Gary Moore Was Still a Teenager When Dr. Strangely Strange Went Electric
Gary Moore’s path to guitar stardom passed through an unlikely record: a Dublin folk trio’s attempt to get louder without losing its peculiar character.
Long before Still Got the Blues, Gary Moore helped a very different kind of band turn up the volume. Dr. Strangely Strange were an acoustic trio from Dublin, with songs that seemed perfectly happy to wander between folk melody, surreal stories and whatever instrument happened to be within reach. Their second album, Heavy Petting, put Moore’s electric guitar inside that world.
It is an unexpected entry point for listeners who know him through Thin Lizzy or his later blues records. It also puts the attention back where it belongs: on a band that wanted more power without giving up its own way of making music.
Why the Strangelies needed electricity
Tim Booth, Tim Goulding and Ivan Pawle had formed around Dublin’s Orphanage commune. Joe Boyd produced their 1969 debut, Kip of the Serenes. Its acoustic textures and odd turns of phrase suited the informal creative life from which the group emerged.
Touring changed the practical demands. In a 2026 interview with It’s Psychedelic Baby!, Booth recalled how slight an acoustic group could sound beside Mott the Hoople. Their ambition was to become “an electrified acoustic band.”
That distinction matters. Electricity could give the songs more presence; it did not have to replace their character. Fairport Convention drummer Dave Mattacks joined the recording, alongside Moore, giving the Strangelies new possibilities for rhythm and arrangement.
Moore was already part of the Irish rock scene. His official biography places him in the original Skid Row, the group that also brought him into contact with Phil Lynott. The famous later chapters can make these early connections seem like footnotes. On Heavy Petting, the connection is the music itself.
Follow the guitar into Heavy Petting
For a first encounter, try “Sign On My Mind.” At more than eight minutes, it gives the album room to stretch beyond the dimensions of a compact folk song. Then move to “Gave My Love an Apple,” where the relationship between the acoustic writing and electric guitar becomes another way into the record.
Listen with a question in mind: how does a guest guitarist change the scale of a band’s sound while leaving its identity audible? That is a more rewarding route through this album than treating it as an early showcase for a future star. The Strangelies supply the setting, the songs and the unusual turns. Moore belongs inside the ensemble.
The group’s history also carries on beyond this meeting. Our earlier feature, “Strange Days: Dr. Strangely Strange on Music Then and Now,” follows their wider story. It is a useful next stop after the Gary Moore connection brings you through the door.
An album with more than one version of itself
Think Like A Key’s Heavy Petting (55th Anniversary Edition) expands the original record with studio outtakes, radio sessions and live recordings from 1970. The 29-track edition offers ways to follow the same musical world across different settings, rather than simply adding more minutes to an old album.
That is the invitation here. Come for an unfamiliar Gary Moore credit; stay to hear what Dr. Strangely Strange were trying to make possible.
Explore Dr. Strangely Strange and find Heavy Petting in your regional store.
For another view of the band, watch the official Sound Techniques archive film.
