Farewell Gary Moore
Monday, February 7, 2011 at 12:01AM 
Gary Moore, formerly of Thin Lizzy, has died. His body was found in Spain where he was on vacation. A cause of death is not yet known. BBC interviewed Thin Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell after news of Moore's death broke. According to the BBC report, Bell said he was "in shock..." because "Moore was so robust."
While most people immediately recognize Moore from his work with Thin Lizzy, he did have a prolific solo career and worked with a slew of other musicians including Ozzy Osbourne and Jackson Browne. Moore had great blues feel and instantly provided groove to any track he touched. BBG! writer Christian fancies himself a blues guitarist and he weighed in on Moore's passing. Christian says:
"Gary Moore was always one of "those guys." You know, great guitar player, but somehow not on the A-list. He had some great songs, like "Out In the Fields" and "After the War," but, for me, he was more the guy who added some color to a compilations, than someone you followed rabidly. That changed overnight with the release of Still Got the Blues. See, I love the blues as much as I love rock and metal, and overnight, with a sappy ballad that was nine parts "Parissiene Walkways" and perhaps one part pseudo-blues riding high on the charts, he sold a whole generation of guitar players a CD full of incendiary blues playing, and brought players like Albert Collins and Albert King in to the limelight where they belonged. His next CD included a collaboration with BB King, and from there, he played blues for the rest of his life, with great skill and emotion. It was through loving his blues stuff that I went back and really came to appreciate his rock output more, too. As a guitar player, I can say I spent a year learning how to play that first album, and I learned a lot from it. Because Peter Green was being obtuse, the tab book didn't contain my favorite song, "Stop Messin' Round," which forced me to learn how to work out songs by ear. I don't know if I play at all like Gary Moore, but I know I try very hard to. As a lover of guitar music, I can only say I'm shocked and saddened to hear that we've lost a guy who was perhaps never huge in the mainstream eye, apart from a few minutes back in 1990, but who still made a real impact on the genres and on the instrument."
And now, some video requests from our very own Metalboy!
Reader Comments (10)
"White Knuckles/Rockin' And Rollin'" by Gary Moore, G-Force from 1979.
I strongly urge everyone to get it and add it to your favorite playlist.
You can get a taste of Moore's brilliance here, live, on the clip Al has posted above of "White Knuckles".
Go on YouTube to hear the full "White Knuckles/Rockin' And Rollin'". This song just plain SMOKES!
Such a tragedy we lost such a legend. Only now will more people realize just how brilliant he was. The man had a scorched earth policy when it came to guitar playing.
"White Knuckles", indeed! RIP, Gary. And God Bless you and your family and friends. We'll be "Rockin' And Rollin'" forever, thanks to you!
p.s. to Al... I don't think that's Gary in your clip of Thin Lizzy on BBC doing "Whiskey In A Jar". It's probably Eric Bell, their first guitarist.
Is that not the clip you wanted me to post? Let me see if I can find a different one...
Allyson
- Al
Yes, that is Gary playing Sydney Opera house - he used to wear that jacket quite a lot.
R.I.P. Gary
The footage is unreal and has excellent clarity both in sound and video quality. Huge crowd outside Sydney Opera House. And Thin Lizzy is hot! Check out how Glammed out they all are.
As is mentioned by both Tony and myself, Moore's Silver jacket just rocks beyond compare and so does his playing.
You can catch it on YouTube.
That's what I will remember him for!
And check out G-Force!
Look, I'm happy and all that he had a renaissance with the whole blues thing that Christian and Al are focusing on, but it's the ROCK and ROLL phase I want to remember him for.
He was Glam Rock in one of the greatest Glam Rock bands ever, Thin Lizzy!
I'm tellin' ya, kids, check him out at the show outside The Sydney Opera House. I think the whole show is on YouTube carved up into like 6 20 minute segments! Killah!