See Also – Live In Europe (1972) and Irish Tour ‘74 40th Anniversary (Cork) (2014)
First appearing on Rory Gallagher’s second album, Deuce, released on 28 November 1971, ‘In Your Town’, is one of those songs that just jumps out the speaker and grabs you by the throat. And played live, it was certainly one that grabbed the audience. The fact that it was voted his most popular live song by fans on Rory’s official Facebook page says a lot.
It sits with a number of classic tracks on Deuce, including ‘Crest Of A Wave,’ ‘I’m Not Awake Yet’, ‘Don’t Know Where I’m Going’, and ‘Whole Lot Of People’ - making for quite an incredible album that made its mark in many ways. Comedian Bill Hicks wore his copy out, while learning to play along with it was a turning point for guitarist Johnny Marr. The album was recorded at Tangerine Studios, London in August 1971. Next door was a bingo hall, and incredibly a group as loud as Rory’s had to contend with the bingo caller through the wall!
On the face of it, ‘In Your Town’ looks to have the settings of a basic classic rock/blues song. On the album version, it has just the trio of Rory on vocals and guitar, Wilgar Campbell on drums and Gerry McAvoy on bass. But the sound they produce is loud and primal, more than three young guys could seemingly make. It’s also a song where Rory’s skills as a slide guitarist come to the fore. He screeches and screams his guitar all the way through, whilst alternating with rhythm and lead. The raw sound of the guitar matches the tension of a cleverly worded song.
The premise of the song is of a man who has busted out of jail, Sing Sing, to be precise, after two decades in the slammer and returned to the scene of the crime to confront those who conspired to send him down. Prison life has not been good and you can bet this is an angry person. He claims not to want to cause uproar and carnage, but he is tense and ready to snap, so anything is possible:
The first man I wanna
see is the Chief of Police
Bring that man right over here,
I wanna speak my piece
I wanna cause no trouble, no fuss, no fight
But look out man, you know this is Saturday night.
And prison life has most definitely not been a bed of roses, leaving this con numb:
When I came out I
couldn't feel a,
I couldn't feel a, I couldn't feel a thing.
The album version alone builds up an incredible scene. Rory’s love for crime fiction is very well known and is a theme in several songs across his career. ‘In Your Town’ is the one in which he is at his most effective, setting up the scene with a man coming back for revenge.
However, ‘In Your Town’ took on an extra life when played live. During the early 1970s it was the song that usually rounded off gigs. But, if you listen to Live In Europe and the Cork disc of the 40th anniversary edition of Irish Tour ‘74, you will notice an extra dimension to the song. Rory added new lyrics to it as he performed, stretching it beyond the original.
On Live In Europe, Rory expands beyond the scenario of a desperate man returning to seek his revenge to life in the prison itself and what led to the escape in the first place. Here, Rory describes the starkness of the prison cell, with bare walls and the indignation of the inmate when he receives a letter from his father, telling him that he is being put away for something he hadn’t done, his sentence extended to 99 years. The prisoner expresses the fear that he will die in jail. An escape is planned, using a grappling hook and rope, the main character and his fellow inmates bust out, climbing over a 40-foot wall, before hitching a lift in a pick-up truck to town, warning the residents to be careful.
In the Irish Tour ‘74 40th Anniversary edition, the fact Rory is performing in his hometown of Cork appears to give the song an extra personal kick - ‘I’m back in MY town’ he scats towards the end. The prison break is still there, but there is the added dimension of some of the nastiest and most infamous American criminals accompanying the chagrined character. These range from John Dillinger (‘Public Enemy Number 1’) to Bonnie and Clyde, Machine Gun Kelly, and old ‘Scarface’ himself, Al Capone. Capone gets the star turn as the meanest and he’d better get respect! At this point, Rod de’Ath was on drums and Lou Martin was on keyboards/piano. Lou adds his own twist to the song with his long solo.
It’s an interesting
question, just how many versions of ‘In Your Town’ did Rory create while
performing live? It’s a song of many verses. Or a song in the form of a novel!
For the curious, see below to hear Rory add new lyrics to 'In Your Town' as he plays live. And in true Rory style, they are extra long!
