(Photo: Denis O'Regan)
Welcome to Part 2 of what will probably be a trilogy of posts in tribute to the late, great rockers Thin Lizzy. In the next couple of days, I'll be finishing up what should amount to a CD mixer full of great Lizzy tunes.
The difficulty factor for me is that I will be intentionally leaving out the band's two biggest hits, "Jailbreak" and "Boys are Back in Town." If you don't already have those tunes, you should really just pony up the two bucks they would cost you on iTunes. For the price of playing them on a jukebox, you can own them and add them to the mix yourself. Also, I'm throwing in a couple of bonus tracks at the end of the post, so make sure you get 'em all tonight.
THIN LIZZY, Pt. 2
"Remembering Pt. 2": Here lead vocalist Phil Lynott gives his best raspy-voiced Rod Stewart performance. This track originally appeared on the "New Day" EP, but has since been repackaged with their debut record as bonus tracks. I highly recommend picking up that album, especially if you like Thin Lizzy but aren't a big fan of the bombastic stadium rockers on their later records.
"Little Darling": A friend of mine listed this horn laced single from 1974 as a b-side in his makeshift liner notes for a mix he gave me about a year ago. Wikipedia indicates that it was an A-side single. Either way, it wasn't released on a full album. . . surprising, since it's a such a blast. I love the (double) guitar solo, and how it basically extends into the last verse of the song as everything builds to a crescendo.
"Borderline": Jesus, could Phil Lynott really convey sadneses with that soulful voice. If you played this song in a dive bar in the middle of the afternoon, I'm pretty sure half the room would sneak off to commit suicide in the bathroom, especially after "Seven beers and still sober / It's time to change to something stronger / I cannot take this scene no longer / She could have told me it's all over."
"Dublin": It's hard sometimes to write about classic rock bands because I just know I'm not really bringing anything new to the game. Most people who know about Thin Lizzy know that they were an Irish band. Is this news to anyone out there? Anyway, if you didn't already know, "Dublin" should pretty much blow the case. It's just a short little acoustic ballad with a little electric guitar and what sounds like either a keyboard or bells, but it's a nice little ode to the band's hometown. This also appeared on the aforementioned "New Day" EP.
"The Rocker": Alright, enough ballads tonight, let's get back to rocking. And what better way to accomplish that than with a completely obvious Phil Lynott song about how much he rocks? "I take no lip, no one's tougher than me!" Bragging, posing, acting like a tough bastard: Phil Lynott is hip hop, bitches.
"Toughest Street in Town": Did you not hear me when I said I was tough, Phil seems to be saying. He lives on the toughest street on planet Earth, people! You know how the movie Halloween came out and it was some seriously scary shit, and now years later it's kind of comical but still really badass as far as horror movies go? "Toughest Street in Town" is like that: unintentionally hilarious and yet completely oozing with RAWK.
BONUS TRACKS
"I'm A Cuckoo" by BELLE AND SEBASTIAN: I have a bootleg somewhere in my apartment where B&S cover Lizzy's "The Boys are Back in Town," and they really nail it. "I'm a Cuckoo," from Dear Catastrophe Waitress is an obvious ode to the band. They even lyrically name check the band AND pay tribute to the "Romeo/own-e-oh" lyric I mentioned in my previous post, rhyming "Tokyo" with "Thin Lizzy-oh." It sounds like a cover of something off of Jailbreak.
"Dark Trance (Psychic Lightning)" by HOCKEY NIGHT: While the band's name fails to pop up in the lyrics, I think the influence here is pretty obvious, especially if you've listened to the songs I've posted so far. There's even a double lead guitar solo to cap it all off.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
- Check out the Thin Lizzy Guide for tons more information on the band, including singles charts and some fantastic, rare photos and memorabilia.
- The story of Lizzy over at Classic Bands, including the trivia nugget that Lizzy was started by two former members of Van Morrison's THEM.
- More TL info, including an insanely detailed gig list, over at Rock Legend.
2 comments:
It would be a shame if you didn't put anything from "Fighting" up....it was their first twin guitar record, features a cover of one of Bob Seger's truly great songs [Rosalie], and the title song, Fighting My Way Back, is as rough and tumble as anything they ever did, period.
Oh, and "Little Darling" features Gary Moore on guitar, one of those 2 or so tracks he recorded with TL during his first short stint with the band, replacing Eric Bell for awhile. Moore wasn't with them long enough to record an LP's worth of material, so the two tracks featuring him were add-ons to other collections.
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