Travis: After a long absence, the Boys are Back in Town. The Boys being Travis and Tyler, and Town being this blog, to discuss Thin Lizzy’s big breakthrough in the United States, the 1976 album Jailbreak.
Tyler: A triumphant return, ours. Let the date be written in stone.
I’m a blank Lizzy slate, but I know you’re an enthusiast, Travis. What drew you to the band?
Travis: At some point in the mid-2000s, I became obsessed with their first hit single, a folk-rock cover of the Irish traditional song “Whiskey in the Jar,” and wound up buying a greatest hits CD which I listened to a few times, liked well enough, and kind of forgot about. A couple years later, I ran into this album in the used bin at Euclid Records for really cheap and decided to pick it up, and sort of went from there. There wasn’t anything magical that led me to become a Thin Lizzy almost-completist, something that just gradually happened. Listening to them, it became evident that, even though they were really a one-hit wonder in the US (that hit being “The Boys are Back in Town” which I imagine we’ll discuss at length shortly), they were one of those bands that had a lot of influence on a wide assortment of artists, in multiple genres, who came after.
While “Boys” and a bunch of their other songs fit neatly on classic rock radio, I think there’s something a little different, idiosyncratic, about them. I think that is down to two things: the songwriting of bassist and lead vocalist Phil Lynott, and the dueling lead guitar work of Brian Downey and Scott Gorham. Lynott had led various incarnations of the band since 1969, but the “classic lineup” that produced most of the songs people know solidified in 1974 for their album Nightlife, found their distinctive sound on 1975’s Fighting, and perfected it on the album we’re discussing here.
Jailbreak is widely regarded as their best and most consistent album, now seen as an undisputed classic. It was my real intro to the band, and felt like a good gateway to introduce a neophyte. So, Tyler, are you introduced?
Tyler: Most definitely. It took a handful of listens—I wasn’t sold on Lynott’s voice, given years of exposure to “The Boys…”, which soundtracked Cincinnati Red home run trots at the ballpark for a very long time. That and familiarity with it from classic-rock radio left me a little concerned that I wasn’t going to settle into Jailbreak. But, having spent time with the album, I’ve ceased to be distracted by the vocals, and have really come to enjoy what we’ve got here.
Rock-solid guitar rock that drives and hums right along. Doesn’t overstay its welcome, keeps the songs tidy. Clean production, which works. It’s all-in-all just a good damn record.
Travis: I’m glad you could get past the “Boys” overexposure. I’ve personally been able to do a 180 on that song from my previous thoughts about it and have come to believe that no amount of “your sports team just returned from a road trip”, beer commercial, bad Everclear cover for the soundtrack of Detroit Rock City bullshit can ruin it for me. There’s a reason it was a huge hit—it’s catchy and its dudes-rock theme is universal. But while it’s universal, it’s the little details in Lynott’s writing that I think separate it from a number of other classic rock mainstays from the same era. He’s obviously a fan of Dylan and the first two Springsteen albums and that influence comes out in the rambling nature of the verses and their little tossed off asides. They’re not just going out for a night on the town, they’re dressed to kill down at Dino’s Bar & Grill.
Tyler: Sweet Moses, Everclear covered it?
Travis: Oh did they ever, with a video featuring clips from the film starring Edward Furlong.
Tyler: Sounds sacrilegious. Not unlike Shawn Mullins covering “What Is Life” for Big Daddy. But I digress.
Travis: Not to be confused with Chris Mullin.
So I’m pretty able to discuss this album back-to-front and side-to-side from having listened to it a million times. I could run through track-by-track and give long testimonials about Phil Lynott’s Irish storytelling heart and how growing up half-black in Ireland made him sympathetic to the outsiders he tends to write about in just about every song, but I’m more curious what your highlights were. Any specific tracks grab you or not?
Tyler: It’s a comparatively mellow number, but “Fight Or Fall” is a standout for me. It and “Cowboy Song” make a considerable one-two. Then you’ve got “Emerald,” which is rather metal. Jailbreak finishes very strong.
Like you, too, I’ve come around on “Boys.” The chorus is catchy to my ear, no longer grating. It’s a romp. It works.
