The Messiah Will Come Again
Jonathan Rowe on Sep 23rd 2006
No, I haven’t converted. It’s the title to a blues track, first done by Roy Buchanan, and below is Gary Moore’s beautiful cover of the tune. A while ago I posted a clip of Gary Moore from YouTube and remarked I thought he was one of the few up there with SRV. Matt Kuznicki disagreed. If this doesn’t convince you that Moore is in the same league with Stevie Ray, then nothing will.
Filed in The Basement, The Bistro
I’m afraid I’m reminded of Albert King’s comment to SRV, that “they play fast, they don’t concentrate on no soul.” This sounds like that Progressive Rock you’re always trying to get me to listen to! Come on, man. Let’s hear some of the old gut bucket; something swampy; none of this modern, ultraurbanized, sounds like it’s played by a robot stuff!
He’s no Yngwie
I’m afraid I’m reminded of Albert King’s comment to SRV, that “they play fast, they don’t concentrate on no soul.”
Yeah well B.B. King said that if B.B. could play as well as SRV, B.B. would play that fast too.
Come on, man. Let’s hear some of the old gut bucket; something swampy; none of this modern, ultraurbanized, sounds like it’s played by a robot stuff!
Yawn.
(I’m kidding about the yawn, but B.B. really did say that, though. :-))
Speaking of the Devil, here is Gary Moore playing with Albert King.
I have to partially agree with Sandefur here. Moore is certainly proficient technically, but the thing about blues is that it isn’t just about technical musicianship, it’s also about soul and feel. That’s not generally true so much of prog rock, where technical difficulty is a large part of the ethos, so I think that music is judged by a different standard (and I really enjoy much of that genre). But blues has a different ethos and therefore a different effect, and what made Stevie Ray almost unique among white blues guitarists is that he had both amazing technique and a feel for the blues, which is what prompted Albert King to say that he had the soul of a black man. The fact that Moore is covering Roy Buchanan is appropriate, I think, because I felt the same way about his playing. Yeah, he could bend a note like nobody’s business, but it just didn’t feel like blues to me. Perhaps this is an entirely subjective reaction with no basis in reality, something of the “I know it when I hear it” variety. But I have a very different visceral reaction to Moore than I did to Stevie Ray or Buddy Guy or even BB King (who is, in my opinion, a far better vocalist than he is a guitarist). My reaction to Moore is that he’s a well trained and obviously talented musician; my reaction to the others is that they aren’t just playing the music, the music is playing them, as though they were channelling it from the reservoirs of their soul.
In my life I have consumed some very strange food: Octopus, gafilta fish, chicken liver, an assortment of moldy cheese, snails, random mushrooms, fruits and veggies that look like they are from another planet. The list I’m sure will go on. Why do I eat these things? It’s worth a try. How do I know if I will like something if I don’t try it? Ill even try it again if I don’t like it. My taste may change.
Don’t get me wrong, I still like normal foods like white bread. Millions of people enjoy white bread every day. I just prefer something with a bit more flavor and a bit more soul… like pumpernickel. I like my food to stand out. I like an interesting meal.
In the same light, yesterday I listened to this post. Today I listened to it again. I want to give it an honest shot. I took a few long listens with the intent on figuring out what it is about Moore that stops me from putting him in the ranks of SRV and BB King. I think I’ve figured it out.
It’s the blues. The blues is that intangible feeling, that element that you can’t describe, that part of the song that makes you feel just as sad as the man behind the guitar.
BB King is the blues personified. He has it in his heart. Even when he is singing a “happy” song he has the blues. In fact, every day he has the blues. (Sorry, I had to.) Every time I hear Mr. King sing the line “I asked my baby for a little drink of liquer, and she gave me a whiskey still” I cant help but close my eyes when the words “gave me” pass his lips. At that moment he gave me the blues.
SRV also has the blues. That man is too ugly to not have the blues. SRV has more blues than any other white man in history. You can feel his music in your soul and see it in his face. When SRV tells me “I aint gone’n’give up on love,” he says it so mournfully that I have a hard time believing him. It’s as if he is talking himself back into love. When I hear that line, he has given me the blues.
When I hear the opening bars to John Lee Hooker’s “I’m Bad like Jesse James” I can feel just how bad he is without his words. JLH has the blues; and he gives them to me when I pop that CD in.
More is a very talented musician. He has the finger control. He has the speed. He has talent. He has an awesome guitar. He even has the facial movements of a rock star. What he does not have is the blues. That man is far too happy to have the blues. When you don’t have the blues you end up making a very bland blues song. He does not give me the blues. There is nothing wrong with it; it just isn’t the blues I’m looking for. He is a great musician. He just does not have “the blues”
BB King, SRV, John Lee Hooker, and Buddy guy are the blues I am looking for. They are my shitake mushrooms, my Buddha’s fingers, and my spicy grilled octopus. Gary Moore is my white bread.
I can’t imagine Mr. Vaughan being anything but delighted to be called a spicy grilled octopus.
