«“A Million Miles Away” is a far more sombre song. Rory used to stay in his bedroom for days on end. You’d almost have to bring meals up to him. He’d only come down occasionally. I told him, "You need to get out of the house, get some sea air."
As kids, our grandmother used to take us down to Ballycotton. I remember driving a few us down for the day, my mother and himself. He disappeared out the cliffs. I started to worry because we couldn’t locate him. I was heading back to call the coast guard when I saw him waving to me from the far cliff. I told him, "You took the heart out of us. We thought you’d fallen off the cliffs." He said, "I just got inspiration for a new song. If I didn’t sit down and write it there and then, I was going to lose it." That I believe to be “A Million Miles Away”, looking out at the ocean, a million miles away, but at the same time he’s in the bar with the band after a gig when his thoughts might be a million miles away. While it sounds a very sad song it’s about getting peace of mind.»
Nov 2, 1967: These photos were taken by Donal Gallagher at Romano's Ballroom in Belfast, Ireland. Donal was there working as a roadie for his older brother Rory and his band Taste, the supporting act for the evening. Roughly a year later Taste would also support Cream during the farewell concerts at Royal Albert Hall, according to some sources at Eric’s insistance.
“When Cream came over, Eric was so impressed by Rory that he offered him his Marshall stack to play through. Rory tried it but couldn’t get the sound he wanted so reverted to playing through his Vox amp.”
"Rory formed Taste in 1966 with no intention of copying anyone. He was friendly with Jack Bruce, having met him in his Hamburg days, and loved the early Yardbirds – their raw, raunchy blues – but he never aimed for Taste to be like Cream. Obviously Cream had been trailblazers in America so they paved the way for Taste. But if you listen to the Taste albums, they sound nothing like Cream.” - Donal Gallagher
Dónal Gallagher speaking about Rory's participation in the "London Muddy Waters Sessions"
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Rory's memories of the blues legend and the "souped-up Ford"
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Transcript of a Hit Parader interview with Muddy Waters, 1972
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Select accompanying photos and scans of the article
From Dónal:
That was Rory’s badge of honour. We’re talking ’71 there. Taste split up at the end of 1970, so Rory was out trying to re-establish himself as a solo artist. We were up in Leicester at the De Montfort Hall. So Rory gets the call: would he play guitar? He said, "Yes, I can do it, but I have a gig in Leicester." So they said, "Oh, well, the session wouldn’t start until the evening anyway."
So, Rory is on stage at the De Montfort Hall and the session was starting at 10pm, but with maybe an hour’s leeway. Of course, as an American promoter used to say to me, "You know, your brother never threatens you with not going on stage. He threatens you with not coming off." The next thing, it’s 10:30pm and he’s still on his fourth encore, or something, and I was at the side of the stage going, "Rory!"
Eventually, he comes off the stage and he jumps into the car, which was the old Ford [Zephyr] Executive. I mean, it was boot-to-the-board to get to the session. In fact, we drove so fast that the following day I found that we were running on the canvas; the tyre had actually eaten itself away with the speed we were doing on the way down.
In the end, it must have been after 11pm when we got to the session. Rory thought, "I’m going to be fired from this," and he was getting, "You’ve only yourself to blame," sort of thing [from me]. But when he got in the door, Muddy just poured out a glass of champagne for him. Rory was all apologetic, but Muddy was saying, "That’s what musicians do. They work at night time. So, don’t worry about it. Relax. I want you to enjoy the session." He was so genial and polite, and no pressure whatsoever, you know.
That first night went great. There were no record company people there on Muddy’s behalf, though. It was very much Muddy and the band. They were in a hotel in Kensington, as I remember, and there were a couple of nights off and they didn’t seem to know where they were.
There was no-one to take them out, so Rory sort of dispatched me to drive Muddy. Muddy travelled in [our] Ford and loved the car because it was, as he described it, the first American-style car he’d been in in Europe. It wasn’t too long after the accident he had, so his leg was a bit lame, and he could stretch it out in the Ford.
I remember taking Muddy and the band down to the old Speakeasy on their night off and at the time being a bit apprehensive about who the Speakeasy might allow in, or not allow in. I went down in advance and they said, |Muddy Waters is coming down here?" It was fantastic. So Muddy came down, and then, of course, all the musicians in the club swamped him and the band, you know. A wonderful couple of days.
