When I wrote about the 2020 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame nominations a few weeks ago, the nod that I was the most happily surprised about was the Irish band Thin Lizzy, who I love dearly and who've been eligible for over two decades and kind of assumed would never get serious consideration. It is a hall of fame after all, and while they were bigger in their native UK, in America their legacy has largely been boiled down to one gold album that contained one classic rock staple. But if I could snap my fingers and change U.S. classic radio, I think one of the first things that would be different is that Thin Lizzy would have at least half a dozen songs in regular rotation, they deserve to be at least as ubiquitous as Bad Company or any other middling '70s band that their catalog puts to shame.

And I will say, I have nothing against "The Boys Are Back In Town." I get a little annoyed at how it's become a meme in recent years, but I enjoy a good meme now and again. I love hearing it almost every time it comes on the radio, it's a masterpiece. I just wish I heard "Cowboy Song" or any number of other Thin Lizzy songs just as often.

Thin Lizzy deep album cuts (Spotify playlist):

1. Emerald
2. Southbound
3. Massacre
4. Still In Love With You
5. Romeo And The Lonely Girl
6. Fighting My Way Back
7. Bad Reputation
8. Little Girl In Bloom
9. Are You Ready (live)
10. Sha La La (live)
11. Warriors
12. Someday She Is Going To Hit Back
13. Leave ThisTown
14. Suicide
15. Gonna Creep Up On You
16. Sweetheart
17. Honesty Is No Excuse
18. Sarah
19. Get Out Of Here
20. That Woman's Gonna Break Your Heart

Track 17 from Thin Lizzy (1971)
Track 18 from Shades Of A Blue Orphanage (1972)
Tracks 8 and 15 from Vagabonds Of The Western World (1973)
Track 4 from Nightlife (1974)
Tracks 6 and 14 from Fighting (1975)
Tracks 1, 5 and 11 from Jailbreak (1976)
Track 3 from Johnny The Fox (1976)
Tracks 2, 7 and 20 from Bad Reputation (1977)
Tracks 9 and 10 from Live And Dangerous (1978)
Track 19 from Black Rose: A Rock Legend (1979)
Track 16 from Chinatown (1980)
Track 13 from Renegade (1981)
Track 12 from Thunder And Lightning (1983)

Thin Lizzy's 12 studio records can be informally divided into three quartets of albums: the first 4 where they slowly found their sound, the middle 4 where they became a quartet and hit their stride and made their most beloved songs, and the later 4 where they reigned as an established act. I was most familiar with the middle section, but I was pleasantly surprised with just how consistently enjoyable their catalog is, there's not a bad album in the bunch, although a few feel minor or lacking in the fireworks of their loudest records. But then, I'm a big proponent of '70s hard rock before it became the metal, the whole wide range of loud and quiet songs you'll find on a Led Zeppelin album, and Thin Lizzy has that going for them, too.

In addiction to each of the studio albums, I wanted to include something from the double live record Live And Dangerous which, in '70s tradition, was the band's best selling and highest charting album in the UK (doesn't seem to have done remotely as well in the US, however). There were a couple new songs on Live And Dangerous that were never released on any studio album, including "Are You Ready," and I also wanted to spotlight "Sha La La," which is great in its original recording on Nightlife but just bananas on the live album, a great little percussion showcase for drummer Brian Downey, who was one of only 2 consistent members through the band's original 1970-1983 run along with singer/bassist Phil Lynott.

That's kind of the paradox of Thin Lizzy: they were famous for a signature guitar sound, but they were led by the rhythm section with a revolving lineup of guitarists. And I just learned in the Wall Street Journal's recent excellent oral history of "The Boys Are Back In Town" that Thin Lizzy's twin lead guitar sound was kind of a happy accident: after two guitarists, founding member Eric Bell and then his replacement Gary Moore, left the band in the space of 6 months, Lynott decided to add 2 new guitarists so that if anyone else quit, they'd still have a guitarist. Ultimately they settled on Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham, who perfected the Thin Lizzy sound as we know it now.

"Massacre" was covered by Judas Priest, one of the most famous examples of how Thin Lizzy's twin leads influenced metal bands. Raven and Foo Fighters both covered "Bad Reputation." And on the indie rock side, "Little Girl In Bloom" was covered by Ted Leo (who has written some great songs like "Timorous Me" that bear a heavy Thin Lizzy influence) and "Honesty Is No Excuse" was covered by Cass McCombs.

The Thin Lizzy song most notable for its covers, however, is probably "Still In Love With You," Lynott's duet with Frankie Miller later covered by Bobby Tench and later Sade. That song was co-written by Gary Moore, who was no longer in the band by the time it was released, and wasn't properly credited alongside Lynott as one of the authors of the song (Moore's solo stayed on Nightlife because Robertson thought, correctly, that it was too good to re-record). So it was bittersweet that Sade's cover was released in 2011 just two months after Moore's death. Gary Moore returned to Thin Lizzy for a year in the late '70s, finally playing on an entire album, Black Rose: A Rock Legend.

The closest thing to "The Boys Are Back In Town" that I found in Thin Lizzy's albums is "Leave This Town," which offers a slightly faster version of a similar shuffle beat, as well as a lyric that could almost be a prequel, a song about the boys leaving town before they inevitably return. But alongside the pop/rock gems and proto metal jams, there's a lot of beautiful folky stuff on these records, Lynott was really a great and thoughtful lyricist. 1971's "Sarah" was named after Lynott's grandmother, and is an entirely different song from the 1979 single "Sarah" which was named after Lynott's daughter who, presumably, was herself named after his grandmother (1975's "Philomena" was named after Lynott's mother, so he really serenaded the women of his family a lot).

