Why do some artistes choose to split from their parent band and go solo? Sometimes it's to “stretch their wings”, to enable them to do things they wouldn't be able to do in their band, explore themes and concepts, and perhaps other musical styles, that the other band members are not interested in, and which would not fit with their own music. Sometimes it's a full split with the band (for whatever reasons), sometimes it's a side-project they can carry on while still with their band.
Often, a band member going solo will follow the same sort of music trends as his own band (think Jon Bon Jovi, Gary Moore, Jon Anderson and so on), but other times they will go on a complete tangent, exploring other musical influences and interests, often deliberately distancing themselves sufficiently from the music they usually play to ensure their solo or side project is not seen as just another version of their band music (I'm thinking here of Phil Collins, Peter Gabriel and Freddie Mercury).
In this new series, which I'm calling "Gone solo in the game", I'll be examining the work of some famous (and not-so-famous) artistes who have spun-off from their band --- whether fully or as a side project --- to pursue their solo interests, and asking did they do a good job or was their solo work rubbish, was it worth the effort and how much, if any, different was it to what they usually produced? As some artistes have a slew of solo albums (Gabriel, Anderson, Stevie Nicks, Roger Waters...) I'll be looking at a cross-section of their work rather than the entire catalogue, but where a solo artist has three or less albums I'll generally try to get through each of them, assuming I have or can get them.
Because you see, it doesn't necessarily follow that if you like a band you're going to like their solo material, as I found out with more than one artist (Clive Nolan from Arena springs to mind) --- quite often, the very different direction they may go in in order to express themselves as individuals rather than part of a whole, and to differentiate their solo music from their band music, may mean that their solo material is not up your street at all. Would you listen to a Phil Collins jazz album (hey, would you listen to a
Phil Collins album!)? Or what about Steve Perry, if he had decided to go all salsa or reggae? Would you still listen, just because of who they are? And if so, would you expect to hear generally the same sort of music you've been used to hearing from them in their band, and would you be disappointed if this was not the case? Or would you applaud them for taking a bold step into the unknown?
To try to answer at least some of those questions, I'm going to start off with a man who made his name with hard rockers Thin Lizzy, but released two solo albums of his own. Sadly, his death in 1986 prevented his exploring this path further, but with all due respect for the dead, were Phil Lynott's two solo albums good, bad, or indifferent? Did he waste his time releasing them, or were they something he definitely should have done? Would we have wanted to see more of his solo stuff, or was two albums enough, or even too much? Let's see...
Solo in Soho --- 1980 (Vertigo)
Phil Lynott's first solo album, though in some ways it hardly counts as a solo effort, as most of the Thin Lizzy boys are involved on it, including Snowy White, Gary Moore, Scott Gorham and Brian Downey, although Lynott does write all of the material himself, bar three tracks, all of which he co-writes, and the songs are personal to him. So before we dismiss it as just “Thin Lizzy-Lite”, let's delve into “Solo in Soho” and see what we find.
It opens well, with the hit single “Dear Miss Lonely Hearts”: heavy guitar which soon drops away as the song becomes more a pop than a rock song, but with a suitably hard edge, as Lynott takes the role of two people. One is writing to a newspaper “agony aunt” about an affair he has inadvertently started, the other is the respondent as she tells him what he should do. In fact, in the song there is a third person, one of the girls involved, who also writes to the agony aunt. The song is well known as it got a lot of radio airplay, and is a great start to the album, with rocky but not overly-present guitars, solid drumming and a great hook. Lynott is in great voice, of that there can be no doubt, and the twin guitar sound of Gorham and White on the track does make it something of a Lizzy song, but different enough to be Lynott's own.
The second song is more in a Dire Straits vein, not surprising as Mark Knopfler is on guitar, for this ode to Elvis Presley. “King's call” was a minor success from the album too, but I definitely think it has too much of Knopfler's trademark guitar sound on it to be Lynott's own song. Still, at least it's not a Thin Lizzy clone. The song's lyric features snatches from “Are you lonesome tonight?”, cleverly woven in to seem like Lynott is talking to Elvis. Track three is “A child's lullaby”, and here is where Lynott really expresses his individuality, and takes a major step away from Lizzy, with strings and synthy keyboard, and very restrained percussion, hardly any guitar and some flute sounds which are probably made on the synth. This is one of the three tracks Lynott would write about his baby girls, and reveals the softer side of the tough rocker.
