The year was 1973 and the Irish Blues/Rock legend Rory Gallagher was really peaking as an artist. It was in this year, at the age of just twenty-five that he released his fourth studio album, Tattoo. This album was another in his rapidly growing collection, which proved him and his band’s talent, despite a constant change in drummers and keyboard-players. Rory himself wrote all the tracks on the album, with him on vocals and lead guitar and Gerry McAvoy as always on bass.

The tracks themselves were impressive, with many being included in Greatest Hits/Ultimate Collection albums, and other artists, due to Rory’s talent as a songwriter, have covered many of the tracks on the album, which also gave him many favourites for playing live on his tours. The most notable of these would probably be “Cradle Rock”, an all right song, but I thought it was a little dull and repetitive at times.

The album stuck to the Rory Gallagher that fans knew and loved by incorporating his signature blues/rock/jazzy sound. In particular the song “They Don’t Make Them Like You Anymore” was a great jazz riff and had very catchy beat, and still stuck to his rock roots with a nice little guitar solo to finish it all off. “They Don’t Make Them Like You Anymore” along with “20:20 Vision” are probably the more jazzier and light-hearted tacks on the album. While the rest seem to take a more bluesrock route.

The most of notable of these songs in my opinion was “Tattoo’d Lady.” A great song, which despite having a bit of an out of place chorus, had brilliant verses and in my opinion showed a magnificent song writing talent from the Irishman. The lyrics are great and the track follows suit with some of Rory’s other great songs such as “Follow Me”, “Bad Penny” and “Moonchild.”

“Livin’ Like A Trucker” breaks away from the blues/jazz theme a little bit and is the track that has the sound of Rory’s old school Rock days. It’s a good tune, and one that will probably please the heavier rock fan while not at all deferring the regular Rory Gallagher fans. Another rock-sounding track is “Sleep On A Clothesline” which has a few very nice solos, but unlike “Livin’ Like A Trucker” maintains a cool jazzy sound and is a good riff.

“A million Miles Away” is yet another catchy jazzy riff on the album and despite being almost seven minutes long is not as repetitive as I thought it would be. The lyrics aren’t quite as good as they were on the other songs, but it is still good for some easy listening.

The ninth and final track on the album is “Admit It”, (there were two extra tracks on the re-mastered version but they were not original, and I have decided not to include them on this review) and kudos to Gerry McAvoy for a nice little bass solo at the start of the song making it quite catchy from the beginning. It’s well written and has a few nice guitars bits but just doesn’t have the same blues sound that the other tracks have, and despite not being a bad song, for me it lacked a certain… umph that I have come to expect from the other songs.

All in all, it’s a good album with some quality tracks, with “Tattoo’d Lady” and “They Don’t Make Them Like You Anymore” particular highlights. The album received a good reception at the time and will please most blues/rock fans. It’s not a bad introductory album to Gallagher to buy if you’re on a tight budget and cannot afford his expensive Ultimate Collection, but I would recommend downloading “Follow Me”, “Bad Penny” and “Moonchild” for about 00.99c each in iTunes as well for the full Rory Gallagher experience.