Thin Lizzy (Official Thread)

[BluesRocker]

Thin Lizzy live in 1981 when Snowy White was in the band..Snowy got a bit of stick at times when he was in Lizzy and unfairly i thought..He was never going to be another Brian Robertson or Gary Moore but he is a great guitarist and his solo here on 'Don't Believe a Word' is superb...8 min live cut which starts off as the slow version and then goes up-tempo with Snowy's fantastic solo.

 

[BluesRocker]

1980, Phil joining up with Wild Horses on the UK TV music show 'Alright Now' in Newcastle on Tyne-Tees TV...Robbo, who had formed Wild Horses with Jimmy Bain, on guitar here with his hair trimmed.,a couple of years later, when he joined Motorhead, he had it cut even shorter just to rile up Lemmy, lol.

 

[E-Z]

Thin Lizzy live in 1981 when Snowy White was in the band..Snowy got a bit of stick at times when he was in Lizzy and unfairly i thought..He was never going to be another Brian Robertson or Gary Moore but he is a great guitarist and his solo here on 'Don't Believe a Word' is superb...8 min live cut which starts off as the slow version and then goes up-tempo with Snowy's fantastic solo.

I actually like CHINATOWN and play it quite often and more so than BLACK ROSE & THUNDER AND LIGHTNING. The 2nd album that Snowy was on RENEGADE it's ok but I don't play it that often although saying that about 6-months ago I played the Renegade cd for about 3-days straight continuously??. The best track on Renegade is Hollywood Down On Your Luck I had that track on 'repeat play' for about 10 times one day!!.

 

[BluesRocker]

I actually like CHINATOWN and play it quite often and more so than BLACK ROSE & THUNDER AND LIGHTNING. The 2nd album that Snowy was on RENEGADE it's ok but I don't play it that often although saying that about 6-months ago I played the Renegade cd for about 3-days straight continuously??. The best track on Renegade is Hollywood Down On Your Luck I had that track on 'repeat play' for about 10 times one day!!.

Side A of Chinatown is excellent, but Side B is not so good...The track 'Killer on the Loose,' which was on the Chinatown album, was released as a single and on the B side of it was a song called 'Don't Play Around'..i really thought that should have made it on to the album, but it didn't....Lynott got into a bit of bother with the song Killer on the Loose coz he wrote it at the height of The Yorkshire Ripper murders and he was accused of sensationalizing those crimes of Peter Sutcliffe..Lynott denied it though....Renegade was ok, not brilliant but it had its moments..The opening track 'Angel of Death' is very good, as is the title track itself, and i like the song 'Leave This Town' it sounds a bit like ZZ Top...Gorham and Lynott were big ZZ Top fans..

 

[E-Z]

With regards to 'Killer On The Loose' firstly yes it's a great stand alone song and yes I do recall actually hearing a woman on the radio condemning the song lyrics when the song was released back in 1980 but from memory Phil said in response that the song lyrics were 'warning' women to be careful when they were out on a night out?. As for Chinatown the album many years ago I did think one or two tracks on side two sounded a bit like 'filler tracks' but I suppose after listening to the album many times over the last 45 years I like all the songs on the album. I also like We Will Be Strong, Chinatown, Sweet Heart, Sugar Blues, Killer on the Loose, Having A Good Time which I originally considered a 'filler track' Genocide (The Killing of the Buffalo), Didn't I & Hey You but to be honest I like every track on the album!.

With regards to the Renegade album I replayed it last night and I still think 'Hollywood (Down On Your Luck)' is the best track on the album and with regards to 'Angel of Death' I read not long ago that the song lyrics are similar to a certain extent to 'the Stones' Sympathy For The Devil but that just kind of clarified what I already suspected and as for the rest of the Renegade album I read maybe a year ago that Snowy White still likes the title track 'Renegade' and may still listen to it and as for the song 'Fats' I think I read that Scott Gorham didn't like it and maybe Brian Downey and Darren Wharton didn't like it as well but Phil did so of course it went on the album!.

