Considering that these guys have been around since 1971, and have seven studio albums behind them by this point, I’m surprised that it’s taken this long to get to them. I guess that we’re once again in the territory where a live album is the music snob’s acceptable “Greatest Hits” compilation.
Because there are many Thin Lizzy classics on here – Jailbreak, The Boys Are Back In Town, Dancing In The Moonlight (making me wonder why it’s always Toploader’s rather insipid cover that gets the airplay). I also can’t hear Jailbreak without thinking of Mark Radcliffe and Stuart Maconie’s observation on the lyric “Tonight there’s gonna be a jailbreak, somewhere in this town” that “Somewhere? Maybe near the jail would be a likely place?” In fairness to Phil Lynott, I think the lyrics are about a metaphorical jailbreak, an escape from a restrictive life, more than an actual jailbreak.
Elsewhere I think I’ve heard Cowboy Song before, but to my shame I really don’t think I’ve heard much other Thin Lizzy beyond the big hits. That’s partly because the studio versions of these songs sound a little bit weak in terms of the mix and they never quite appealed to me, but here the band give a much heavier performance and it really beefs the songs up – so much better (good old Tony Visconti on production).
Guitar duties are split between Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson, both credited as both lead and rhythm (Gary Moore having left the band by this point), and they do some good solo work where required. The track Warriors really stood out to me, sounding quite like Hendrix. Lynott’s singing here is almost Hendrix-like, with some great wah-wah guitar from, I think, Robertson on lead on this track, plus some thumping drum breaks by Brian Downey to give a really fulsome rock track with a couple of fake-out endings. Some of the other tracks feel like a move towards the next wave of heavy metal, especially the galloping beat of a track like Suicide. Downey gets one hell of a drum solo on Sha La La, sounding like a helicopter winding up to take-off speed.
This is a double album, but I didn’t get Side Three Blues. Well, apart from maybe Baby Drives Me Crazy which is a well-executed but fairly typical blues-rock jam which would be fine had I not heard dozens of them already in the course of this project. Like the live albums from Peter Frampton, Hawkwind, and Deep Purple, you really get the sense of a band on top form giving a great performance – every track is note-perfect and every track is a good song. There’s enough of a mix of slower tracks thrown in so it’s not a total onslaught of rock noise (there’s a nice breakdown in the middle of The Boys Are Back In Town where Lynott’s voice drops to an stage whisper before the music builds up again, really good stuff).
Speaking of which, Lynott comes across with great stage presence – it's harder to judge from audio alone and I think a video of this would be fun to see. He jokingly argues with audience about doing the encore (The Rocker), shouting back “No!” to their cries of “Yes!”. He does the old “Any of you girls got a little Irish in you? Would you like some?” that Lenny Henry nicked for his stage persona of Theophilus P Wildebeest, styled on Barry White who uses the same line but with Jamaican rather than Irish. Cheesy pick-up lines aside, you can feel how he whips the audience up, and even listening to an event that happened nearly fifty years ago you get swept up in the joy.
So, my ongoing concerns about live albums – that in order to work, and not be a snobby Best Of, they need to capture the atmosphere of the time and place. This one does, in spades, and it also captures some really good versions of the band’s songs.
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