“Tattoo (Givin' it all up for love)” is pure pop, almost disco, with brass (synth?) and a very boogie/funk bassline with an almost nursery-rhyme melody. This departs from Lynott's work with Thin Lizzy in as sharp a manner as “Sussudio” did for Phil Collins on his third album. I have to be honest: I feel like I've been listening to Kool and the Gang after that! Urgh! What's next? Ah, the title track, with girly laughs on the intro and then a heavy reggae beat against which Lynott tries his best Bob Marley accent. Nah, don't get it son, don't see it working at all.
To his credit, Lynott does extend himself on the album, not only playing bass and singing as he did in Lizzy, but also playing keyboards, synth, string machine (whatever
that is!), percussion, vocoder, minimoog and rhythm guitar, so fair play to him for that. “Solo in Soho”, the track, does contain a line that somewhat echoes the title track of Thin Lizzy's “Chinatown” album, where he sings
”When you're solo in Soho/ You got nowhere to go.” Rather like
”You don't stand a chance/ If you go down in Chinatown.” Soul music next on “Girls”, where Phil joins the Temptations, apparently! Keyboard is nice, but the backing vocals are a bit annoying. Again, I don't see it working, but then that's obviously because I'm looking for Thin Lizzy material, or at least rock, and this ain't it. Dammit though, it's bloody catchy! Stop it!
Standout track next, after “Dear Miss Lonely Hearts”, the excellent (but another real departure from his rock roots) “Yellow pearl”, a song written by him with Ultravox's Midge Ure, and which in a remixed version surfaced on the second album, and was in fact the theme for the 90s version of “Top of the Pops” for years, without vocals. It's a hell of a catchy number, with some great vocoder work by Lynott, and a really great hook, almost Pac-man-like percussion. I can't listen to it without seeing the opening credits for that show, which we all watched as teens and adolescents.
Nice harmonica (courtesy of Huey Lewis) on “Ode to a black man”, a much rockier/bluesier track than previous, and a good flip of the finger to the racist element in society. Good rockin', indeed. Steel drums and some interesting guitar from Gary Moore makes “Jamaican rum” a very happy, fun song, but there's not a lot in it, and it's the shortest track on the album, less than three minutes.Another short track winds up the album, three minutes of “Talk in 79”, with a great bass intro and a spoken vocal recalling the fate of punk and new-wave bands at the end of the seventies. Clever lyric like “The Rats were caught in their own trap/ And Steve Strange began to change.”[/i] Interesting idea but unsure if it really closes the album in the style it deserves. Still, it certainly lets Phil loose on his favourite bass guitar.
So that's the first of Phil Lynott's two solo albums. On balance, I would say that it fulfils the conditions of being different enough from his band work to qualify as a proper solo effort, despite the presence of his Thin Lizzy bandmates, and there is definitely a lot of stuff on there which he would not get to play, or evens suggest, in Thin Lizzy, so a chance to stretch the wings, explore new horizons? A big yes on that one.
TRACKLISTING
1. Dear Miss Lonely Hearts
2. King's call
3. A child's lullaby
4. Tattoo (Givin' it all up for love)
5. Solo in Soho
6. Girls
7. Yellow pearl
8. Ode to a black man
9. Jamaican rum
10. Talk in '79
And so on we go, to his second and only other solo album, 1982's rather unoriginally-titled “The Philip Lynott Album”. (Actually, the story goes that he wanted to call it “Fatalistic attitude” originally, but he didn't, and when asked why, he replied “I don't have a fatalistic attitude anymore!” Makes sense...)
The Philip Lynott Album --- 1982 (Vertigo)
Two years on, and Lynott is back with his second solo album. Again, his Lizzy mates are here, though Gary Moore and Snowy White are conspicuous by their absence --- I think Moore may have been working on “Corridors of power” at this time, not sure. However he also drafts in help from the likes of Midge Ure, Mel Collins and Huey Lewis, and again Mark Knopfler is on hand. So is the album any different to, or just a continuation of “Solo in Soho”? Let's have a looksee.
It opens with the track which was supposed to have been the title of the album, “Fatalistic attitude” opens with a girl ringing a radio station while behind there's keyboards and bass with drum machines keeping the melody. [i]This{/i] song reeks of Ultravox, in the hisses, thumps and whistles of the percussion, not to mention the keyboard sound and almost no guitar. The lyric echoes lines form “Dear Miss Lonely Hearts”, like
”If this boy goes on like this” and
”This boy is going insane.” It's an odd track, vocals half-lost in the radio commentary as Lynott sings over it, but sometimes the two cross.
“This man's a fool” is his “Sussudio”, with brass and disco rhythms, close vocal harmonies, and although the album is no longer called “Fatalistic attitude”, many of the songs do betray that dark side of Lynott in their titles, like this one, “Fatalistic” itself, “Don't talk about me baby” and the bittersweet “Old town”, but then there's hope and joy in songs like “Cathleen”, “Together” and “Ode to liberty”. The standout track though is “Old town”, with its upbeat piano and keyboards, and its great melody, and its recurring theme
”This boy is cracking up/ This boy has broke down.” It's a real pop opus, and with “Dear Miss Lonely Hearts” and “Yellow pearl” probably represents the apex of Lynott's solo career.
“Cathleen”, though understandably slushy, is just TOO sugary for my taste. The spoken intro vocal just makes it worse. I know he loved his daughters, but this was weak by Lynott's standards, and it's frankly embarrassing. Move on. “Growing up” is introduced on a sweet sax solo by Mel Collins, and is a lovely little ballad, with something of the melody of “DMLH” in there somewhere. It's the story of a little girl who is growing up, and the thoughts of her parent who is watching, and wishing he could make it easier for her but knowing what she will have to go through. Lovely track, and a real example of the kind of ballad Lynott could pen when he really tried. Quite honestly though, it's the sax work of Collins that lifts this track out of the ordinary. Just superb.
Then there's the remixed version of “Yellow pearl” from the first album, with a whole lot more punch and a screaming intro. This is the one they used for “Top of the Pops”, all right! Now, to be honest, I always thought this was called “Yellow peril”, and was about the Japanese, especially when you hear the lyric
”They will arise/ They will control.” Well, maybe not, or maybe the title was changed. Either way, it's a hell of a song, even second time around. “Together” is pure new romantic, and you can really hear the influence of the drum machines, while “Little bit of water” lets the guitars get a look in for once, forcing the keys to the background for at least some of the song. Nice bright piano soon gets in on the act though, and gives the song real heart.
“Ode to liberty (The protest song)” suffers from Dire Straits-itis again, with Lynott even singing like Knopfler, which is a pity, as it's a good song, but really sounds like it belongs more on “Communique” or “Making movies” than here. It's interesting, as Knopfler did not have a hand in writing it, but he's stamped his identity all over it, from the inimitable guitar to the way it's sung. “Gino” begins with another great bass line, though I kind of think it's on a synth, and the song itself is again very new romantic, kind of reminds me of Depeche Mode or Visage, with a quasi-gospel theme, which is a little weird. Closer “Don't talk about me baby” is as close as we get to a Thin Lizzy song, with the wolf-whistle beginning and grinding guitar, and drums that at least try to be heavy and real. The verses are very restrained, with an odd single-note bassline, but on the choruses the song takes off, and at least as the album comes to a close you're left with a good rock tune in your head.
TRACKLISTING
1. Fatalistic attitude
2. This man's a fool
3. Old town
4. Cathleen
5. Growing up
6. Yellow pearl
7. Together
8. Little bit of water
9. Ode to liberty (The Protest Song)
10. Gino
11. Don't talk about me baby
So, that's the solo career of Phil Lynott. Four years after releasing this album he would be gone, and so this is all we have to judge him on as a solo artist. What's the verdict? Well, there's no doubt that he tried new musical styles and managed to experiment, though his distinctive voice could never be mistaken for anyone else. I'd say he was glad he got to try going solo; whether he would have persisted or not I don't know. I'm sure it was a lot of fun, and different to the vibe and way of working he would have experienced when cutting a Lizzy album, so for that on its own I'm sure it was worth it.
Is it, however, worth buying the albums? On balance I'd say no. There are good tracks, but there are some real turkeys. If you simply
have to have everything Phil Lynott has ever done, then go ahead, but don't say you weren't warned! And make sure you have that “skip” key ready --- there are times when you'll definitely need it!
Next time, I'll be examining the solo work of Ric Ocasek, lead singer with the Cars.