 

[BluesRocker]

Those guitar harmonies of Scott and Snowy on the Chinatown album are really nice...by the time that the Renegade album came around, some of the guitar work was not so good..i think a lot of this was down to Scott because of his heroin addiction, i remember reading an article about Scott on that Renegade tour, he said he couldn't remember much of that tour coz he was so spaced out most of the time..i saw Lizzy on the Renegade tour at The Liverpool Empire in late 1981, they played 2 nights at The Empire...by this time Snowy was getting tired with it all, was getting fed up of Phil and Scott's drug taking and partying, wasting time in the studio, and the lack of focus...Snowy got to the point where he said that Phil was more interested in being a rock star than a musician,and the following year he quit the band..he left the band in the same exact circumstances as what Gary Moore had done 3 years earlier...Gary also got sick of it all...Gary and Snowy were serious musicians, whereas Phil and Scott had turned into party animals..Snowy said he really enjoyed his first 18 months with Lizzy, but after that he was quickly losing interest..i honestly believe the main reason why Lizzy eventually split up was because of Scott, he wanted out so that he could clean himself up from the drugs, in which he did..it was a real shame that Phil couldn't...Lizzy will always be my fave band but it was such a massive shame to see them end up like that...They were a MAGNIFICENT band until those goddamn awful drugs took control...i actually think the beginning of the end was when Robbo left..if Robbo had stayed and Phil and Scott hadn't gone downhill then i honestly think Lizzy could have gone on to be even bigger and would have blasted all those upcoming NWOBHM bands away.

 

[E-Z]

Those guitar harmonies of Scott and Snowy on the Chinatown album are really nice...by the time that the Renegade album came around, some of the guitar work was not so good..i think a lot of this was down to Scott because of his heroin addiction, i remember reading an article about Scott on that Renegade tour, he said he couldn't remember much of that tour coz he was so spaced out most of the time...

That was a nice piece of writing BluesRocker

With regards to Thin Lizzy overall I do like the early period with Eric Bell on guitar and the first three albums although I guess some fan's ignore those albums also I like the couple of singles that Gary appeared on soon after Eric left. The Nightlife album is a bit of a 'flat' sounding album to my ears although it contains several good tracks on it including Still In Love With You that was played at every Thin Lizzy gig and then came the Fighting album in 1975 which I actually like and still sometimes play. Next up the 'breakthrough' Jailbreak album which is a cracker and then continuing with Johnny the Fox which is another good album followed by Bad Reputation which I still play quite a bit. The Black Rose album I must admit isn't one of my favourites and I rarely ever play it these days but Chinatown is a favourite of mine that I still often play and enjoy. Renegade is ok in parts but again I don't play it much anymore and then finally the Thunder & Lightning album and the band sound on top form again and I especially like Cold Sweat, The Sun Goes Down & Baby Please Don't Go in particular.

With regards to Phil's two solo albums I really like Solo In Soho from 1980 the sametime Chinatown was being recorded and it includes some nice tracks on it such as Kings Call, Jamaica Rum & Talk in 79 amongst several others tracks that I like and as for the second solo Phil Lynott Album I rarely if ever play it although it contains Fatalistic Attitude which I believe got in the British singles charts?.

I went to a special Thin Lizzy gig in London's Shepperd's Bush back in 1993 featuring both Eric Bell & Brian Downey and a tall bass player who bore a resemblance to Philo himself anyway after the set was finished I went back stage (I just wandered backstage and walked into the dressing room) and managed to chat with both Eric & Brian although having a fairly attractive 'blonde' Irish girlfriend with me at that time probably helped ha ha..

With regards to the Johnny the Fox album I read some months ago that the last track on the album called Boogie Woogie piano (or something like that?) was included apparently because Phil had run out of decent songs by then so they stuck that number on the end just to fill out the album!. Ha ha..

Also I read again some months ago that Brian Downey's top 10 or 12 Thin Lizzy songs included Chinatown the song on the Chinatown album and also Brian still occasionally listens to the Live And Dangerous album which he said still sounds great!!.

 

[BluesRocker]

That was a nice piece of writing BluesRocker

With regards to Thin Lizzy overall I do like the early period with Eric Bell on guitar and the first three albums although I guess some fan's ignore those albums also I like the couple of singles that Gary appeared on soon after Eric left. The Nightlife album is a bit of a 'flat' sounding album to my ears although it contains several good tracks on it including Still In Love With You that was played at every Thin Lizzy gig and then came the Fighting album in 1975 which I actually like and still sometimes play. Next up the 'breakthrough' Jailbreak album which is a cracker and then continuing with Johnny the Fox which is another good album followed by Bad Reputation which I still play quite a bit. The Black Rose album I must admit isn't one of my favourites and I rarely ever play it these days but Chinatown is a favourite of mine that I still often play and enjoy. Renegade is ok in parts but again I don't play it much anymore and then finally the Thunder & Lightning album and the band sound on top form again and I especially like Cold Sweat, The Sun Goes Down & Baby Please Don't Go in particular.

