45 years after its launch, live and dangerous of Thin Lizzy Sounds like that rock concert I always wanted to go to. If I had a time machine I would choose to travel to the Hammersmith Odeon in November 1976 or the Philadelphia Tower Theater in October 1977 to experience the power of Thin Lizzy for one night.
live and dangerous it has a bit of everything. There are powerful riffs, sing-along songs, a couple of counterbalancing ballads to release tension, and the guarantee that it will be a transformative experience.
The album published on June 2, 1978 sought to capture the essence of Thin Lizzy live, something that none of their previous productions -with the exception of Jailbreak- had achieved. With him Frampton Comes Alive (1975) from Peter Frampton, Alive! (1975) from kiss Y Live at Budokan (1978) from cheap Trick, Thin Lizzy he also tried to enhance his musical qualities with a live show, a lot of theatrics and the occasional post-production arrangement.
live and dangerous preserves the sound of what is Thin Lizzy’s best-known lineup: Phil Lynott in the bass and the voice, Brian Downey on the drums and the double attack with the guitars of Scott Gorham Y Brian Robertson. During its almost 15-year history, with nine records released, Thin Lizzy’s lineup was in constant flux, but the lineup of Lynott, Downey, Gorham and Robertson gave Thin Lizzy a definitive sound and was later imitated by many bands. Lynott and Downey’s backing rhythms are the perfect counterbalance to Gorham and Robertson’s onslaught of guitars with their doubling melodic lines.
The producer Tony Visconti was in charge of producing live and dangerous, which is made up of recordings Thin Lizzy made at the Hammersmith Odeon in London in 1976, and the Tower Theater in Philadelphia during their 1977 North American tour supporting Queen. The album has material from his records nightlife (1974), fighting (1975), Jailbreak (1976), Johnny The Fox (1976) and bad reputation (1977).
The Hammersmith Odeon concerts, recorded between 14 and 16 November 1976, during the tour to promote the album Johnny The Fox They were accompanied by the band Clover, where the American Huey Lewis played the harmonica. Lewis is credited as Bluesey Huey Lewis in “Baby Drives Me Crazy.”
This week a reissue of the live and dangerous to commemorate 45 years of its launch. In addition to the original double album, this edition contains seven additional discs with the three dates of the Hammersmith Odeon; two concerts on October 20 and 21, 1977 recorded at the Tower Theater from Philadelphia; a recording of October 28, 1977 in the Seneca College Fieldhouse of Toronto, and a concert at the rainbow theater of London on March 29, 1978. They are a valuable document of Thin Lizzy live at its best.
live and dangerous recreate a moment that never really existed. Thin Lizzy they were never able to headline a US tour and by the time they did they had already been superseded by the punk phenomenon and a string of bands that followed. They never fit into heavy metal either, but the double guitar format became a standard for every band in the New Wave of Heavy Metal and metal genres that emerged in the 1980s and 1990s.
Phil Lynott is one of the musicians who have become one of the tragic legends of rock. In his lyrics Lynott built a mythology of outlaws and rebels that he mixed with traditional Irish music, the psychedelia of Jimi Hendrix and the romanticism of Van Morrison. And while much has been written about his death on January 4, 1986, the victim of years of addiction, excess, and chasing the elusive ghost of being a true rock star, Lynott is one of the most celebrated musicians in Dublin, Ireland, where just like the writer James Joycehas a statue erected in his honor.
Thin Lizzy never achieved the recognition of other of his contemporaries, but on his records he left us an incomparable musical legacy. In the seventies Thin Lizzy opened the doors for a number of Irish bands such as The Boomtown Rats and of course u2but its influence has transcended beyond. metallica, Anthrax, Sade, The Smashing PumpkinsFu Manchu, Golden Smog are some of the artists who have reinterpreted the music of Thin Lizzy, keeping Lynott’s spirit alive and passing it on to new generations.
live and dangerous is the testament that Thin Lizzy left as proof that it is one of the best bands in rock history. Under a red canopy the name of Thin Lizzy flashes at the Hammersmith Odeon, while leak alarms go off. Among a boiling crowd that sounds like a stadium cheer, Phil Lynott asks: Are you ready? And we are there to witness, perhaps, the best concert in our lives.