Well, Moore gives me the blues. I guess there’s nothing more I can say. And an aside, I think he could go toe to toe with SRV in an “ugly” contest as well.
It goes to show it is all subjective.
I will continue to read and enjoy your posts. I will continue to watch the clips you provide. I will also continue to respect you as a music critic.
I think it should be pointed out that this song was not covered as a ‘blues only track’. It comes off of Gary’s 1989 album “After the War” (A rock album). His original version is slightly shorter without some of the intricate solo runs. What I say here may be a little bias but Gary Moore is my favorite musician, so I gather I must retort.
His technical prowess and ability is in a league where few dare to adventure. He is not particularly liked in the shredder guitar scene especially among fans of Satriani and Vai (which I like both of these musicians as well). He is one of the fathers of the shredder guitar techniques along with others such as Ritchie Blackmore and Eddie Van Halen. He is very unorthodox in his technique (you would never teach someone in the fashion that he plays). Gary was self-taught and coming up in the late 60’s and early 70’s he could not read music which often frustrated those that he played with. He is a favorite of modern shredder guitarists Joe Stump and Rusty Cooley.
Following the release of his 1989 album “After the War”, from which this song comes, he decided that a change of pace was in order. He decided to switch to a blues format. Personally I liked Gary’s rock music, but his blues music I can appreciate as well. As far as not being mainstreamed like Stevie Ray, B.B., Albert Collins, and Albert King, I don’t know what to say. It says a lot when in the first few years of becoming a blues musician you record with B.B., Albert King, and Albert Collins. They certainly approved of him, and I think in reality that is the only thing that matters. It was rumoured that following his recordings in England for the “Still Got the Blues” album, Albert King wanted Gary and Stevie Ray to record an album together. Whether or not that is true I do not know, it didn’t really matter because Stevie Ray perished at Alpine Valley, WI, only a few months later (about 2 months after this video of Gary on the page).
Whether or not Gary gives you the blues I think you still have to appreciate his incredible ability. His speed, timing, vibrato, and left-hand technques are masterful. I think the great Roy Buchanan would have been more than pleased to hear this cover of his original work, which was a great song itself. Gary is little known in the U.S. simply because he rarely tours here. In Europe and Japan he is a well-known favorite, and comparing him to Yngwie Malmsteen is absurd (Yes, both shredder guitarists, but vastly different technques and styles).
Gary Moore is awesome… In my opinion, what seperates Moore
from BB, SRV, etc, is influence/innovation. I wouldn’t say
Moore is unoriginal but he’ll never be a pivotal figure like BB King, obviously.
And that’s cool. A guitarist doesn’t have to be a great innovator
to be great. I think Buchanan WAS an innovator (artificial harmonics, volume swells, rasguedo combined with blues licks, etc etc), but I do
kinda agree with the previous post saying that his blues “didnt feel
like the blues”… but thats probably because it was more unique.
Moore sounds like more in the main blues tradition even if he’s not
a true innovator.
being a guitarist for over 30 years,i can say with honesty that vai and malmsteen don’t even come close to moores feeling for the blues.as for comparing moore to buchanon on messiah its like comparing srv to hendrix on little wing,just 2 different great versions of the same song.
[...] A commenter named hupur inspired this. He commented on a post featuring Gary Moore’s cover of Roy Buchanan’s “The Messiah Will Come Again.” Reading their opinions in the comments, I don’t get the how Sandefur, Brayton and Matt Kuznicki don’t “get” Gary Moore’s authentic bluesiness. [...]
I know some people will hate me for saying this, Stevie Ray Vaughan was an incredible blues guitar player, but he didn’t invent it, some of his most popular songs have been cover tunes (Little Wing, Voodoo Chile, Superstition, etc..) he is overrated in my opinion. He did help make the blues more popular again, I’ll give him that. People talk about him like he was the best blues guitarist that ever was, but he learned from Clapton, Hendrix, B.B.King, Muddy Waters and countless others that came before him.
Gary Moore is every bit the blues player Stevie was, so what if he plays rock too, or uses a little bit more of a rock n roll tone, he has the feel for blues and he has played with some of the best blues players ever… just like Stevie did. And Gary never claimed to be a blues only guitar player, he has done hard rock and progressive jazz influenced rock as well. If he wanted to play strictly traditional blues without the flashy rock licks you better believe he has the ability to do it with style, superb tone and a great feel.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Stevie, but Eric Clapton did more to make the blues popular than Stevie ever did. People need to quit comparing different musicians and trying to say one is better than another, it is all subjective, it is purely a matter of personal preference.
In my opinion Gary Moore is far beyond Stevie Ray Vaughan in technical ability and like Eric Clapton has a far wider variety of styles of music he has recorded over the years. I would love for Gary Moore and Eric Clapton to record a song or an album together.
Thank God Gary Moore is no Yngwie, one Yngwie is enough, you hear three or four Yngwie tunes and it’s all the same, he is incredible, but overkill to the max, the master of masterbation on the guitar. Be realistic and compare Yngwie to Paul Gilbert or someone more similar in style if you just have to compare musicians.