From Rory:
After the recordings we drove him back to his hotel a couple of times. I’ve kept that car ever since, as a sort of shrine, because Muddy sat in it. It’s an old Ford Executive, a real Hawaii Five-O car, with tail fins and stars and stripes down the side. It’s sitting at home in front of our house in Cork. The car is falling apart at the seams but I refuse to scrap it or anything. I can still see Muddy in the front seat, smoking those cigars with a big plastic tip on them. I only wish I’d had a Super 8 camera to capture all that stuff. I know one of the guys from Chicago took some shots and I’d love to get them for my grandchildren, if I ever have grandchildren. It’s a beautiful memory for me.
Article by Tony Stewart with an interview of Muddy Waters, for the June 1972 issue of Hit Parader magazine.
The article was titled "Muddy Waters now records in London with the British blues-rockers" and photo captions plus credit can be found below the scans. I've put the direct quotes into italics for an easier read.
Muddy Waters went to Britain.
Virtually unannounced. He stayed a week.
And the reason — to make an album with some strong British bluesrock names such as Steve Winwood, Rory Gallagher, Mick Kelly, Rick Grech, Mitch Mitchell and Georgie Fame. Some London sessions, in fact… following in the footsteps of B. B. King and Howlin' Wolf.
He comments: "My music is better accepted by the whites. At one stage I was recording what they call race records. I was strictly with my people — black people. Few whites come around to see me… but I used to get kids from the University of Chicago come to see me every week. That's before they had all this race stuff going."
"Finally the Rolling Stones switched me over to the white market in the United States. They did my stuff and people said, Who did this on this LP and Who is Muddy Waters?
"White kids had never heard of me, and they wanted to get and see me. And I started to play college dates and white clubs and all that.
"Once I was better accepted in Europe but it's not the same thing now because the white kids jumped for me in America, they jumped for me in Europe. I get standing ovations in a lot of places. I get them in Europe and I get them at home. So l feel like I'm just in the white market, that's all.
"It's bad because my people don't dig me like when I was hot, you know. That don't mean they hate me or nothin’. They might be going the other way with things like Aretha Franklin — the soul type of thing."
It doesn't follow that Muddy Waters, now 57, wishes to be accepted more by the black audience. "I would love it to be a balanced thing. I would love it if I played for the black audience and I love to have a crowd like I do for the white audience. A few years ago, any place I played you couldn't get in."
The London recording sessions was the first time the veteran blues man has recorded other than a couple of tracks in England — and ironically enough the session wasn't his decision.
In fact he didn't know who he would be playing with until he arrived in the country.
Chess, his record company, are obviously trying to continue the pattern established by the Howlin' Wolf — Rolling Stones recording.
"Anyway," Muddy enthused, not at all concerned with that, "I was so proud to go over there and record with a British band. For the recording I got two or three new things and I did some of my old stuff over again and we got a good sound out of it. We did “When I'm Gone,” “I'm Ready” and “I Don't Know Why.”
"The sessions were beautiful and the guys were very understanding and they're good musicians. Yeah, I liked working with them and I'd love to do a tour with those boys."
Muddy also brought over some members of his own band and they played on the sessions.
Having made his first recording in 1940 and just recovered from a serious auto accident, does Muddy have any thoughts about retiring?
He says: "As long as I'm healthy and able. I'm going to send my good friends some blues. I don't think of the retiring thing yet. I don't ever have it on my mind. I picked up my first guitar at 18 and I ain't put it down since."
Photos (click to enlarge)
Rory pictured at the Cork Docks in 1981, sitting on the hood of his Ford Executive (taken by Colm Henry)
The gatefold cover of "The London Muddy Waters Sessions"
Hit Parader scans (via)
As the article states: Photos by Esmond Edwards who co-produced the sessions with lan Greene.
Captions within the scans are:
Page one
HARP PLAYER Carey Bell, another U.S. import getting together with Muddy.
Page two
RICK GRECH. Muddy recorded at London’s IBC Studios.
STEVE WINWOOD
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MUDDY WATERS, left, with Sam Lawhorn, of his U.S. band and Mick Kelly.
MITCH MITCHELL, formerly with Jimi Hendrix, was booked for the Chess London sessions.
Page four
LONDON MUSICIANS Georgie Fame and Rory Gallagher — both booked for Muddy’s sessions.
ROSETTA HIGHTOWER, formerly with the Orlons, did “Blind Man Blues” as a duet with Muddy. It was one of the new songs he brought to the sessions.
He certainly was an independent, very individual minded. You couldn’t really influence him. He was stubborn to the point of… In fact, the poor man in his last days in the hospital, I remember the doctor was so frustrated with probably some of the treatment. He said, “I’ll tell you what. We’ve had every patient in this hospital, I’ve gotta tell you, your brother’s the most stubborn one we’ve ever had.”
