63 - The Greatest Thin Lizzy Album?

I am now 63 and will be reminded of that every time I see a Stagecoach 63 bus, which is not something that overly bothers me. 

One of my birthday presents was a vinyl copy of Thin Lizzy's "Jailbreak" mainly for the excellent Jim Fitzpatrick cut out cover, which the reissued version is done as a single sleeve rather than the original gatefold , clevely using the inner sleeve for the band breakout image.

Although most people will pick up on the single "The Boys Are Back In Town" , it is nowhere near the best song on the album, but is a great demonstration of Phil Lynott's talking vocal style , where the vocls seem completely add odds with the music lines , and sing like that while also playing bass shows prodigious talent.

The album crashes in with the title track which does have one of the most faux-pas of an opening line ever:

"Tonight there's gonna be a jailbreak,

Somewhere in this town"

Could it be a the jail maybe?

As that screeches to a siren filled finale , we are treated to three quieter but no less impressive songs "Angel From The Coast" , "Running Back" and the gorgeous "Romeo and The Lonely Girl" with stunning guitar work from Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham. The side finishes with the robust "Warriors" , and side two opens with  "The Boys Are Back In Town"  which is classic Thin Lizzy.

"Fight or Fall" is contemplative but probably the least memorable song on the album , but it is in very impressive company, "Cowboy Song" contains some great lyrics and and a memorable descending riff , just making you want the song to never end.

The finale is "Emerald" taking on Irish mythology and culminating in a stunning guitar duel between Gorham and Robertson underpinned by Lynott's bass and Brian Downey's drums.

The album was probably only beaten by "Live and Dangerous", but for me stands as their greatest studio album, though I also like "Black Rose" very much, and their albums alway produce some stand out songs.

Helium Echo

This morning I bougght some water from Tesco and for once used one of the auto checkouts. For weeks the echoey voice on many of them has disconcerted me and I've dicussed this while chatting with the real staff and had a laugh about it. This morning it sounded like it was on helium as well as echoing, sounding weirder than ever.

This comes on top of the Poundland ones that great uyou using the voice of Elvis, which  is also very offputting, wondering if next they're going to have some hologram greeter to freak you out even further.

This reminded me of The King, an Irish Elvis impersonator who had an album out called "Gravelands" featuring covers of songs by artists who have since deprated this mortal plain such as Freddie Mercury of Queen, Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy and Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, (apologies for spelling errors) and it is a more than listenable album, so I'll share his take on "Whiskey in the Jar".

Have a disconcerting helium filled Thursday.

#ItsNotThem #2 - The Jesus of Cool

Nick Lowe was the producer to have during the punk years 1976-79, he'd cut his musical teeth with the excellent Country Rocker Brinsley Schwarz who went on to back Graham Parker as The Rumour (well some of them did). So how many bands did I mention in that sentence, and I didn't even think about doing that.

Anyway Nick Lowe's first release on Stiff was the double "A" side Heart of The City b/w "So It Goes" both of which appeared on his excellent "Jesus of Cool" album. The song "So It Goes" is a perfect "Thin Lizzy" song, whicjle it is lighter that the Irish Rocker's sound , the dynamics and phrasing are pure Thin Lizzy and I am surprised that they never covered it,

It's a simple descending chord sequence with a virtually spoken dialog / melody, very Phil Lynott / Thin Lizzy.  I know this is a very short post about the Jesus of Cool but follow the links and get a listen to some of his stuff, it is worth your while.
 
Enjoy my friends, I 'm going to bed as I need to be up very earlty tomorrow.