Day 160: Thin Lizzy – Jailbreak
I’m already fighting a losing battle today, there’s simply nothing left to write about Thin Lizzy. There’s a Vice article from 2015 that I’ve bookmarked titled “I Played ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’ on a Bar Jukebox Until I Got Kicked Out” that I read about once or twice a year that’s already managed to top the list of Thin Lizzy related content. I don’t know, I just think that the author Timothy Faust managed to capture something that no one else has and he is right – the boys are back.
Album cover courtesy of Vertigo Records
I’m not going to top that obviously, but I though I might as well cover Think Lizzy’s Jailbreak today because I realised I don’t know anything about Thin Lizzy, so much so that I only found out that they’re Irish yesterday. The band was formed in Dublin in 1968 by singer, songwriter and bassist Phil Lynott and his school friend, drummer Brian Downey. They were joined by guitarist Eric Bell, who’d been playing in Them with Van Morrison, as well as organist Eric Wrixon from Them. Their first hit came in 1973 when they released their version of the traditional Irish ballad, “Whiskey in the Jar.”
The band’s 1976 release Jailbreak was their sixth studio album, and it was released as the band’s final shot, having worn out the patience of their label with weak sales in their last two albums. It ended up becoming a high seller due to the success of “The Boys Are Back in Town,” which the group originally weren’t even going to release.
I’m not entirely sure what I expected from Jailbreak. I think I thought it would be cheesy ‘70s novelty rock, but this is actually good. Maybe it’s still a bit cheesy, especially with “Cowboy Song” and the Boys, but cheesy in a very pleasant way. I’m loving Phil Lynott’s voice and his songwriting, especially on “Emerald”, a Zeppelin-y mythologisation of Irish history. On that one especially, you can hear just how much their sound influenced future bands like Metallica and Iron Maiden.
However, the band’s story is just incredibly depressing. It’s the same thing as with Big Star where it just feels like they were labouring under a curse: their big post-Jailbreak breakout tour with Queen got scuppered when their guitarist cut his hand in a fight and couldn’t play. And when they were about to head on another tour, Phil Lynott caught hepatitis, got hospitalised and nearly died.
Then there was the drugs, which was causing a rift within the band where the cleaner living members of the group got sick of working with people who just couldn’t keep it together. Apparently Lynott never really got over Thin Lizzy’s collapse and tried to get the band back together right until he died. He died of sepsis and a heart attack at only 36 years old, having struggled heavily with heroin addiction in the years before.
Here I thought I was in for a rip-roaring good time where the boys are back in town, now I’m sad. Looking at videos of them playing live, Lynott in particular was a star – he had charisma in troves and unexpectedly great songwriting for a band of his reputation. He’d surely have been able to get the recognition he deserves and done something even bigger than Jailbreak if he’d been able to kick his addictions, but alas.
Jailbreak surprised me, I didn’t expect it to be as good to listen to as it was. It’s a very decent 9/10.