germany for a few weeks in 1982 that I heard this record for the first time staying with friends in my old university town of Palmerston North, but since then it has been one of my favourites.

    I bought a copy and took it back to Germany, where I introduced it to some acquaintances of mine in a blues band.

    They probably don’t remember that, but I like to think in doing so I had a slight influence on their music…

    Whatever.

    The eponymous album, as music critics seem to like to say – meaning the name of the record was the same as the name of the artist, go figure – begins at a cracking pace with “You Got To Lose”:

    The inimitable George Thorogood slide guitar sound continues with “Madison Blues”:

    This one is nearly ten minutes long, look at the way those fingers and thumb move on the electric guitar on “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” – and note the “duel” between guitar and saxophone at around six minutes into the song:

    I just looovvve this one, “Ride On Josephine”:

    “Delaware Slide” is pure instrumental:

    This next one is actually from later (1982), and was used a lot in films and television – “Back To The Bone”:

    Finally, from the first album again, “I’ll Change My Style”

    Be a shame if he did…

    Paul

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