Thin Lizzy Rock Legends
What does it sound like?
Listening to this comprehensive box set (six CDs and a DVD(which I didn’t have a copy to review)) I’m reminded that Like Fleetwood Mac there are two Thin Lizzy’s. The original bluesy three-piece with Eric Bell and the powerhouse Thin Lizzy with two dueling guitars which compares to Fleetwood Mac with Peter Green and then morphing into the Nicks/Buckingham mainstream version.
CD one is the singles in 7” versions – the greatest hits pretty much. Jailbreak has a weird edit at about 2.46 where it sounds like the tape broke and was stuck together! Apart from this, the singles sound great.
CD two is the Decca rarities. It starts with ‘The Farmer’ the debut single. It reminds me of ‘The Band’. This was backed by ‘I need you’ the 7” debut b-side which sounds like Van/Georgie Fame jam. ‘Little girl in bloom (US single promo)’ – It’s a great track although it still sounds like a demo even though it was released as a USA promo. Also, there are ten tracks on here all from RTE Radio sessions in 73/74 which showpiece Eric Bells contribution.
CD3 is ‘Mercury rarities’ this is made up of demos. Track one on this CD is ‘Rock And Roll With You (instrumental Demo)’ which is frankly dross. Why it’s on here I have no idea – I doubt if even the most enthusiastic Lizzy Fan will play this track more than once! The various demos which spill over on to CD4 & CD5 will interest Lizzy fans. The quality of the Jailbreak demos is really good and they are not that far off the final versions in many cases. It’s like listening to alternative takes rather than demo’s as such.
CD6 is ‘Live at Hammersmith Odeon 1980’ which Is the Black Rose tour with Snowy White.
If you’re a fan then you will enjoy ploughing your way through this comprehensive box set. I understand that the additional items in the box set are very good too including artwork by Jim Fitzpatrick and a replica of a tour programme and.
What does it all mean?
Thin Lizzy were a fantastic rock band, great live, and had a fine knack of turning up on top Of The Pops on a Thursday night too.
Goes well with –
Whatever your favourite poison is really.
Release date – October 2020
Might suit people who like –
Good looking females and tall speaker stacks
I listened to this on my PC from the 320kbps files and then listened to it on the same PC using my Spotify premium account set at high audio quality which is also 320 kbps I found that the files I downloaded were much better to listen to than on Spotify.
I’d pondered buying this, but was less sure after streaming on Spotify. The first CD semed a bit of a greatest hits which didn’t appeal hugely. The demos are more interesting but having already forked out for the original albums again also with demos and outtakes, it’s starting to feel a bit like the fanbase is being milked.
Anyway at £95 it’s academic for now. Amazon even want £80+ for an incomplete set of MP3’s without the book or the DVD. Not for me ….
I don’t think the fan base are being ‘milked’, there are 70+ unreleased tracks and on the fan blogs there’s hardly a word of dissent amongst almost 100% praise.
I’m a fan who dosen’t like milk but I love this box set.
Reading my post this morning I can see I was a tad grumpy and “milking” may be unfair. I’m disappointed that having bought pretty much all their studio albums and then the re-releases with the demos and outtakes that a few tracks from each re-release were held back and packaged up here into a fairly expensive set.
This is a good box set, but I think it devalues the prior re-releases.
I understand @fortuneight. I don`t have the re-releases but how does the box set containing 74 unreleased tracks devalue these releases?
Rightly or wrongly I saw the expanded re-releases as sweeping up the out takes and demos – here’s what made the album, and here’s what didn’t. But it looks to me as if material was held back for this box set, which means if you buy the expanded “Jailbreak” you get more than the original release, but not all of what was in the vaults. Could have been definitive but turns out not so.
I’m happy the extra material is out there, but it feels to me the way these tracks have been spread between the box set and the expanded re-releases is revenue driven.
UMC insisted on there being a ‘greatest hits’ element to the box, so the decision to go with a disc of single edit versions, most of which have never made it onto CD, at least gives us something different than yet another re-run of all the previous best-ofs.
I had the pleasure of seeing them on Saturday, May 3rd, at the Hammersmith Odeon, opening for BTO. They’d only been a four piece for about 6 months at this point. Quite different from the Lizzy I knew on those first three Decca albums, but a great live band all the same.
BTO were shite.
I forgot to put the year! It was 1975.
I saw the Black Rose tour of 1980, but Gary Moore was on guitar. Did it change to Snowy White for some (hah!) reason?
Gary Moore left part way through the Black Rose tour, apparently not happy about the increasing amount of drug use in the band. They brought in Midge Ure as a temp replacement and later added Dave Flett as an additional guitarist to finish the tour. Snowy White joined after that, in time for the Chinatown album.
I saw them with Snowy White. They were great of course and I love Snowy but I missed Robbo and would love to have seen him.
I saw them with Robbo at the Glasgow Apollo in October 1976 – big homecoming gig for the man himself, of course and he played his heart out….
That was the tour promoting Johnny the Fox, so Jailbreak was the big hit and the Johnny… songs were relatively new (only released a week or two before, I think, so we all had the LP but weren’t that familiar with it).
One of the best gigs I ever saw at the Apollo…
I saw them 4 times between 1977 and 1979. They were great live. A mix of classic rock tropes, panache and swagger, judicious heaviosity with a light touch and tunefulness, a wry side, and performance flash. The “Bad Reputation” show in Brighton was a perfect example of teen rock heaven. The earlier one at a horribly muddy Reading also hugely mood raising given the dismal conditions (helped by the preceding Grahsm Parker and the Rumour, and Aerosmith).
I was at the same Reading festival gig. Apparently Hawkwind and The Doobie Brothers played although I have absolutely no recollection of that. I was very de-hydrated (I was intent on having no need to visit the toilets – after all it was only 3 days) and had a headache the size of Oxford.
I first caught them touring “Jailbreak” and was at the Hammersmith Odeon shows where “Live and Dangerous” was recorded as well as another gig there the gig a few months later where Lynott couldn’t play an encore.
They never bettered the Gorham / Robertson partnership – Snowy White was too much like Gorham and John Sykes was just a widdle merchant.
I was at the final UK gig at the Reading Festival in 1983. No mud then, glorious weather througout the weekend. Thin Lizzy`s performance? I think they took a bit of stick in the inky music press but the crowd and myself enjoyed them.
I only got to see them once on their final tour in ‘83 at Newcastle City Hall. John Sykes was in the band at that point, having previously been in local band Tygers of Pan Tang. Pan Tang seemingly some unknown purlieu of Whitley Bay.
I recall it was a noisy old do. Everyone on their feet from the off. I loved it. But would have so preferred to have seen the Imperial Gotham/Robertson duo.
Yes, Scott Gotham. Scott Gorham was off his diddies on happy tabs and was doon the Bigg Market at the time.
The 45 mixes on Spotify is good enough for me!
Me too I reckon.
This article is worth a read. Robbo version of history isn’t quite the same as Gorham’s
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2020/oct/22/rise-and-fall-of-thin-lizzy-no-one-sitting-in-shadows
Got to say… isn’t “Live and Dangerous” all you need?
I know what you mean…but I’d argue that you need all the Robbo albums…I even have a soft spot for Nightlife, which seems to get a good kicking these days…
In fact, having thought about it for a few months, I disagree with the statement in the OP – I’d say there were three Thin Lizzys, rather than two – the bluesy band with Eric Bell; the melodic rock band with Robbo; and the metal-tinged band which followed Robbo’s exit…