Sold Date: March 9, 2018
Start Date: March 2, 2018
Final Price: £38.00 (GBP)
Bid Count: 1
Seller Feedback: 4617
Buyer Feedback: 297

"TATTOO'D LADY" (Rory Gallagher, 1973)

Tattoo'd Lady,
Bearded baby,
They're my family.

When I was lonely,
Something told me,
Where I could always be.

Where I could,
Wish for pennies,
If we had any.
You'd meet me down,
At the shooting gallery.

Yes I'm a fairground baby.
Wonder what made me,
Fall for the Pearly Queen.

I spent my youth,
Under canvas roof,
As I roamed from town to town.

I'm not fooling,
When I say I got no schooling,
Never like the class bell sound.

From the caravan,
I hear the fairground band,
Sounding good as they can be.

You know I can't be found,
But if you look around,
Tomorrow we'll be gone by dawn.
Alright...

Now hear it on the loud speaker say,
The fire eater is a real fine sight to see,
Yeah, he's a death cheater,
Some kind of central heater,
Be sure to save a seat for me.

Let me tell you about wicked Sadie,
She's no baby,
The law came,
And tried to close her sideshow down.
But soon she had the D.A. cheering,
The police chief wearing,
Her garter for a crown.

I spent my youth,
Under canvas roof,
As I roamed from town to town.

I'm not fooling,
When I say I got no schooling,
Never like the school bell sound.

From the caravan,
I hear the fairground band,
Sounding good as they can be.

You know I can't be found,
But if you look around,
Tomorrow we'll be gone by dawn.
Yeahh...

Tattoo'd Lady,
Bearded baby,
They're my family.

When I was lonely,
Something told me, where,
I could always be.

Where I could,
Wish for pennies,
If we had any.
You'd meet me down,
At the shooting gallery.
Tattoo'd lady....

RORY GALLAGHER: "Tattoo" LP, RARE 1979 PRESSING, ON THE BLUE & CREAM CHRYSALIS LABEL, THE ALBUM WAS FIRST
RELEASED 11th NOVEMBER, 1973, ON THE POLYDOR LABEL.
Another stunning record from a collection of unplayed Rory Gallagher LP's, many during the late 1970's discovered the incredibly
talented artist's early 70's albums, not a huge demand but enough to have copies available for the second time round. When Rory
  signed for Chrysalis, that would include his earlier Polydor albums being pressed for the Chrysalis label. Polydor cooperated and
handed over the original Master Tapes to Chrysalis and even existing mothers or metal pressing plates, now the fragile, matt soft
covers could be given a protective glossy top surface.  Unlike most second pressings, the covers were a massive bonus, but most
importantly, the actual pressings of such a really low amount made, had the fullest attention focused on the sound quality....
they had the original Master Tape sound! None of that awful re-mastering we suffer from today, just faithfully transferred albums,
I've been listing them on ebay, the details of the pressings are almost identical, which certainly applies to this Mint "Tattoo."
A very close relative to the Polydor pressings because both Sides have the original 1973 maitrix stamped in the run-out grooves,
with the  prefix crossed out and the Chrysalis maitrix hand scribed alongside.  I wish all record companies were like Chrysalis,
they included the 1973 first publication of "Tattoo," but they also printed  the year of this pressing on the labels, the back
cover and the spine.  Please see my close up section of the back cover, where Chrysalis very proudly announced this very special
1979 pressing: 

First Published in U.K. by Chrysalis Records, 1979

So they should have been proud to offer Rory's magnificent earlier 1970's albums, as I only sell Taste and Rory's albums in Mint
condition, that has been a major problem ever since I started selling records in the late 1980's. Those matt, flimsy first issue
covers are almost completely wrecked and a shadow of how they looked when brand new.   Finally they were given a glossy top
  surface and this "Tattoo" might be nearly 40 years of age, this is a superb Near Mint cover, inside is an unplayed record and I
will offer this without playing it myself.


BLUE & CREAM TEXTURED CHRYSALIS LABEL: CHR 1259

MAITRIX SIDE 1:
CHR 1259 A /3 (hand scribed) ('2383 233' machine stamped by Polydor & crossed out)  A // 3 ▽  420 04  1 (Polydor stamp retained)
MAITRIX SIDE 2:
CHR 1259 B/2 (hand scribed) ('2383 233' machine stamped by Polydor & crossed out)  B // 2 ▽  420 04  1 (Polydor stamp retained)

SIDE 1 ALSO HAS THE ORIGINAL MASTERING LOGO IN THE RUN-OUT GROOVES, 'Bilbo' IS HANDWRITTEN.
SIDE 2 ALSO HAS THE ORIGINAL HANDWRITTEN MASTERING LOGO, 'DB'.

