#6 Smear Campaign

 

Album: Defender, 1987

 

There had been something of a gap between albums for Rory by the time Defender was released on July 1, 1987. It’s predecessor, Jinxed, had been his final album on the Chrysalis label in 1981. By the time of Defender, Rory was now an independent artist with his own label, Capo Records, with Defender as its first release.

The main line up of the Rory Gallagher Band by now was of course Rory, Gerry McAvoy, and Brendan O’Neill of Belfast, who joined as drummer in 1981. There may have been a gap between albums, but Rory hadn’t been quiet, touring and recording, as well as the set up of Capo. Unfortunately, his fear of flying had become well established, making the travelling involved as a touring musician an unpleasant experience.

Rory’s songwriting had always followed several themes from the start of his career. As well as the deeply personal, he was also a great storyteller. A fan of hardboiled detective fiction, songs featuring crime themes were a big part of his oeuvre. But he also explored other topics. Rory was a voracious reader and if anything, seemed to be a sponge for information on any topic that caught his interest. He was for instance well versed in politics. Apparently anywhere he went on a tour where there was an election, he could knowledgeably discuss the proceedings.

The protest song wasn’t for him. He didn’t especially see the point in him writing any. But that didn’t prevent him using the more nefarious side of politics for the theme of a song, as he did for Defender’s ‘Smear Campaign’, in the form of a loose tale.

"Feed those lies
Bend those minds at any price
Foul or air
As long as he's not there
Election time

Don't believe the papers it's not anybody's race
He's not a rank beginner it's not a children's game
He may get the nomination if he breaks through the chain
Or they'll shoot him down on Main street in this smear campaign."

 The lyrics describe succinctly the corruption and sabotage involved in any ‘democratic process’ designed to win an election for a candidate in whom the vested interests of a select few, rather than the electorate, are at the forefront. And nothing is considered unreasonable if it secures a victory. Dirty work if you can get it, and perhaps an age-old tale familiar to anyone with even a passing interest in politics. Rory perfectly captures the use of propaganda to twist minds towards dubious truths and the underhand methods in which an opposing candidate can be undercut.

Bob Dylan is perhaps the unarguable king of writing songs that can make you think about what is going on in the world around us, making you consider things you weren’t aware of. There is no arguing his genius as a lyricist, he is one of the best, but there are times where he can go off in a tangent that may make the listener lose the thread of what Dylan is trying to say. Rory is the opposite. He is by no means a simplistic writer and he was a huge fan of Bob Dylan. But lyrically, Rory hits the nail on the head. What he says stays in the mind longer, without any head-scratching about what was just sung. While he may not have seen the protest song as a thing for him, Rory still had the gift of making us think about something important, ‘Smear Campaign’ being just one example of this.

As ever, the music of ‘Smear Campaign’ features brilliant guitar, bass, and drums. On the song, Rory is quoted on his official website as saying, “That was the Strat doubled up, with an acoustic drifting in. John Cook doubled the guitar with a keyboard sound. Over that there are Hank Marvin type country lines on the Talbo”. Rory in an interview was perhaps more inclined to discuss what went into his songs instrumentally and the recording process. We, however, can conclude at this point that what he did, in this case, was subtle enough to bring out the words of the song. And that riff is an earworm.