With regards to Phil's two solo albums I really like Solo In Soho from 1980 the sametime Chinatown was being recorded and it includes some nice tracks on it such as Kings Call, Jamaica Rum & Talk in 79 amongst several others tracks that I like and as for the second solo Phil Lynott Album I rarely if ever play it although it contains Fatalistic Attitude which I believe got in the British singles charts?.

I went to a special Thin Lizzy gig in London's Shepperd's Bush back in 1993 featuring both Eric Bell & Brian Downey and a tall bass player who bore a resemblance to Philo himself anyway after the set was finished I went back stage (I just wandered backstage and walked into the dressing room) and managed to chat with both Eric & Brian although having a fairly attractive 'blonde' Irish girlfriend with me at that time probably helped ha ha..

With regards to the Johnny the Fox album I read some months ago that the last track on the album called Boogie Woogie piano (or something like that?) was included apparently because Phil had run out of decent songs by then so they stuck that number on the end just to fill out the album!. Ha ha..

Also I read again some months ago that Brian Downey's top 10 or 12 Thin Lizzy songs included Chinatown the song on the Chinatown album and also Brian still occasionally listens to the Live And Dangerous album which he said still sounds great!!.

yes, i also like the early Lizzy with Eric Bell..Their very first album is a decent effort but i don't listen to their 2nd album 'Shades' very much. i actually put it bottom of the list of all Lizzy albums..The final album with Bell 'Vagabonds' is a really good album and i rate hit highly..The first album with Scott and Robbo 'Nightlife' is ok but i agree with Scott when he described Nightlife as being a cocktail album, i think i know what he means by that..Lizzy got Ron Nevison in to produce Nightlife and they were expecting it to be quite a heavy album but were surprised that Nevison had made it quite a laid back album..Nevison was fairly well known on working on heavy albums with the likes of The Who, Led Zep and UFO...Lizzy's next effort was 'Fighting' and this along with Jailbreak is my all time fave Lizzy LP...Fighting is fantastic and i listen to it often..Side A is superb, and some people have said that Side B has a bit too much filler, but i disagree completely..Spirit Slips Away is brilliantly haunting, i like Freedom Song, and the very last track on Fighting is Ballad of a Hardman, a brilliant hard driving hard pumping rock track that is classic Lizzy for me...You can clearly tell that Robbo and Scott are really beginning to click on Fighting,Superb album..Jailbreak will always be Lizzy's best album, and rightly so because it has so many of Lizzy's greatest ever tunes on it..but i actually think Jailbreak could have been even better if Tony Visconti had come along a year earlier than what he did...Johnny the Fox came next and that was excellent , and then came Bad Reputation which is my 3rd fave Lizzy album, with Fighting and Jailbreak as 1 and 2...Lizzy had a lot of guitarist changes but the classic line-up of Lynott, Downey, Gorham and Robertson will never be beaten..Their best line-up by far.

 

[E-Z]

yes, i also like the early Lizzy with Eric Bell..Their very first album is a decent effort but i don't listen to their 2nd album 'Shades' very much. i actually put it bottom of the list of all Lizzy albums..The final album with Bell 'Vagabonds' is a really good album and i rate hit highly..The first album with Scott and Robbo 'Nightlife' is ok but i agree with Scott when he described Nightlife as being a cocktail album, i think i know what he means by that..Lizzy got Ron Nevison in to produce Nightlife and they were expecting it to be quite a heavy album but were surprised that Nevison had made it quite a laid back album..Nevison was fairly well known on working on heavy albums with the likes of The Who, Led Zep and UFO...Lizzy's next effort was 'Fighting' and this along with Jailbreak is my all time fave Lizzy LP...Fighting is fantastic and i listen to it often..Side A is superb, and some people have said that Side B has a bit too much filler, but i disagree completely..Spirit Slips Away is brilliantly haunting, i like Freedom Song, and the very last track on Fighting is Ballad of a Hardman, a brilliant hard driving hard pumping rock track that is classic Lizzy for me...You can clearly tell that Robbo and Scott are really beginning to click on Fighting,Superb album..Jailbreak will always be Lizzy's best album, and rightly so because it has so many of Lizzy's greatest ever tunes on it..but i actually think Jailbreak could have been even better if Tony Visconti had come along a year earlier than what he did...Johnny the Fox came next and that was excellent , and then came Bad Reputation which is my 3rd fave Lizzy album, with Fighting and Jailbreak as 1 and 2...Lizzy had a lot of guitarist changes but the classic line-up of Lynott, Downey, Gorham and Robertson will never be beaten..Their best line-up by far.

