#25 What's Going On

 

Album: Taste – On The Boards (1970)

Also: Taste – What’s Going On – Live At The Isle Of Wight (2015)

Basically, 1970 is the year that, had certain undercurrents been different, Taste should have gone stratospheric. Their second album, On The Boards, was released on 1 January 1970 and peaked in the UK top 20 album charts and marked the then 21-year-old Rory Gallagher as a composer and musician of some note. It received rave reviews everywhere.

Produced by Tony Colton, it featured Rory on vocals, guitar, harmonica, and sax, with fellow Taste bandmates John Wilson on drums and Richard McCracken on bass. The first track, ‘What’s Going On,’ is an instant earworm and thought to be the groups best known track. With the high praise from the likes of Lester Bangs, who wrote, “Everyone else is just woodshedding: Taste have arrived.” Enthusiastic audiences across Europe, Ireland, and the UK wherever they played certainly are the mark of a band ‘making it.’ August of that year saw the now legendary performance at the Isle Of Wight Festival in front of 600,000 people that resulted in several encores. From then on, there was no turning back.

 Or so you might think, for just before the performance (which, incidentally the band’s management threatened to cancel as they didn’t know a film crew was about!), Taste had decided to call it a day and split up! Ongoing issues with manager Eddie Kennedy and differences between Rory and the rest of the group had finally come to the boil. As the group were heading out to the festival, they found their van had been broken into, and some gear stolen. Rory pointed out that this was another example of bad management, as he had been pointing out they needed a better van for quite a while. The result was they decided to split up, though Taste had to fulfil a final tour before what turned out to be their final performance at Queens University, Belfast on 24 October 1970.

 In many respects, “What’s Going On” is the perfect song for the situation. The lyrics, short and to the point, ask several questions about a scenario that is unclear and bewildering. Rory perhaps was wondering just what was, er, going on, with his band:

 

What's going on?
Everyone acts crazy
Yes or no means maybe.

What's going on?
Could you correct my vision?
Helping my decision?

 

Looking back at that period, it’s understandable why, when he went solo, Rory very much made sure that he was in charge, with the help of Dónal Gallagher and other trusted people to help keep the cogs running smoothly, and ensure that Rory knew, erm, just what was going on.

 Songs have a certain beauty in the fact that they can be a very subjective thing. For Rory, ‘What’s Going On’ certainly had its own personal meaning – the one that no doubt inspired its composition. For those of us coming across it years later, it can take on a whole new meaning. The song was released in 1970. Coming down the line to nowadays, it’s a song that fits the mood of the early 2020s. With a pandemic that never seems to be going, the bizarre world of social media, politics all over the place, the interesting phenomenon of cancel culture, the rise of reality TV and associated celebrities, as well as a great many other things that it would simply take too long to list, many of us often do find ourselves asking what is going on. And if truth be told, I find myself singing the song!

 For the most blistering version of the song, you need to go to the Isle Of Wight performance. Rory literally is on fire here, screaming guitar and singing his guts out. All you have is him, John’s drums and Richard’s bass – a simple three-person set up – yet they set the entire isle ablaze and hold literally hundreds of thousands in awe with the power of their performance. The uncertainty rents the air and it will leave it’s echo for years to come. Rory may have been angry and unsure of his future, but the world was sure as hell paying attention to him as a musician.