Both sound engineers worked for Polydor and the above is precisely how those 1973 first pressings were indexed and signed.
Although Side 2 was in the above format, there was too much room between the alterations, I could not fit it into one picture.
Certainly not a fully conventional maitrix but that clearly demonstrates the first mothers were still available and used in 1979.
You cannot find a more direct connection for a different label, then Rory was releasing current and earlier albums on Chrysalis.
As a record seller and collector, I cannot applaud Chrysalis enough for such a faithful pressing and their accurate and clearly
dated year of release, a respect few artists got from record companies in the 1970's, just look at the mess we now have with
re-pressings.  Like all rare albums, only the one small batch was made in 1979.


ORIGINAL 1979  CHRYSALIS / POLYDOR INNER SLEEVE, UNSPLIT AND UNUSED WITH ONLY LIGHT AGEING, EVEN THAT
IS MOSTLY FROM WHEN THE POLY-LINING WAS GLUED TO THE ABSORBENT PAPER.
    THE INNER SLEEVE IS IN NEAR MINT CONDITION.

RARE 1979 "Tattoo" COVER WITH A PROTECTIVE BEAUTIFUL GLOSSY TOP SURFACE....AT LAST!
   Early 1970's covers were often made from frail, thin matt cardboard and they had little chance of surviving even low plays, they
  simply could not escape the ravages of the decades, even when they were just standing unused in storage.  Especially for the
  notoriously known ones that faired the worst, due to the standard of the cardboard and the printing itself, cue "Rory Gallagher"!
  I am aware regular vinyl lovers understand that even unplayed records affected flimsy matt covers, from just standing in them
  over time periods as long as the first issue cover, 45 years.   I was amazed to discover this 1979 pressing, the thick glossy top
  surface completely changed the appearance and it came with a renewed enjoyment of the original 1973 artwork.  A real sense
  of Rory on his own playing a guitar after Taste disbanded, a record impression simply had to form and so did the associated
   tiny paper edge lines but that was also after a rather long time in storage.  Top left, when the cover was being factory folded,
that corner was 'bunched', a common enough event in every decade and as that was how they made when brand new, I cannot and
will not include that in the grading. The cover still has the look of just being printed, the colours of the artwork look amazing.
With everything fully explained in text and my pictures showing how beautiful this unused rare cover has survived since 1979.
THE COVER IS IN NEAR MINT CONDITION.
 

THE RECORD IS IN UNPLAYED MINT CONDITION.
As I said, I will respect the unplayed status of this very rare record, I have never seen this 1979 pressing until now.
 

SIDE 1
"Tattoo'd Lady"
"Cradle Rock"
"20:20 Vision"
"They Don't Make Them Like You Anymore"
"Livin' Like A Trucker"

SIDE 2
"Sleep On A Clothes Line"
"Who's That Coming"
"A Million Miles Away"
"Admit It"


Rory Gallagher - guitars, vocals, harmonica, sax, mandolin & bouzouki
Lou Martin - keyboards & accordion
Gerry McAvoy - bass
Rod de'Ath - drums & percussion

All Songs Written By Rory Gallagher.
RecordedAugust, 1973 At Polydor Studios, London.
Produced By Rory Gallagher.

Apologies for the unavoidable repetition, I have writing rather a lot of descriptions of Taste and Rory Gallagher albums lately,
either I write nothing here or include historic details many will not know.  My love of Rory's music prohibits presenting such
a great artist, without those important details, I will include the details from last week's listing of the 1970 "Rory Gallagher"
debut solo album.  Even when talking to an ebay rep from Ireland before Christmas about ebay listing problems on the phone,
  we spent longer discussing music.  It turned out he was a massive Rory Gallagher fan and it was a rather long conversation about
Rory's life and music!  That Irish background was essential to Taste and and every record that followed and I will indeed give
those details again.


