In 1976, they felt like a new band, because in many ways, they were. While Thin Lizzy formed in 1969, and then scored a hit four years later with their arrangement of the Irish folk standard “Whiskey in the Jar,” they didn’t really belong in either of those camps. The next generation of arena-rock groups - Aerosmith, Kiss, Black Sabbath - were grounded in a more flamboyant, “party till you puke” sensibility that would soon be subsumed by the ascendent heavy metal movement. The old-school dinosaurs who led ’60s rock - The Who, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones - were still standing but limping along, already sounding like nostalgia acts to younger listeners. When Jailbreak was released on March 26, 1976, rock ’n’ roll was at a fascinating crossroads. ‘Jailbreak’ would prove as foundational to the future sound of metal as AC/DC’s ‘High Voltage’ or Motörhead’s ‘Motörhead,’ just as Thin Lizzy’s no-nonsense musical approach informed the sensibility of punk. “The nights we spent together ridin’ on the range / Lookin’ back it didn’t seem so strange.” There is no “a lover or a fighter” binary on this album. “Lord I’m just thinkin’ about a certain female,” he sings. As he does throughout Jailbreak, Lynott reveals himself, at heart, to be a romantic. And all outstanding debts will be paid.īut “Cowboy Song” isn’t just about musical carnage. “Cowboy Song” suddenly becomes a ’70s Blaxploitation Western, in the vein of countless films starring Jim Brown or Fred Williamson. Finally, the leader emerges from the smoke to take what’s his. Lynott’s gang has arrived, and they mean business - Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham harmonize guitar lines like gunslingers knocking down buzzards for target practice, then drummer Brian Downey bears down to clear away the bullet-ridden carcasses. Soon, the sagebrush blows away as the band enters. In that moment, he’s not a Black man from Dublin.
Thin lizzy running back lyrics tv#
A connoisseur of stateside culture who was hooked on comic books - hence Jailbreak ’s comics-style cover - and flashy Hollywood-set TV shows like 77 Sunset Strip, he found a way to insert himself into a quintessentially American fantasy. As the song opens, we find Lynott crooning softly over gentle guitar chords and a softly sighing harmonica.
Take “Cowboy Song,” my personal favorite track from my personal favorite Thin Lizzy album, 1976’s Jailbreak. A handsome man whose sad eyes and sneering lips hinted at the soul of a warrior poet, he brought uncommon sensitivity to the hard rock world of the ’70s and ’80s, proving that even the toughest guys on stage can still have a tender side. When he returned to England over a decade later to properly launch his band, Thin Lizzy, Lynott again faced a double shot of prejudice in a country where “No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs” signs could still be spotted in local store windows.Īnd yet, in the face of so much opposition, Lynott was indomitable. At age seven, he was sent to live with his mother’s parents in Crumlin, a southern suburb of Dublin, an area where virtually no other Black people lived. Born in West Bromwich, United Kingdom, to a white woman from Ireland and a Black man from South America in 1949, he grew up twice derided as a biracial kid raised by a single mother during an intolerant era. When it comes to rock outsiders, few can claim to have the credibility of the late, great Phil Lynott. It’s the posture of the outsider, the non-conformist who rides “lonesome on the trail” as “the howling winds wail,” to quote, hands down, the coolest rock cowboy of all time. In rock ’n’ roll, however, cowboy culture is about not belonging. In that genre, identifying with cowboys is a way of conforming to a rural culture that deifies macho dudes who sport mile-wide hats and epically crusty mustaches.
Thin lizzy running back lyrics movie#
In rock music, “being the cowboy” isn’t like the Western movie ideation that’s common in country music. In the ’80s, Jon Bon Jovi looked out at a sea of faces staring back at him in some far-flung enormodome and imagined himself riding a steel horse from town to town in “Wanted Dead Or Alive.” More recently, the talented indie singer-songwriter Mitski took this “rocker equals cowhand” rhetorical device to another level on her 2018 LP Be the Cowboy, in which she conceived of donning boots and chaps as a path toward empowerment against patriarchal adversaries, like a feminist Fistful of Dollars.
In the 1970s, The Eagles made a career out of it, most notably with the outlaw cosplay of their 1973 concept LP, Desperado. There is a rich tradition in rock ’n’ roll of musicians pretending to be cowboys.
0 kommentar(er)
