(In 1977, Bad Reputation reached UK # 4 on Oct. 8 and US # 39 on Oct. 29)
Philip Lynott - Bass/Vocals
Scott Gorham - Guitars
Brian Robertson -Guitars
Brian Downey - Drums
Click onto song titles to see the lyrics of the song on the Thin Lizzy Lyric Archive.
L to R: Brian Downey, Brian Robertson, Phil Lynott and Scott Gorham
(Excerpt from an article that appeared
in Circus Magazine, September 29, 1977)
"Lyrically
Lynott has sharpened his sensibilities, spinning diverse tales this time as
varied as "Soldiers of Fortune" and the American depression. Lynott dropped
Johnny. While looking for new antiheroes to immortalize, Lynott heard about
James Callender, an Englishman who last year was thrown out of the British Army
in Ireland and died while fighting as a mercenary in Angola. The displaced
soldier's tale became the inspiration for the opening track. "I was trying to
write a story that was anti-mercenary, but as I wrote it, I began to find that
it was very hard to put mercenaries down," Lynott explains. "If the cause is
right, mercenaries are fairly cool---like those guys that zoom into Mexico and
pull out them guys that are in jail for dope and takes them back to the
States---they're fairly cool."
(Excerpt from Sounds, August 27, 1977)
(Q:) "How about the album opener 'Soldier of Fortune'?"
""That came about through mercenaries. This really freaked me, I only found out after I had written the song, but about two years ago I got into a fight at Dingwalls...nearly got battered. We got drunk, me and Frank Murray and Ted Carroll, who was our manager at the time, and we drunk a bottle and a half of Southern Comfort, and I got into a fight, now one of the bouncers was Callan."
"Now Callan was also in the British Army in Ireland and the reason he got thrown out of the British Army was that he was caught robbing a bank in Ireland and he buried the money, which goes on over there but you never read too much about it. then he goes and becomes a mercenary and then he goes and gets himself killed. I didn't know at the time but Frank told me and it really freaked me."
"So, Anyway, I started off writing the song to put down mercenaries, saying how disgusting it was going off and becoming a killer, then as I started to write the lyrics I began to realize that everybody has a little bit of mercenary blood in them..."
(Excerpts from Melody Maker, July 18, 1977)
"In structure, Soldier of Fortune' resembles the Chieftain's 'Battle of Aughrim' , moving from peaceful mellow refrains into the marching battle sequence. It is most definitely one of the truest refelections of Lynott's Irish heritage, meatier than either 'Emerald' or 'Massacre' , both of which were also swamped in Celtic influence."
"...'Soldier of Fortune' will attract most attention for it's lyrics. Though Lynott insists the lyrical content is more international than anything else. It is undoubtedly an oblique statement on the Irish situation. He mentions the title of the Irish national anthem , and he seems to be debating the rights and wrongs in the song of the war in Ireland, saying on one hand that it's necessary, and on the other that there must be another way to resolve it."
"The song, indeed was inspired by the Anglonian mercenary, Costas Georgiou, better known as "Colonel Callan", who had served time with the British Army in Northern Ireland."
" 'These are the lyrics I had for it originally' - and Phil Lynott goes into this lengthy glorification of his homeland. the song was to be called 'Ireland' until Lynott was talked into changing the lyrics by Gorham and Downey, who thought it was a bit corny; anyway, he had covered Ireland enough in 'Dublin' and 'Eire'."