The late 60's 'blues boom' produced some incredible artists, who in spite of their natural musical gifts, many struggled to sell
records and Taste fell into that category.  The lead guitarist, vocalist and songwriter, Rory Gallagher, become a musician after
being deeply affected by hearing the American blues greats such as Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie etc.  Not just directly by USA
artists, also England's skiffle king, Lonnie Donegan, who was one of the first to interpret blues here, he influenced the Beatles
among so many others.  Rory first mastered the ukulele before moving onto a guitar, during his teenage years he took to the road
  performing in his native Ireland with the 'show bands', as they were then known.  Van Morrison took that same route and over the
  coming years in the 1970's, Rory Gallagher would establish himself as a truly great solo artist, with his first band, Taste only
  made two studio albums and it was a mixed reception for them from the record buyers.
  
Rory Gallagher formed Taste during 1966, after briefly playing as the Fontanas in Germany, Rory re-created another trio with two
  fellow Irishmen, John Wilson and Richard McCracken.   Now re-named as Taste, they re-located to London and began their residency
  at the famous Marquee Club, where they quickly built up a following, earning the reputation as an outstanding new blues band, in
   those days word of mouth brought people into the clubs.  During these early years they were musically very much in the mold of
  blues trio's like Cream, mentioning Cream might be regarded unrealistic, but a rather famous musician recognised genuine talent
and he made it known that Taste were the UK's latest major artists.  That was none other than John Lennon, who had himself also
  been inspired by the same blues greats and he was not one to give praise readily. John gave an interview to the UK's music paper,
  'New Musical Express', Lennon was giving his usual bluntly honest but scathing opinions on the then current 1969 music scene and
  dismissed the year as being"dismal" for music, with Taste the only shining new light, he was very impressed by Rory Gallagher's
  guitar & harmonica playing, plus his talent as a vocalist. I'm not attempting to use Lennon's opinion about Rory like a salesman,
   because I read that interview and did indeed check out Taste!
 
They signed with Polydor and Taste's debut albumin 1969 was met with  indifference, failing to sell or make a chart entry, their
   live performances however were spreading their reputation outside of London, the follow up "On The Boards" album at last gave
   them a major breakthrough when it charted at No.18 in 1970.  The same recently happened for Ten years After, it was also Taste's
    ability to blow audiences away with exceptional musicianship that won through, it made sense for a third album to be a live set.
     This time recorded in Switzerland but "Live Taste" never got off the ground, by now a really stunning live band and they produced
an unbelievable performance on 28th August at the UK 1970 Isle Of Wight festival.  That made so many sit up and pay attention,
they just stormed their way through a fantastic performance with Rory Gallagher inspired out of his skin!   It was recorded, but
Polydor were fast losing faith in Taste and it remained unreleased until a decision was made to issue the the set in 1971 as;
"Live At The Isle Of Wight."  The LP was pressed in 1971, but yet another delay seriously affected any chance of the stir caused
in 1970, still having a lasting impression a year later.  First pressings have the original 1971 date on the labels, eventually
put on sale in August, 1972, crazily  two whole years after Taste had been the sensations of the 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival.
Even crazier still, Rory had left the band to begin a solo career and in April, 1971, he was recording this self titled debut LP.
Inevitably it sold to just Taste / Rory die-hard fans, after a mere one week in the charts and peaking at No.41 the final Taste LP
briskly slid down and out of the charts, at least it charted, meanwhile Roy had recorded three albums, the debut, "Deuce" and
"Live In Europe"....before "Live At The Isle Of Wight" was released!  This "Tattoo" followed that trio of albums and represents
the astonishing talent he had.

Blues always dominated his songs and performances,"Tattoo" contains just about every blues styles you can think of, and the
title album track, or at least the opening track,"Tattoo'd Lady" was red hot, heavy rock blues.   What great musical variety on
this fourth solo album, "They Don't Make Them Like You Anymore" was yet another classic heavy blues track, his songwriting
was definitely inspired in 1973. That background as a showband in Ireland, was so important to Taste and Rory drew memories
from his younger days and compared the life of a fairground to touring as a rock band.  You can 'taste' the atmosphere of the
fairground when you listen to "Tattoo'd Lady," if you are new to Rory's music, the lyrics I typed will illustrate how that was so
successfully captured in that fantastic album opener.   The album also includes the most wonderful acoustic music along with
improvisational blues / jazz, and he even played the Greek bouzouki as an intro to "They Don't Make Them Like You Anymore."
I prefer to discuss music when describing a record, but I always give priority to unplayed vinyl.
{Roy}


R & M RECORDS.
My lifetime's love of music and records began at a very young age, the arrival of the Beatles and the 1960's decade
  in general had a very profound effect. It was only natural to bring all my first hand experience of collecting vinyl
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