Review by YianniD October 8, 2008 (2 of 2 found this review helpful)
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The prospect of a definitive "best of" collection from the late blues master Rory Gallagher is long overdue. Rory's expansive career from his early days with Taste through his passionate studio and live albums have needed a retrospective overview. The added bonus of "Big Guns: The Very Best of Rory Gallagher" is that it is also a hybrid CD featuring an SA-CD layer. However, the unfortunate truth of this career spanning two-disc collection is that it is an absolute mess, and it certainly is NOT the very best representation of Rory's music. Add to this the horrendous sound quality in both the SA-CD format and the normal CD format, and you have one big disappointment.
Disc one is the worst of the two CDs with the sound quality making Rory sound like he recorded inside a tin can. Compare, for example, the excellent track "Bad Penny" on this CD with the remastered version on the "Top Priority" CD. They are worlds apart in sound quality. The mix of this song on "Big Guns" buries Rory's blistering guitar leads and makes the rhythm guitar sound muddy and sloppy. The same thing happens with "Shadow Play," with the mix sounding inferior to the remastered version on "Photo Finish." Since the individual album remasters were released on Capo, as is this compilation, one must ask, who messed with the mixes when it came time to release these songs on "Big Guns"?
Disc two fairs better in terms of sound quality, but still falls below the sound quality on the individual releases.
Another problem with this compilation is the fact that it claims to represent Rory's very best, yet there are no tracks culled from Rory's high watermark live album, "Irish Tour '74"! The live tracks that do appear (including a pair of inferior unreleased tracks from 1974-"Bullfrog Blues" and "Messin' with the Kid") do not highlight just how amazing Rory is in the live setting.
If you are a true Rory fan, skip this compilation and purchase the individual remasters on Capo/Buddha. If you want to buy only one Rory release, pick up the remastered "Irish Tour" CD.
Rory's musical legacy deserves much better than this sloppily compiled and abominably mixed CD release.
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