(This excerpt appeared in an article
from a Dutch magazine called 'Aardschok Metal Hammer' in June 1988,in this
article Scott Gorham is given the opportunity to give his opinion on some Thin
Lizzy songs)
"I recollect making the album much more vividly than the actual song. Weird shit was going on in those days, we were just a threesome, Brian Robertson was recovering from an accident. The night before we were about to leave for the US tour Brian went out to a club for a drink and got in a brawl and injured his hand and couldn't play anymore. Then we asked Gary Moore to replace him, but as you know, things didn't always go as we planned with Lizzy and Gary disappeared in the middle of the tour. We did a couple of shows without a second guitarist but eventually we persuaded Midge Ure from Ultravox to join us to continue the tour. This was very funny at some point, we were dressing up in leather to look touch and when we turned round we saw Midge wearing yellow pants with a pink shirt putting hairspray on his hair, he even wore make-up!!! We begged him not to go on stage dressed this way and gave him hell whenever he refused to adjust. When we ended the tour we decided to record 'Bad Reputation' with only me, Phil and Brian, hence the 3 faces on the album cover. On the flipside of the album you can see Brian in the picture since he did play on two songs on the album."
(Excerpt from Sounds, August 27, 1977)
(Q:) "You've always got stories behind your songs, things like say the title track"
(Phil says) "Yeah, well I just liked the idea of 'Bad Reputation' Lizzy were definitely getting a bad reputation around. The interviews before we went away were like Brian Robertson was drunk and getting into fights. Scott was always talking about his hippy days when he was a drug addict. My interviews always seemed to be about my sex life and Brian Downey just didn't speak at all. There seems to be very little talking about music."
(Excerpt from Melody Maker, July 18, 1977)
" 'Bad Rep' , in particular is an adrenalin-toasting rocker that is in the very best tradition of the band..."
3. Opium Trail
(3:58)
4. Southbound
(4:27)
(Excerpt from an article that appeared in Circus Magazine, September 29, 1977)
"Lynott drew
another of his ideas from John Steinbeck. An admirer of the author, Lynott read
four of his works---Of Mice and Men, East of Eden, Grapes of Wrath and Cannery
Row---prior to writing "Southbound," a tune about Americans on the move during
the Great Depression."
5. Dancing In The Moonlight (3:26)
(This excerpt appears in an article from a Dutch magazine
called 'Aardschok Metal Hammer' in June 1988,in this article Scott Gorham is
given the opportunity to give his opinion on some Thin Lizzy
songs)
"This is
a very strange song for Thin Lizzy, if you think about our reputation at that
time it's very odd to go singing about chocolate stains on your pants. We chose
for an odd beat on that song, but it works. It became a successful single It was
one of the last songs I chose as a single. I never thought it would have any
impact, but as usual you can't predict things like that. It took me a while to
get used to the song, but in the end it became one of my favorite Lizzy tunes.
What I especially like about the song are the mood swings, it didn't have any
outstanding riff and aggressive lyrics, it was a delicate piece of
art."
6. Killer
Without A Cause (3:33)
7. Downtown
Sundown (4:08)
(Excerpt from Sounds, August 27, 1977)
(Phil Says) "I like 'Downtown Sundown'.
'Downtown Sundown' is a funny story because I wrote 'Don't Believe A Word' and
every chick I went out with after that used to throw it back in my face every
time... 'I don't believe a word you're saying' , I used to get all the time and
it was really sort of sarcastic all the time, so I figured I'd write a song that
was actually a statement of love, so this would be an answer to it and there's a
line in it that goes; 'Please believe in love; I believe there is a God above
for love' , y'know "
8. That
Woman's Gonna Break Your Heart (3:45)
9. Dear Lord
(4:26)
(Excerpt from Melody Maker, July 18, 1977)
" 'Dear Lord' , too has Lizzy stepping into new areas of production. It's a beautiful Lynott composition, on a par with 'A Song For while I'm Away' , and complimented by the most sensitive production by Visconti, with an atmospheric intro seeping into the main body of amazing chorus. And this is where Mary Hopkin enters our little story."
"The intention with the song was to have an angelic choir doing a bit of 'aah-ing' in the background. Originally Phil was to overdub his voice to get the choir effect, until it was realized that his vocal just didn't fit."
"So Tony Visconti said his wife, who happened to be Mary Hopkin, was coming over and she was great at this type of thing. So they did it, and as Scott Gorham , in a Californian accent said: "I swear to God, I expected the hands of God to come down, touch me. It was beautiful."