Thin Lizzy
alieNDN
2,181 Posts
hey, so i just checked out the live and dangerous album, just for the hell of it (all i ever knew about them was the boys are back in town tune) and i LOVE IT. any particular albums or things you'd recommend? ez
Comments
Their first two UK LP's are my faves. Nothing like the later 'crotch rock" but incredible folk/rock songs with a unique style and Phil Lynott's incredibly well phrased vocals.
me too. i just got the Phil Lynott solo joint.
...as if there was anything wrong with that?[/b]
Since you mentioned their sole American hit single "The Boys Are Back In Town," you may as well pick up on the album that contained it, Jailbreak, which features other goodies like "Cowboy Song," "Emerald," and "Angel From The Coast." I never considered Thin Lizzy to be meathead cock-rockers (they weren't Foreigner), because even at their commercial peak there were a whole lot of elements going on in their music. They never dropped the Irish influence totally (again, "Emerald"), and if anything, I consider them punk precursors. Now go out and git Jailbreak since it was their most popular US album and always turns up cheap in used rekkid stores![/b]
Also...Thin Lizzy singer/bassist Phil Lynott had an album, Solo In Soho, that is worth investigating as well. It was maybe 1980 by then, and the set had more of a stripped-down punk/new wave feel; he was obviously playing up to that segment of his audience. Includes "Ode To A Black Man" (later covered by the Dirtbombs) and "Talk In '79," where he namechecks the UK punk scene.
They were great rockers....unfortunately, their "hits" like "The Boys Are Back In Town" and "Jailbreak" fit the 'crotch rock' stereotype that I've found most people put on them??
I dug them up til Black Rose but like the Lynott 1st solo LP
What they all said...
Thin Lizzy Rules.
look forward to checking the studio ones mentioned!
[color:white] spcr [/color] [color:blue] Together [/color] [color:red] Forever [/color]
I'm liking this digi cam..."thanks, Sinterklaas!"
Played that tune out recently.
Went down well with old heads giving the nod of approval and young heads getting into it too.
Also worth grabbing is Tricky Tee's 'Johnny the Fox'.
Isn't Thin Lizzy's 1st LP UK only and sorta pricey? Still don't have, but saw it once for $50 and was hesistatin'...
$??
Their first 3 Deram LPs are scarce in the US and always fetch decent amounts, or at least used to. Can you even get those on CD anymore?
At this point, I'd be happy to find that later reissue in London Records' Collectors' Choice series.
(When I was in England last summer, I lucked up on a Thin Lizzy 7" on Decca...nice stuff, I'd like to check out everything else from that era.)
i never heard them, but was told they are not as good. how do they stack up to the Mercury stuff?
Is this the series London did in the mid-late 70s (blue label) with earlier artists' UK-only material mixed with unreleased stuff? I've got that one (as well as a couple Them titles) and its pretty decent... I've been clowned on more than a few times over the years for not being a TL fan, but I dig that comp... I should check out the entire LPs someday...
Exactly.
The only one I have in the series is Joe Tex, which wasn't UK-based and everything was released before.
More ecclectic, less stylized FM hard rock(which in large part, I feel their Mercury LPs exemplify in the best way). Vagabonds of the Western World has the classics "Whiskey in the Jar" and "The Rocker" as well as some nice ballads....while Shades of a Blue Orphanage has a quieter, acoustic flair, similar to the first self-titled LP in part. There are still guitar heroics a-plenty, but it has more art-rock and even some psych-ish leanings. I don't think they ever really completely abandoned these elements, but by LPs like Jailbreak and Fighting Lizzy had really nailed down their formula, and with the departure of Eric Bell and the addition of a twin-guitar attack, they clearly had streamlined the hard rock approach. I think every LP through Chinatown is worth checking.