Taste was a blues/rock power trio from Ireland
in the late 1960s. It was lead by singer/songwriter/guitarist Rory Gallagher
who later went on to a long solo career doing his own thing. Taste only managed
to record two studio albums in its short career, they being Taste (1969) and On
The Boards (1970). The band had two distinct incarnations. First 1966-68 where
the members joining Rory Gallagher were Eric Kitteringham on bass and Norman
Damery on drums. From 1968-71, Richard (aka: Charlie) McCracken (bass) and John
Wilson (drums) joined Rory and were with him for the recording of the studio
albums.These guys are easily up there with the likes of Led Zep, Rush and Cream
but never seem to get the biscuit. It’s a rock n roll tragedy. But a kinda good
one too.
In a 1977 interview with ZZ Magazine (issue 23), Gallagher
said of the early years “It was very much a case of sleeping in the van, and
long hard grinds around the various clubs, but it was pretty enjoyable even
so... and then we just broke up — Eric wanted to start his own band and Norman
wanted to get off the road for a while, and so we packed it in. In Hamburg
we'd play 45 minutes in each hour, and we'd go on stage about four or five times
a night — that's weekdays… on Saturdays we had to do seven sets. I was never
there for months on end, like the Beatles, but it was good hard labour all the
same. I wasn't complaining though, because in the showband it wasn't unusual to
do five hours on your feet without a break... you'd get off the stage and your
fingers would be mashed to pieces. I enjoyed every minute of Hamburg
though. .. . it was fun unlimited really, because you often shared the bill
with another band, and we used to have a lot of good times.”
A 1969 ZigZag cover featuring Frank Zappa
Gallagher moved into blues from a Chuck Berry style of
playing: “ I began to hear people like Buddy Guy, and some of the older
acoustic players... it was just a gradual move; for instance I found out about
Willie Dixon from Chuck Berry records, and then discovered he also wrote songs
that were recorded by Muddy Waters.. . . and so I got into his music. You know
how you get interested in something and try to find out more it was like that
really."
Touring with Blind Faith in 1969, taste passed up the option
of gigging Woodstock . “I remember
the agent coming on board the bus in New York and asking if the package, which
was Blind Faith, Delaney and Bonnie and Friends and Taste, would be interested
in going up to Woodstock.Clapton was at the top of the bus and he turned around
and asked for a show of hands and it got voted down and voted down by quite a
bit. The guys in Taste, Rory included, kept their hands down - they felt they
weren’t important enough to be given a shout. Eric wanted to do it and I
remember whispering to him that, with all due respect to democracy, it was his
shout basically but it went to a vote and Woodstock
went on without us.” Although Rory and Taste missed out on the chance to play
to 400,000 fans at Woodstock , just
a year later, the band performed before an estimated 600,000 at the Isle
of Wight . The band’s performance was captured on film and has been
released on DVD .
Taste (1969) Track listing:
"Blister on the Moon" - 3:26
"Leavin' Blues" (Huddie Ledbetter, Rory Gallagher)
- 4:15
"Sugar Mama" (trad. arr. Gallagher)- 7:14
"Hail" - 2:35
"Born on the Wrong Side of Time" - 4:00
"Dual Carriageway Pain" - 3:13
"Same Old Story" - 3:32
"Catfish" (trad. arr. Gallagher) - 8:04
"I'm Moving On" (Hank Snow) - 2:29
All tracks were composed by Rory Gallagher except where
stated, and produced by Tony Cotton. It was released on the Polydor label in Europe
and Atco in North America .
