His Still Got The Blues is one of my all time favorite blues-rock albums. Great tone and phrasing.
Oh no - really?!
I knew he had medical probs - that’s in part why he sold Peter Green’s Les Paul…
Great player.
Ditto. Love that song, too.
This was a shock for me. I didn’t know him from Thin Lizzy, but in the '80’s I heard his “Still got the blues for you,” on my car radio and fell in love with his music. I’ve always preferred guitar-driven music, and he could play guitar, that’s for sure. I got the cassette and now have the CD; have other tapes and CD’s of his as well. I had the impression that he wasn’t big in the U.S.; I heard “Still got the blues…” on the radio maybe two or three times and no other songs of his. I’m not sure what the strict definition of “the blues” is, but to me, he combined the blues with great guitar and great singing that was both heart-rending and uplifting. I have to go find his CD’s now and reminisce.
He’s no Mark Knopfler but RIP anyway.
He was my favorite players. I love a lot of his stuff, especially the rock stuff. I don’t know why they have to say Thin Lizzy member though, he did so much more. He was also the only performer that I didn’t get a chance to see live.
One of my favorites, Over the Hills and Far Away.
Huh…always thought that was a Nightwish song.
That sucks 
Only 58… RIP.
I didn’t know about either of these things until your post. I see that he sold the guitar a while back, but nothing about health problems. What were they?
This hit my friend Peter, in my hometown in Germany especially hard. He’s already called me to tell me of this, because a big part of his band’s (Time Out) is based on Moore’s songs.
I was going to post their videos of “The Boys Are Back In Town” and “Still Got The Blues” here, but since it would take a lot away from this great artist’s farewell, I’ll just leave it to y’all to look for them if you want to.
On behalf of Peter, Time Out, and me: Rest in peace Gary, and thanks for all the rockin’ blues!
Quasi
I believe he got in a car accident and hurt his hand or wrist, and because he was a journeyman musician, didn’t have healthcare and needed to pay for care, so he ended up selling the Peter Green Les Paul - but he thought he was selling it with certain terms and conditions about resale, yet the buyer began to market it pretty much immediately for, like $2million, way over what Gary got. There are many, many long, long threads on the guitar boards about this, especially the Les Paul Forum…
Bummer. I always thought he was one of the most talented and underrated guitarists around. He made some “interesting” creative choices through the years, but in my opinion, “We Want Moore” is one of the best live albums ever made and “Still Got the Blues” is a classic.
To be honest, I lost track of Gary’s music after I bought the abyssmal “A Different Beat” circa 1999. Does anyone have any recommendations for his later work? I like both his hard rock and blues work and am not opposed to mellower melodic stuff, but am easily annoyed by anything electronic (e.g. drum machines and synths).
Thanks, I didn’t know about the accident. I assumed he had national health-care, but that would probably not cover the intricacies of an accident.
I saw some threads about the sale – that he got $750k and that the buyer was not supposed to either disclose that price or immediately sell it himself. There was another blurb indicating that the buyer did not get the $2m he asked. Despite the significance of the guitar, I was surprised to see it go for that much.
Yeah, the specifics have both been trumpeted loudly and considered very murky - I am sure we haven’t gotten the whole story and the truth is somewhere in the middle.
The Peter Green Les Paul is one of those “niche touchstones” - has no cross-over awareness to mainstream public types who might appreciate that Clapton’s Blackie or Page’s No. 1 are special guitars. But to guitar nuts - especially folks who treasure either 1950’s sunburst Les Pauls or the British blues scene in the 60’s - it is probably in the top 5 of important Les Paul’s, alongside Clapton’s Beano Burst*, Pagey’s No.1, Jeff Beck’s Truth 'burst*, Keef’s first 'burst, and Michael Bloomfield’s 'burst* (an American, but his tour in the UK with the Butterfield band with a 'burst is supposed to have inspired the Brit players to seek them out). Peter Green achievedAMAZING sustain on this guitar, and legendarily “screwed it up” while doing some work on it - he flipped the magnet on the neck pickup so then when the pickup was reinstalled, it produced a distinct out-of-phase tone. The “Peter Green mod” is still discussed actively.
All of that is a long-winded way of saying that yeah, to Les Paul insiders, it would not be hard at all to find collector/geeks who would pay a lot of money for the guitar.
*whereabouts unknown. Clapton’s and Beck’s were stolen in the 60’s and I think Bloomfield’s went missing when he overdosed back in the day. Even more trivia: Bloomfield got the guitar by trading with Dan Erlewine - if you do ANY work on guitars or have ever shopped at StewMac for guitar parts on line, you should recognize Erlewine’s name as one of the biggest experts on guitar repair, restoration and building…but back in the day he was a teenaged kid in Michigan who idolized Bloomfield and so when Mike made it clear that he wanted a 'burst with humbuckers, Dan traded for Mike’s older Goldtop with P-90’s…