187. Gary Moore / Corridors of Power. 1982. 4/5

For over a decade before this album was released, Gary Moore had been going through different stages of his music career, and it feels as though he was always searching for his sweet spot, for the career path that would make him the most comfortable with his art. There had been the “Gary Moore Band” that released the album “Grinding Stone” all the way back in 1973, which was as short lived as the band Skid Row. There he had met Phil Lynott who went on to form Thin Lizzy, where Gary then had three stints in over a six year period, filling in for Brian Robertson when he left the band. But even this, playing with his great mate, didn’t sit well for him.
He released his first solo album in 1978, titled “Back on the Streets” with Lynott guesting, which produced the title track and his first chart selling single, “Parisienne Walkways” with Lynott on lead vocals and bass. He relocated to LA, and recorded “Dirty Fingers”, but this was shelved and not released in favour of a more radio friendly album under the band name G-Force. Now, call me stupid, but given that “Dirty Fingers” is now considered an absolute classic of hard rock, you just know that Gary and his record company missed a trick there. The G-Force album was initially supposed to have Glenn Hughes on lead vocals and bass, which would have improved it, but overall it is a less than spectacular release. “Dirty Fingers” did not get released until 1983 in Japan. Amazing.
After all of this, Moore eventually decides to come back to his solo direction, and writes a bunch of songs on his own to take forward. He also brings in Ian Paice of Deep Purple on drums and Neil Murray from Whitesnake in to record, and to produce an album that in regards to musicianship was second to none as a result.

From the outset, Gary has always mixed in some ballad tracks to his albums in the somewhat forlorn hope of commercial success. At least, that was what I always thought. The success of “Parisienne Walkways” a few years earlier I always felt blinded him to believing that he needed a ballad fix to gain some popularity, when in fact it was his guitar and unique vocals that kept bringing us back.
And so it is on “Corridors of Power” that we have several differing styles of the rock ballad track that mix with the other truly awesome tracks on the album. And I say they are differing literally. Because you have a track such as “Cold Hearted” that is based around the ballad style of things, but is also extremely blues based. Indeed it would have fit well in his 1990’s blues period. It’s a slower song with typical Moore vocals, and though ballad based has that breakout guitar solo at the end of the song that really lifts it beyond the ordinary. On the other hand, you have a song such as “Falling in Love With You” which is a full blown power ballad with no apologies. Well, in this instance I would like an apology from Gary, because this kind of song just doesn’t sit well with me at all, and it grates at the album as well. Even the song that precedes this on the album, “Gonna Break My Heart Again” is sometimes classed in that hard rock ballad class. But it is far more guitar oriented, and is a much better pace than “Falling in Love with You”, and Gary’s far more energetic vocal here is much more enjoyable. Then there is the second track on the album, “Always Gonna Love You” that is a combination of the two of these songs, the slower and more balladish song, with crooning vocals from Gary rather than powerful, but with enough of his fantastic guitar licks to raise the song above the standard rock ballad. The fact that these three songs all fall on the first side of the album can sometimes be restrictive to those that would rather hear more hard rock.
Backing all of this up is the album closer, “I Can’t Wait Until Tomorrow” which is an epic track to complete this excellent set. It’s a grower, starting out quiet and thoughtful and serene, before it breaks out in the second stanza, both in guitar and vocally, both of which Gary lifts to intense levels that produce the best moments of the song. It’s a great track, one that mixes everything that makes Gary Moore the legend that he is.
Then you have what I consider the prestige tracks on the album. The opening track “Don’t Take Me for a Loser” is just perfect, the opening riff immediately dragging you into the album, played along with gusto and Gary’s soaring vocals leading the way. The cover of “Wishing Well”, originally performed by the band Free, is for me the definitive version. Well, the live version that appears on the “Rocking Every Night – Live in Japan” album is the definitive version, but this is the close second in that regard. It has more passion than the original, and of course has Gary’s two piece guitar solo within that kicks it to the next level. On the second side of the album, it begins with the lengthy “End of the World”, which starts with a guitar solo piece that sounds closely similar to the same start that happens on a track later down the track, “Murder in the Skies”, and a vocal melody line that also is familiar to those that know that song. No matter, this is still great. And we finish off with the quintessential hard rocking Gary Moore track, the kind that he built his reputation on, “Rockin’ Every Night”. It is the perfect example of what made Gary Moore so brilliant.

Having discovered Gary Moore in my latter high school years, I had numerous cassettes with his 1980’s albums on them, and they all got a flogging over that time. “Wild Frontier”, “Run for Cover”, “Victims of the Future”, and that aforementioned live album, all joined “Corridors of Power” in thousands of hours of listening and air guitaring and singing along. The years between 1986 and 1990 had all of these albums in alongside the other artists I was listening to, and it never paled in comparison. Indeed, “Corridors of Power” was a tangent away from those other bands, a less frantic and thrash oriented style of hard rock that never lost itself because no matter what style of song came on the album, it always had that amazing guitar work that compared favourably with all of those other bands. And for me that is what allows this album to stand the test of time and continue to be so relevant. The mix of ballad tracks to hard rock tracks could have easily been an impediment to finding true joy of this album, in any era of music. But firstly the musicianship is superb, utilising as it does Neil Murray on bass and Ian Paice on drums, both great musicians in their own right. And secondly Gary Moore’s distinctive vocals combined with his signature guitar sound, his amazing riffs and solo breaks. The mix and combination of all of this makes for a terrific and still thoroughly enjoyable experience.
I just loved this album when I first got it. It went around and around in the cassette player of the two door 1970 Valiant that I drove in those days, blaring out the speakers, no doubt with people thinking exactly the opposite as I sang out “Don’t Take Me For a Loser” through the window. My CD copy has been worn thin over the years from consistent playing, alongside those other albums I mentioned earlier. Those great tracks here – “Don’t Take Me For a Loser”, “End of the World”, “I Can’t Wait Until Tomorrow”, “Rockin Every Night” and “Wishing Well” – have served me well over the years, and still act as a comfort whenever this album gets a run.