As Philip Lynott’s 25th anniversary approaches we can expect a deluge of Thin Lizzy releases and commemorative events. For many years Lynott was most often remembered as a hard rocker, but in recent times he’s been given his due as a more complex character.
Nowhere is this more evident than on the band’s first three longform releases, which contain experiments in funk, psychedelia, folk and blues that reveal a multifaceted songwriter (the latino stylings of ‘Randolph’s Tango’, the Hawaiian blush of ‘Here I Go Again’) who’s unafraid of embracing sentimentality (‘Sarah’, ‘Song For While I’m Away’, ‘Dublin’). It’s an image quite at odds with the hard-rocking (and hard-living) Philo of later years. These remasters come with extras including the rare ‘New Day’ EP, a BBC Radio 1 In Concert performance, Bob Harris and John Peel sessions as well as several overdubbed and remixed tracks.
The debut self-titled outing from 1970 is a sublime patchwork of genres, from the psychedelic folk of ‘The Friendly Ranger At Clontarf Castle’ to the trad epic ‘Eire’ via the Hendrix-esque rocker ‘Ray-Gun’. The similarly heterogeneous follow-up Shades Of A Blue Orphanage strikes a bold blow by opening with a drum solo and one of the most unwieldy song titles ever, ‘The Rise And Dear Demise Of The Funky Nomadic Tribes’, a smooth funk number dramatically punctuated by staccato guitar riffs. The magical mystery tour continues through the rockabilly gem ‘I Don’t Want To Forget How To Jive’ and the ethereal ballad ‘Shades Of A Blue Orphanage’.
Vagabonds Of The Western World continues the eclectic approach, contrasting the country swagger of ‘Mama Nature Said’ with the ambitious prog/trad-rock nugget ‘The Hero And The Madman’ (with a spoken word contribution by none other than Kid Jensen!). ‘The Rocker’ is the best-known track from this album and features here in its original 5 minute 15 second format. The single edit is amongst the bonus features and the song is also one of the live performances on the BBC 1 Radio Concert tracks and features a wonderfully improvised solo from Eric Bell.
Noteworthy amongst the other bonus material is the band’s debut release ‘The Farmer’ (which doffs its hat to The Band as much as The Rolling Stones), a John Peel Session version of ‘Suicide’ that sounds like it was hijacked by Stevie Ray Vaughan, and a German-only B-side to ‘The Rocker’, ‘Cruising in the Lizzy Mobile’.
Lizzy’s ‘60s Dublin folk roots are strongly evident on these releases. Phil Lynott was always musically curious, so it is no surprise that these albums are dappled with a panoply of styles. The lyrical subject matter is similarly varied, drawing on Celtic mythology and folklore, revealing a romantic idealist as well as an adept storyteller. Delightful.
Key Track: ‘Honesty Is No Excuse’