Another good appraisal BlueRocker.

With regards to all things 'Lizzy' firstly I bought the Mark Putterford book on Thin Lizzy back in the mid/late 1990s which I still occasionally read which deals with everything from the beginning to the end of Phil Lynott & Thin Lizzy and last night I was reading parts of it again and with regards to the Shades of a Blue Orphanage album Brian Downey says firstly he wanted to recorded the album at the Decca West Hampstead studio but Phil wanted to recalled at De Lane lea studio in London's Soho district mainly cos Martin Birch would have been the engineer who was engineer on Deep Purple's Machine Head album but Martin was to busy to become involved in the recording and secondly Brian went on to say De Lane lea had a 'poor sounding studio for drums' and West Hampstead would have been much better plus also I believe Eric says the band didn't have any material after the first album was recorded so they had to come up fairly quickly with some new recordings!. From memory Brian also says the track I Don't Want to Forget How to Jive shouldn't have been put on the album along with Sarah and also the title track Shades of a Blue Orphanage was a bit weird and a bit long and also a bit morbid as well although that said it's not a bad song but I know where Brian is coming from by saying that. Brian then says their are several good songs on the album and names Buffalo Girl, Chatting Today & Call the Police..

I have the Jailbreak & Johnny the Fox box-set which features 8-cd discs with 4-Jailbreak & 4-Johnny the Fox discs plus I also have the Live & Dangerous 8-cd box set as well.

Yes as I posted previously that I also like the Fighting album and I think the album contains all good tracks although for some reason it usually got a mixed response from various reviewers back in the day for some reason?.

I notice that you also like the Eric Bell era 'Lizzy' which I always refer to the band from that early era (1970-1973) as a "magical three piece" after reading that phrase in a book that I read back in the mid-1980s on Irish Rock music that featured bands such as Skid Row, Horslips, Dr. Strangely Strange, Thin Lizzy, Rory Gallagher & Taste, Gary Moore and a number of other Irish rock & folk rock bands from the late 1960s through to the 1980s.

 

[E-Z]

Funky Junction (Thin Lizzy) play a tribute to Deep Purple..

I have been listening a few times yesterday to my cd copy of Funky Junction plays Deep Purple and it's actually pretty good considering it was recorded back in 1972. The album was the idea of a German producer who apparently contacted the Thin Lizzy management with an offer of £500 if the band would record some Deep Purple songs and he would release them on a budget album and note that £500 in 1972 would be worth just over £7.000 in 2026. Apparently Eric, Phil & Brian wasn't that enamored with the idea but the Thin Lizzy management told the guy's that they needed the money so the boys went along with it plus with the help of two musicians out of the Irish band Elmer Fudd featuring a singer named Bennie White who sang in a Ian Gillian style from Deep Purple along with another band mate from Elmer Fudd named Dave Lennox on keyboards to fill out the Jon Lord organ sound although obviously none of the musicians involved were named on the album sleeve.

Eric said that once they all agreed to record the album he went back to his flat in north London and listened to Deep Purple's In Rock and Fireball albums to try and nail Ritchie Blackmore's guitar licks!.

The album Funky Junction plays Deep Purple consists of five Deep Purple songs and four instrumentals with the instrumentals having nothing to do with Deep Purple but to basically 'fill out' the album which runs at about 38 minutes.

Deep Purple songs are- Fireball, Black Night, Strange Kind of Woman, Hush & Speed King with the other four songs being four instrumentals one of which is a cover of the Animals classic House of the Rising Sun and another with Eric performing a 'Hendrix style interpretation' of 'Danny Boy' which sounds weird until you actually hear the results and it is done by Eric in a similar way that Jimi performed the Star Spangled Banner at Woodstock in 1969 which actually 'works pretty good' to my ears and if Jimi had played in Ireland he may well have performed 'Danny Boy' the same way.

The album cover picture of the band on stage is taken with the photographer standing at the backline of amps showing the rear of the band and looking out towards the audience so none of the faces are shown and according to Brian Downey none of the musicians on the recording appeared in the picture on the front of the album cover.