Released: January 1970
In a line: Rory Gallagher-dominated band’s second album
Top Track: If the Day was any Longer
Cover Art: moody hard rock/blues band pose. Pretty accurate.
I’ll give it: A rocky-jazzy-bluesy 9
Welcome to 1970 and the new decade (yes, still technically the 60s – no year zero etc but it does say ’70’…). Released on the 2nd January 1970, this was the second album from Ireland’s Taste – Rory Gallagher, John Wilson and Charlie McCracken.
Evolving from the showband circuit in the early sixties to powerhouse Creamesque trio a few years later, Taste were dominated by the presence of Rory Gallagher. Lead guitar, lead vocalist and writer of all tracks on this album, he also chipped in on harmonica and saxophone. While obviously the band’s major strength this didn’t have a great effect on band democracy and after two subsequent live album releases, the band would last until the end of the year with Gallagher embarking on a long successful solo career.
As to “On the Boards”, it’s a powerful album covering hard rock, blues, jazz and a bit of folk yet having a consistent sound and feel across all tracks. “What’s Going On” is a riff-catchy hard rock opener followed by a hard blues song “Railway and Gun”. After that we get an extended jazz workout (lots of bass noodling and Rory on sax) and this pattern follows through the album. There are a surprising number of quieter tracks – the acoustic “See Hear”, the slow blues title track and my favourite song, a beautiful acoustic folk number “If the day was any longer”.
The production sounds great, the musicianship is excellent and the album sounds fresh – very much of its time but still ageless. Great start to a new decade.
Listen: https://open.spotify.com/album/6kNMzWfnEfLCW5sGkz746d
Info: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/On_the_Boards_%28album%29
1970 Revisited 