September 26, 2006 by A.S. Van Dorston

Like a lot of people, I had written off Thin Lizzy for a long time, because “The Boys Are Back In Town” was one of the most annoying, overplayed songs of the 70s. Knowing that “Jailbreak” was a great song wasn’t quite enough to overcome the prejudice that Thin Lizzy were no better than Foghat, Grand Funk Railroad and Black Oak Arkansas (who all had a decent song or two, but were distinctly uncool). Old metal faves Iron Maiden cited Thin Lizzy as an influence on their twin guitar sound, but it wasn’t until the early 90s, when Urge Overkill (Saturation definitely had a nice Thin Lizzy flavor) and Billy Corgin (unfortunately none of Phil Lynott’s soulful charm rubbed off on him) were preaching the greatness of Thin Lizzy. I picked up a cheap vinyl copy of Jailbreak and agreed that it was indeed a classic. Yet it didn’t occur to me for several more years that they might have other great albums. Interestingly, Phil Lynott also haunted the backdrop of the history of punk. In reading interviews and oral histories, Lynott could be found lurking amongst punkers, metalheads and new wavers, inelegantly wasted. There must have been something to his music that would cause such a wide array of countercultural types to respect him.

So I picked up Fighting, Johnny The Fox and Bad Reputation, and realized they’re all great. Thin Lizzy had it all—Dylan’s poetic lyricism, Van Morrison’s mystical Celtic soul, Springsteen’s working class romanticism and storytelling, Led Zeppelin’s pomp and grandeur, and even Judas Priest’s ass-kicking twin-guitar attack. The last album I picked up was Black Rose: A Rock Legend, and it became my favorite, with a great one-two kick off in “Do Anything You Want To” and “Toughest Street In Town.” More great storytelling and guitar solos throughout, it’s at least as consistent as Jailbreak. With Tony Visconti producing, it’s also their best sounding album. The only tune I don’t like much is “My Sarah,” written for his daughter.

While listening to Hold Steady recently, I started craving more Thin Lizzy. So I did some digging and found that their third and fourth albums have also been unjustly ignored. I got Vagabonds of the Western World and Night Life and was particularly blown away by the former. Thin Lizzy already had much of their style nailed back in 1973, even though it was before they introduced the twin guitars, instead, featuring the hot riffing of Eric Bell. It opens with “Mama Nature Said,” an environmentalist rocker with some great slide guitar. “The Hero And The Madman” was a little too ridiculous and overblown, but was also great fun. “The Rocker” totally shreds, while “Little Girl In Bloom” is Lynott’s first great ballad. His ballads have always been underrated, but they make up some of his greatest songs. There’s a few misses, but overall the album measures up to any of their best. Night Life is more mellow and doesn’t have any truly killer tracks, but still maintains a high level of quality.

I also found that their debut album was full of promise, range, and great guitars. And while their 80s work was not the same as the classic run of Lizzy albums, since they were influenced a bit by their NWOBHM progeny, and Lynott’s drug use was getting out of control, they also were quite good. Chinatown was probably the biggest letdown at the time coming off of the amazing Black Rose, but even it has good things to offer, at least in the first half. In his book The Collector’s Guide to Heavy Metal Volume 2: The Eighties, Martin Popoff rated Renegade the fifth best album of that decade. Now that’s just crazy talk. It’s pretty great, but Thunder And Lightning is better. It’s as if Lynott knew his days were numbered and he had to go out with a bang.

Thin Lizzy - Black Rose: A Rock Legend (1979) My favorites roughly in order of preference: