Album title: Thin Lizzy
Artiste: Thin Lizzy
Genre: Blues/Folk
Year: 1971
Label: Decca
Producer: Scott English
Chronological position: Debut album
Notes:
Album chart position: n/a
Singles: n/a
Lineup: Phil Lynott: Vocals, Bass, Acoustic guitar
Eric Bell: Guitars
Brian Downey: Drums
Thin Lizzy were an odd band. Most bands do go through certain evolutions and changes as they go, but Lizzy went from being basically a folk/blues band to a sort of Celtic rock hybrid, to hard rock and finally out-and-out heavy metal, and yet managed to have many hit singles. Various factors, not least among them Lynott's well-publicised drug addictions and other problems coupled with a basic insecurity and a failure to properly break the USA led to Lizzy disbanding in 1983, two years prior to Lynott's untimely death, and it is only really in retrospect that their real legacy has appeared.
Review begins
Their debut album opens with something which would characterise Lynott and show him to be first and foremost the principal lyricist in the band, a poem spoken laconically by the young Irishman, backed initially by soft percussion only, with some guitar chords leaking through, before the song gets going properly with Lynott's soon-to-be-instantly-recognisable vocal, some fine understated guitar from Eric Bell, and a sort of almost soul/funk style to later sections. Very laid back - “Jailbreak” this ain't! “Honesty is no excuse” has much more aching passion about it, already something approaching more closely to what would become the more tender moments of later Lizzy. Ivor Raymonde really adds something with his mellotron here, the only time the instrument is played on the album, but the real heart of the song is the soulful Celtic guitar runs from Bell. You can definitely see the beginnings of something great here, though Lizzy would arrive late to the party, only breaking properly with their sixth album, five years from now.
“Diddy Levine” is a tender love song, with Irish traditional overtones, an emotional vocal from Lynott, perhaps a little too long at seven minutes, though there's great passion in it and some fine buildup guitar from Bell. Lynott's bass really comes through here too, and about halfway through the mellowness drops away and the band go on something of a blues rock jam, with a repeating guitar motif running through the whole thing, then “Ray gun” sounds very Hendrixesque, Bell's guitar very much front and centre here, almost overpowering Lynott's vocal. This is the only song on the album written solely by Bell (his other contribution being collaborating with Lynott on the opener, “The friendly ranger at Clontarf Castle”) and it shows: it's as different to anything else on the album that it's almost hard to believe you're listening to the same band. In contrast, one of Lynott's better early songs, presaging his songwriting talent, “Look what the wind blew in” is also a blues rocker but has better teeth and is better balanced, unsurprisingly written for his voice as the principal instrument.
Through most of his life, and through most of Lizzy's career Phil Lynott would have an interest in, even obsession with Irish legends and history, and “Eire” shows this clearly, an acoustic ballad recalling the great mythic heroes of Ireland. It's a much more laidback song than later “Emerald” or “Warriors”, but it certainly points the way towards those songs. It's a short track and leads into the faster, more upbeat “Return of the farmer's son”, which allows Bell to slip his leash somewhat after the more restrained “Eire”, with perhaps paradoxically what seems like an early precursor to the riff from aforementioned “Emerald”, which would not surface for another five years. “Clifton Grange Hotel”, written about the hotel his mother managed in Manchester, is another short song, almost hurried in its way, with a sort of Cream-like guitar from Bell and some fine bass work from Lynott, but really little to write home about, like most of this album.
A song that would, in later years, accurately and sadly describe Lynott himself, “Saga of the ageing orphan” has a very folky feel to it, lovely acoustic guitar and soft bass, gentle percussion, a kind of almost lullaby vocal from Lynott with an aching sense of loss in the lyric between the lines. Really nice little soft guitar solo in the middle, then the album comes to a, I suppose, pretty anti-climactic end on “Remembering”, which is not to say the song is anti-climactic – it's actually a good ballsy blues rocker – but the whole album, from the point of view of someone brought up on the likes of
Chinatown, Jailbreak and
Live and Dangerous comes across as pretty weak and limp-wristed. Still, ya gotta start somewhere, yeah?
Track listing and ratings
The friendly ranger at Clontarf Castle
Honesty is no excuse
Diddy Levine
Ray-gun
Look what the wind blew in
Eire
Return of the farmer's son
Clifton Grange Hotel
Saga of the ageing orphan
Remembering
Afterword:
Listening to this, you certainly wouldn't be hearing the likes of “Waiting for an alibi”, “Jailbreak”, “Cold sweat” or even “Whiskey in the jar”, but eventually Lynott would drop the blues and folk influences and advance into a harder, tighter, rockier identity, in which he and the band would make their mark. It was by no means overnight success though, as like I've said, although their fourth album, 1975's
Fighting would finally give them hit singles (after the let's be honest flash-in-the-pan success of “Whiskey in the jar”) it would really take a monster like
Jailbreak to bring this band to the world's notice. Albums like this, and its two followups, were unlikely to do that. Luckily, they persevered and became Ireland's first proper rock group. Though you wouldn't know it here.
Rating: 