Album: Jinx, 1982
The album Jinx came about during the passing of some
watersheds for Rory. Drummer Ted McKenna had by now left to join Michael
Schenker, and he only had one album left fulfill in his contract with Chrysalis
Records.
Dónal Gallagher writes, “As the title [of the album]
suggests, Rory had become quite frustrated with the way life was unfolding for
him at this time and much of the material on these recordings could be deemed
autobiographical.” It has been suggested that Rory called the album Jinx as a
gag at his record company’s expense. Things certainly can’t have been helped
with the loss of the American market to Chrysalis, causing Rory to join
Mercury, which distributed Jinx in the US, though it was a deal that didn’t
last.
Perhaps the arrival of Brendan O’Neill on the drum kit was
one of the happier episodes of that time. Brendan had met Gerry McAvoy at
school and the two were close friends from their early teens, both cutting
their musical teeth together with their first band Pride in Belfast in the
1960s while still at school. They both progressed to Deep Joy, the group from
which Rory recruited both Gerry and Wilgar Campbell in 1971.
Brendan had left Deep Joy to continue an apprenticeship as
an airframe fitter in Belfast while the band left to try their fortunes in
London with Wilgar on drums. Brendan had continued to work as a drummer around
his family and work commitments. He had auditioned with Rory as a potential
replacement for Rod de’Ath, but at the time, Brendan’s heart was more set in
making a go of things with his then current band Swift. It was a different
story in 1981, when Brendan auditioned again and got the job. He remained with
Rory for ten years – among Brendan’s first shows in Rory’s band were two dates in
Greece, including the legendary Athens gig, which saw a massive riot and the
band being tear gassed!
Jinx was recorded, like it’s two predecessors, at Dieter
Dierks studios near Cologne between May and June 1981. Electronic music, not
something Rory was exactly a huge fan of, was immensely popular. Rory wanted to
create an album that had a more classic sound, so he and his band spent time
gathering some older equipment. Released on 2 May 1982, it’s certainly a
meatier, organic sound next to a lot of the ‘Cecil B De Mille’ (as Rory
described it) that could be found on Top Of The Pops of the era. It’s proof of
Rory’s tenacity of keeping true to his roots despite the whims, wherefores and
demands of the heavy music industry, which Rory found increasingly frustrating.
The songs on Jinx, as Dónal mentions in the earlier quote, do show more of what
is going on with Rory emotionally and it is quite a mix, which will be explored
in later posts. However, Rory, as ‘The Devil Made Me Do It’ shows, was beyond
more than capable of knocking out a classic rocker.
Dónal in the same article describes the song as a meshing of
two of Rory’s heroes, Eddie Cochran and Buddy Holly. It is another of Rory’s
classic ‘vignette with a story’ songs, this one describing the situation a few
people have regrettably found themselves in – a night out on the tiles gone
overboard, waking up the next day in the hospitality of the police and an
appearance in court to account for actions that just can’t be remembered!
“What did I do that was so bad, to go and get myself
arrested?
Well, I was just in town to have some fun, but I ended up in the trash can
There I was in the witness box, my eyes turned towards the jury
Trying to recall what went wrong last night, but it won't come back to me
Well, the devil made me do it, do it, do it
The devil made me trip and fall
The devil drove me to it, to it, to it
Till I had no chance at all.”
The lyrics hint at a great uncertainty and trepidation – is
the protagonist going to wind up in jail and not know what happened that led
him there? There is also a strong hint of the supernatural in the lyrics, with
the appearance of Auld Nick himself to give testimony, the fate of the accused
lying in the words of the being he believes caused him to be there in the first
place.
Rory brilliantly hits upon two great themes of many a
classic blues song in “The Devil Made Me Do It”, the nefarious effects of booze
and the insertion of the Devil into hi-jinks and japery. A cursory glance over
the blues gives you a few songs with alcohol at the crux, ranging from John Lee
Hooker’s “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer” to JB Hutto’s “Too Much Alcohol”,
itself becoming a classic staple of Rory’s repertoire on his 1932 National. The
way in which the supernatural can be found in the blues is too detailed to go
into here, but a prime example of it can be seen just from the mythology alone
of Robert Johnson’s supposed pact with the Devil at the crossroads.
The electric soup of 1980s music sounds like it has stayed there and is a popular topic of cheesy nostalgia. A song of the same era “The Devil Made Me Do It” instead has a timeless quality and is up there with any classic blues number about tangling the Devil and the drink.
Notes:
See Dónal Gallagher's notes on Jinx Jinx - The Official Site of Rory Gallagher
Brendan O'Neill's autobiography Mr Sticks is available on Amazon.