Previous playlists in the Deep Album Cuts series:
Vol. 1: Brandy
Vol. 2: Whitney Houston
Vol. 3: Madonna
Vol. 4: My Chemical Romance
Vol. 5: Brad Paisley
Vol. 6: George Jones
Vol. 7: The Doors
Vol. 8: Jay-Z
Vol. 9: Robin Thicke
Vol. 10: R. Kelly
Vol. 11: Fall Out Boy
Vol. 12: TLC
Vol. 13: Pink
Vol. 14: Queen
Vol. 15: Steely Dan
Vol. 16: Trick Daddy
Vol. 17: Paramore
Vol. 18: Elton John
Vol. 19: Missy Elliott
Vol. 20: Mariah Carey
Vol. 21: The Pretenders
Vol. 22: "Weird Al" Yankovic
Vol. 23: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
Vol. 24: Foo Fighters
Vol. 25: Counting Crows
Vol. 26: T.I.
Vol. 27: Jackson Browne
Vol. 28: Usher
Vol. 29: Mary J. Blige
Vol. 30: The Black Crowes
Vol. 31: Ne-Yo
Vol. 32: Blink-182
Vol. 33: One Direction
Vol. 34: Kelly Clarkson
Vol. 35: The B-52's
Vol. 36: Ludacris
Vol. 37: They Might Be Giants
Vol. 38: T-Pain
Vol. 39: Snoop Dogg
Vol. 40: Ciara
Vol. 41: Creedence Clearwater Revival
Vol. 42: Dwight Yoakam
Vol. 43: Demi Lovato
Vol. 44: Prince
Vol. 45: Duran Duran
Vol. 46: Rihanna
Vol. 47: Janet Jackson
Vol. 48: Sara Bareilles
Vol. 49: Motley Crue
Vol. 50: The Who
Vol. 51: Coldplay
Vol. 52: Alicia Keys
Vol. 53: Stone Temple Pilots
Vol. 54: David Bowie
Vol. 55: The Eagles
Vol. 56: The Beatles
Vol. 57: Beyonce
Vol. 58: Beanie Sigel
Vol. 59: A Tribe Called Quest
Vol. 60: Cheap Trick
Vol. 61: Guns N' Roses
Vol. 62: The Posies
Vol. 63: The Time
Vol. 64: Gucci Mane
Vol. 65: Violent Femmes
Vol. 66: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Vol. 67: Maxwell
Vol. 68: Parliament-Funkadelic
Vol. 69: Chevelle
Vol. 70: Ray Parker Jr. and Raydio
Vol. 71: Fantasia
Vol. 72: Heart
Vol. 73: Pitbull
Vol. 74: Nas
Vol. 75: Monica
Vol. 76: The Cars
Vol. 77: 112
Vol. 78: 2Pac
Vol. 79: Nelly
Vol. 80: Meat Loaf
Vol. 81: AC/DC
Vol. 82: Bruce Springsteen
Vol. 83: Pearl Jam
Vol. 84: Green Day
Vol. 85: George Michael and Wham!
Vol. 86: New Edition
Vol. 87: Chuck Berry
Vol. 88: Electric Light Orchestra
Vol. 89: Chic
Vol. 90: Journey
Vol. 91: Yes
Vol. 92: Soundgarden
Vol. 93: The Allman Brothers Band
Vol. 94: Mobb Deep
Vol. 95: Linkin Park
Vol. 96: Shania Twain
Vol. 97: Squeeze
Vol. 98: Taylor Swift
Vol. 99: INXS
Vol. 100: Stevie Wonder
Vol. 101: The Cranberries
Vol. 102: Def Leppard
Vol. 103: Bon Jovi
Vol. 104: Dire Straits
Vol. 105: The Police
Vol. 106: Sloan
Vol. 107: Peter Gabriel
Vol. 108: Led Zeppelin
Vol. 109: Dave Matthews Band
Vol. 110: Nine Inch Nails
Vol. 111: Talking Heads
Vol. 112: Smashing Pumpkins
Vol. 113: System Of A Down
Vol. 114: Aretha Franklin
Vol. 115: Michael Jackson
Vol. 116: Alice In Chains
Vol. 117: Paul Simon
Vol. 118: Lil Wayne
Vol. 119: Nirvana
Vol. 120: Kix
Vol. 121: Phil Collins
Vol. 122: Elvis Costello & The Attractions
Vol. 123: Sonic Youth
Vol. 124: Bob Seger
Vol. 125: Radiohead
Vol. 126: Eric Church
Vol. 127: Neil Young
Vol. 128: Future
Vol. 129: Say Anything
Vol. 130: Maroon 5
Vol. 131: Kiss
Vol. 132: Dinosaur Jr.
Vol. 133: Stevie Nicks
Vol. 134: Talk Talk
Vol. 135: Ariana Grande
Vol. 136: Roxy Music
Vol. 137: The Cure
Vol. 138: 2 Chainz
Vol. 139: Kelis
Vol. 140: Ben Folds Five
Vol. 141: DJ Khaled
Vol. 142: Little Feat
Vol. 143: Brendan Benson
Vol. 144: Chance The Rapper
Vol. 145: Miguel
Vol. 146: The Geto Boys
Vol. 147: Meek Mill
Vol. 148: Tool
Vol. 149: Jeezy
Vol. 150: Lady Gaga
Vol. 151: Eddie Money
Vol. 152: LL Cool J
Vol. 153: Cream
Vol. 154: Pavement
Vol. 155: Miranda Lambert
Vol. 156: Gang Starr
Vol. 157: Little Big Town

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 13, 2019 at 8:05 AM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.