“Romeo And The Lonely Girl” almost snags me with that “Own-e-oh” rhyme. But I’m okay with it now.
Travis: That run of “Boys” through “Emerald” is side two on the record. A pretty solid side of music, and it shows the band’s variety. Everything on that side–and on the album–sounds like Thin Lizzy, but there’s variation in dynamics, tempo, even time signature (“Emerald” being in 6/8).
Yeah that rhyme in “Romeo” is silly in an otherwise somber song, but they’re Irish so they can get away with it.
There aren’t any songs on this one I skip. It’s really consistent throughout, lots of hooks not just from the vocals in the choruses but also the twin guitar licks. I really like the interplay between the guitarists on “Angel from the Coast,” “Warriors,” and “Emerald” particularly, though it’s all over the record.
There aren’t any songs on this one I skip. It’s really consistent throughout, lots of hooks not just from the vocals in the choruses but also the twin guitar licks. I really like the interplay between the guitarists on “Angel from the Coast,” “Warriors,” and “Emerald” particularly, though it’s all over the record.
Speaking of “Emerald,” it is about the Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland in the late 12th Century, so there’s that.
Tyler: That makes it even more metal, I reckon.
Travis: Indeed.
Tyler: Is Jailbreak your desert-island Thin Lizzy LP?
Travis: I don’t think it is. I think it’s the best intro to the band, and their most consistent, but I am not totally sure it’s their best. That’s not to be contrarian, I just think they have a couple of other contenders. I think if I had to pick one to listen to for the rest of my life, it’d be 1977’s Bad Reputation. It’s a return to course after their second 1976 album (I miss when bands were this prolific) Johnny the Fox, which is one of those concept albums that swings for the fences and fails but is still an interesting listen. Bad Reputation pretty much follows the template of Jailbreak but there’s a little more variety and though there are a couple of duds I think the highs are higher.
Nightlife, their first album with the lineup that recorded Jailbreak, is a really dark, almost sleazy record with more of a dirty soul music feel. It’s hit or miss but has two great songs on it, “She Knows” and “Still in Love With You.” Fighting, which came right before Jailbreak, is sort of a trial run for Jailbreak with a lesser set of songs but still has some fire on it, including their cover of Bob Seger’s “Rosalie.”
Their last good album is 1979’s Black Rose: A Rock Legend, which is less overblown than it might sound from that title. It’s their most Irish-sounding record, with an epic album closer that inserts a bunch of bits of traditional folk songs in it. It rocks in the same way “Emerald” does.
After that, they recorded a couple more albums but Phil Lynott was both saving his most interesting songs for his solo albums and quickly drinking and drugging himself to death. He’d die in 1985.
Tyler: Oh, Goddammit.
Travis: He was 35 when he died which would have made him 26 when Jailbreak came out, which, holy shit.
Tyler: Man, he burned fast and bright.
Travis: Lived a lot of life in that short time. I’d also recommend his first solo album, Solo in Soho, which both of the Thin Lizzy guitar players at the time played on. Lynott was one of the few “classic rock” radio artists in Britain at the time who championed punk, and that solo album feels of a time and place with the Sex Pistols and the Clash. I saw Stiff Little Fingers a few years ago (on their 40th anniversary tour) and their singer told a story of how when they came to London after recording Inflammable Material, Phil Lynott took them out on the town. Apparently he did that for any band from Ireland coming to London to make it big.
Tyler: Now that’s just plain tremendous.
Travis: Seems like he was a good but troubled dude.
Tyler: 35. Woof.
Travis: Before we close, I think it’s important to note a few artists following in their footsteps. Their twin-guitar attack was a huge influence on the New Wave of British Heavy Metal, particularly Iron Maiden and Judas Priest (whose first couple albums before they really found their footing just sound like bad ripoffs of Jailbreak). And our guy Ted Leo, especially on Hearts of Oak and before, definitely channeled a lot of Thin Lizzy vibes. Thin Lizzy plus the Clash and the Jam = Ted Leo and the Pharmacists? Maybe.
Tyler: Well, you did not lead me astray. I’m happy to have made Thin Lizzy’s acquaintance.
Travis: Glad you enjoyed Nonfat Elizabeth.
Writers' Loom 