Corridors of power --- Gary Moore --- 1982 (Virgin)
One of Gary Moore's best ever albums, this one has it all. It was the first of his albums to bring him any sort of commercial success, but is in fact his third solo effort. He drafts in a lot of top-flight talent to help him out on this recording, though notably not Phil Lynott, although he did duet with him later on the single “Out in the fields”. The album is a mix of great rockers and lush ballads, with a cover version thrown in too, and as a whole it works really well, with hardly a bad track to be found.
It kicks off with a great rocker, the headshakin' “Don't take me for a loser”, with powerful drumming from Deep Purple's legendary Ian Paice, and naturally Gary handles all guitar duties himself. A good singer too, he was a pretty rounded package. He also wrote all except one of the tracks on this album, apart of course from the cover version. As you might expect, there are plenty of guitar solos, and this is no exception with a great one halfway through. Things settle down into a nice relaxed groove then for the first of three ballads on the album, and one of the standout tracks.
“Always gonna love you” is a desperate, heartfelt promise to a lover, and starts off with lovely piano courtesy of Tommy Eyre, who is perhaps most famous for his contribution to Gerry Rafferty's career-defining smash “Baker Street”. Nevertheless, like all of the songs on this album, the ballad is driven by Moore's expressive guitar, giving it perhaps a harder edge than it would have had, had he just played it as a piano song. It always seems to be on the verge of becoming a hard rocker, but then slips back into its smooth mood with more restrained guitar, and of course there's a great and evocative solo near the end.
The cover version is next, and it's a retreading of Free's classic “Wishing well”. It's a great song, but hard to mess up, which Moore does not do. His version is good, though I think I perhaps prefer Blackfoot's version off their 1979 album “Strikes”. Things stay heavy then for the superb “Gonna break my heart again”, with truly amazing guitar from this much-missed master of the axe. It's powerful from the start, opening with a great guitar break and angry vocals as Gary sings
”I don't care what you say to me/ From the things that I've been hearin' now/ It's plain to see/ You're gonna break my heart again.../ Just like you broke my heart before.”
Then we're into the second ballad, with a great guitar intro, a real blues track called “Falling in love with you”. Lovely solid keyboard backing here, this time thanks to guest keysman Don Airey, with perfectly-paced (no pun intended!) percussion. Gary Moore does the blues so well, he's in his natural element when doing so, and here this really comes across on a fine, fine track. It's followed by a real epic, starting on low synth and ominous guitar, “End of the world” features perhaps the best guitar solo on the album, close to, but not quite, shredding. Moore could certainly have taught some of the young pups a thing or two!
Two minutes out of the almost seven of the track are given over to Moore's guitar histrionics, and it's time well spent. The rest of the track is a powerful, emotional cautionary tale, in the mould of “Nuclear attack” from his “Dirty fingers” album released the following year, and also “Murder in the skies” from “Victims of the future”. It's a great track with some killer vocals, including a guest appearance by the great Jack Bruce, and an urgent beat, great bass playing from the legendary Mo Foster, and featuring some messing around on the guitar too, like where Gary makes the sound of an ambulance siren on his fretboard.
The next track is a straight-ahead, no-frills rocker, but then, with a title like “Rockin' every night”, what would you expect? It has a certain resemblance to Purple's “Highway star”, not surprising since it's the only track on which Paice collaborates with Moore in the writing. It's a fun track, but a little formulaic, which is something you certainly can't say about “Cold hearted”, a big, dirty, snarling slice of cold hard rock, a real cruncher in which Moore spits out the lyric:
”Every hungry woman has tried/ To make a fool out of me/ Every hungry woman/ Stick around and baby you'll see/ I'm cold hearted.” It's a real heavy blues number, like BB King after he's had ten whiskeys and is feelin' MEAN!
The best is, however, yet to come, and the album closes on one amazing song, the longest on the album and a terrific finale. Clocking in at just under eight minutes, “I can't wait until tomorrow” begins on a slow, bluesy organ melody, the vocals sung in a relaxed sort of way so as to fool you into thinking this is a ballad. Well, maybe it is. It's hard to be sure. The song is balladic up to about the three-quarter-way point, then it changes. Ian Paice's drums kick in on about a minute and a half and add a power and tension to the track as the keys get more strident and the guitar, up to now, has had a very minor role in the song.
Until about three minutes in, that is, when Gary rips off a fine, emotional solo and the song gets more solid, all the instruments beginning to mesh perfectly. Four and a half minutes in, Moore's guitar starts to really speak, and the whole shape of the song changes, getting more powerful, punchy and heavy to the fadeout end. Brilliant closer.
The world of music lost yet another fantastic talent this year when Gary Moore was taken from us. Like many of the rock legends who have gone before their time, thankfully we can console ourselves that he left a large body of work behind for us to remember him by. “Corridors of power” stands as as fitting a testimonial to the genius and talent of the man as any other album I can think of.
TRACKLISTING
1. Don't take me for a loser
2. Always gonna love you
3. Wishing well
4. Gonna break my heart again
5. Falling in love with you
6. End of the world
7. Rockin' every night
8. Cold hearted
9. I can't wait until tomorrow
Suggested further listening: “Victims of the future”, “Wild frontier”, “Still got the blues”, “Run for cover”, "Back to the blues", "After the war", "Dark days in Paradise", "After hours", "Close as you get", "Bad for you baby", "A different beat", "Power of the blues"