#2 Blister On The Moon

 

Album: Taste, 1969

It was the mid-sixties in Cork, Ireland, and the music union was in an uproar because a new blues rock trio called The Taste, formed by local musicians Rory Gallagher, bassist Eric Kitteringham, and drummer Norman Damery were challenging the strict union rules that bands had to have at least eight members before they could play live. This worked well with the well-honed Irish showband scene. But it was all a bit dated to Rory, who at 18 had already done the rounds with showband The Fontana, later called The Impact.

At first, The Taste ‘winged it’ somewhat by temporarily adding extra people to the band, getting friends to join them on stage to act as musicians – Rory’s younger brother Dónal also being recruited to play tambourine on occasion! Now with The Taste challenging the union rule, the group with invited to ‘audition’ as a trio, with members of the union then voting on whether or not to scrap the mandatory eight-person requirement. The vote went in The Taste’s favour.

This disdain for inflexible, dictatorial, and dogmatic thinking and it’s suffocating effect can be found in one of Rory’s earliest songs, ‘Blister On The Moon’:

 “Everyone is saying what to do and what to think

And when to ask permission when you feel you want to blink

First look left and then look right and now look straight ahead

Make sure and take a warning of every word we've said

Now you lay you down to sleep make sure and get some rest

Tomorrow is another day and you must pass the test

Don't try and think too different now what we say is best

Listen little man you're no better than the rest”

The lyrics describe a world where it is very difficult to move outside the status quo without the threat of repercussions. Ireland at the time of Rory’s youth was an incredibly restrictive country by several accounts, so it could be suggested he didn’t have far to look for inspiration for this song. An austere, stiff upper lip mentality was part of life in many places during the immediate post-war era.

Men were ‘not supposed’ to show any emotions, a stark example of this can be found in Paul McCartney’s comments that when he and John Lennon lost their mothers as teenagers in the 1950s, they were, in Macca’s words, expected to just get on with it, and not show any grief. It’s no surprise that many of the 1940s/50s born generation, from The Beatles to Rory, wound up bucking this stifling system.

Even the sound of ‘Blister On The Moon’ is stark and guttural. The guitar cuts a sharp swathe, backed up by the solid drums and bass on the version that appears on the self-titled debut album of Taste, as the trio was now known. The name wasn’t the only thing to have been rejigged by the time the album was released in April 1969, as the line up had also changed. In 1968, new bassist Richard ‘Charlie’ McCracken from Omagh and Belfast drummer John Wilson had replaced Eric Kitteringham and Norman Damery. Eddie Kennedy, also from Belfast, now also managed Taste. Dónal meanwhile had put his tambourine days behind him and was now Taste’s road manager and sound engineer.

However, just before the departure of Eric and Norman, Taste Mk 1, as the first line up is known, recorded ‘Blister On The Moon’ in a demo recording session. Just as the new line up, Taste Mk 2, to fans these days, was getting into business, this version along with ‘Born On The Wrong Side Of Time’, was released as a seven inch single on the Major Minor label. This version is somewhat different from what appeared on the Taste album, being just a bit heavier.

Though ‘Blister On The Moon’ is over fifty years old, listening to it now is a slightly chilling affair. It’s lyrics, coldly delivered by Rory, the severe guitar and rhythm give you food for thought when thinking of the 21^st-century world we’re in today.