Thin Lizzy Song F.A.Q. Site

1980

(In 1980, Chinatown reached UK # 7, on October 18 and US # 120 in December)

Phillip Lynott (Bass/Vocals)

Brian Downey (Drums)

Scott Gorham (Guitar)

Snowy White (Guitar)

(Submitted by Phil Birch)

"Just a brief note on the Chinatown Live extra disc (Cat no Lizzy 7702) there is a message 'Man Utd eat the NME' scratched into the run-off in Philip's own handwriting. (the NME is the New Musical Express, a music paper)."

1. We Will Be Strong (5:08)

(Excerpt from Sounds, October 4, 1980)

"Being my favorite track and all I was especially interested in to hear what 'We Will Be Strong' was actually about, confessing that I really didn't have a clue."

Lynott grins, "It's about three things all in one. My Wife and me have to be separated a great deal just due to me being in a Rock and Roll group. She was pregnant and I was flying here and there and it was like a personal message about our marriage being strong through all of this."

"Then there was the brother. the power of Black Man to Black Man feeling that there is. It's like an anthem for a lot of different things. And then there is the guy walking the streets late at night thinking about his woman or whatever. Y'know every so often he feels sorry for himself but like he's got to be stronger than this."

2.Chinatown (4:41) (UK # 21, July 12, 1980)

Phil wrote this song when recording in London's Chinatown, or better known as Soho.

(Here is an excerpt that appears on the Chinatown LP and also CD along with name credits. Did Philip Lynott write it?)

"CHINATOWN: The phenomenon of Chinatown occurs in many major cities cities in the West ; recreating a small part of the Orient, wherever they spring into being. In old American western towns .Chinatown came into existence because of the large scale of immigration of cheap Chinese labor into the States during the building of the railroads."
"These areas have always been regarded with an element of suspicion and fear by Westerners ; together with a curiosity and desire to indulge in the pleasures and vices which frequently seem to occur there, even to this day."
"This album was recorded in Chinatown in London."

(A quote from from an excerpt from the #1 issue of Thin Lizzy News from Sweeden (click to see past issues reprinted on it's own site) , published in 1980. The article is written about the album Chinatown with new guitarist Snowy White. By Jorgen Holmstedt & Matt Petersson. Translated by Lars Jakobsen. )

"Midge Ure, the guy from Ultravox that Phil wrote "Get out of here" on "Black Rose" with, is appearing on "Chinatown" also. He sings backup on the title track."

(An excerpt from a tape the B.P. Fallon Show 4/11/83. The show was dedicated to Thin Lizzy’s Farewell Tour and final retirement. B.P. Fallon played excerpts from past interviews on that show.)

(Phil says:)" 'Chinatown’ is basically a blues kind of progression and that was it. And then there was the old Irish traditional line ‘diddle-le diddle-le diddle-le diddle-le’ and the rest was an arrangement that the band came up with, you know at the rehearsal, for example, a song like that would come along."

"I was working in 'Chinatown’, you know. We were doing the album in Soho and I done ‘Solo in Soho’ there and I was in Chinatown everyday so....I was being influenced...I just thought, write lyrics about the seediness of the Chinatown area."

"I always found an association with misfits simply because, you know...Rock and Rollers, people in Rock and Roll I suppose to be...misfits of society and stuff like that, so it’s an affiliation."

"So when I was writing the lyrics of Chinatown when I was being influenced by... the dark side of all this, I thought I’d write about the people that don’t survive in the rough part of Chinatown. I know there is a good side as well, but you know it’s the evil side I use. I’m a bit like newspapers, I go for the tacky stuff as well."

3. Sweetheart (3:28)

4. Sugar Blues (4:19)

"Sugar blues" is surprisingly enough on the album, but in a version that gives a new dimension to the song. It doesn't sound like a live song "not-good-enough-for-the-album-but-ok-as-a-b-side" anymore, but really proves it belongs on the album! For the first time since "Vagabonds of the western world" was released in 1973, the lyrics are printed. Actually it is weird that Lizzy doesn't do this all the time, Phil's lyrics are really nothing to be ashamed of!"

5. Killer On the Loose (3:54) (UK # 10, Oct. 11, 1980)

6. Having A Good Time (4:34)

7. Genocide (5:05)

A song about how advancing civilization in the American West almost brought the American Buffalo to the brink of extinction.

(Excerpt from Sound, October 4, 1980)

"I ask Phillip to give me a bit of background to some of the new songs. 'Genocide' for example. What's that about? Little Big Man inspired, perhaps?"

(Phil says) "It's a little more up to date than that. I've used to the Buffalo, the Americano stuff because it's the most common known genocide. But it's more like Tasmania, Australia, places like South Africa, just the general wiping out of certain species, you know."

"The lyric to Genocide is 'When they try to tell you that knowledge is a dangerous thing / But the people that have it are the people that sin, the people need are the people that can never win / Let me take care of your little broken wing' which is a reference to Hendrix but the Indian thing as well. And then 'So listen to this story of Genocide / how they were hunted and slaughtered till there was no one left alive / Did you know the Red Man used to hold his head with pride / Till every Man Woman and Child was destroyed.' And then the chorus goes, ' There are people round here that are right / there are people round here that like to sleep at night / There are people round here I don't know / There are people round here that don't take kindly to the killing of the buffalo.' The white buffalo was the sacred symbol of the Red Indians ."

8. Didn't I (4:28)

(Excerpt from Sounds, October 4, 1980)

"(Q:) The only ballad on the album, 'Didn't I' deserves some explanation. I mean, for a start, strings on a Thin Lizzy album?"

(Phil says:) "That's one of the things that was a direct result of the solo album. We knew we could get away with slow song and I thought well we won't mess around, well put strings on it. Just to elaborate on it. We could have done it any amount of ways but it was also good to have one song that just totally jerked you so you couldn't write us off in one fall swoop by saying we just play hard rock, y'know. There is that side to Thin Lizzy that has always confused the critics; there's more to us than just one sound."

(Q:) The only ballad on the album is "Didn't I" and contains something (for Thin Lizzy) as unusual as STRINGS:

(Phil says:) "It's a direct result of my solo album. We wanted to do a slow song. But so as not to ruin it, or make it too complicated for us I thought let's simply add strings. To make it more complete, that is. It is always good to have a song that makes the listener pay attention and makes sure the critics can't write the whole album off with "Thin Lizzy only plays hard rock". That side of Thin Lizzy has always puzzled the critics; we can sound in many different ways."

"The person who arranged these strings is Fiachra Trench. He has contributed to "Vagabonds On The Western World", "Johnny the Fox" and "Solo in Soho", so he is far from a newcomer to Thin Lizzy."

9. Hey You (5:07)

(Excerpt from New Musical Express, July 5th, 1980)

"As an instance, Lynott describes one of the new Lizzy songs, 'Hey You' ".

(Phil says) : "Every night I change the lyrics because I haven't got what I know I'm trying to say. It's about how when you leave your home town everybody goes 'You've got it made now man, you're off'. And when you get into you haven't, you've just solved one set of problems for another. And I'm trying to get that 'Hey you got it made, your record's in the hit parade and they don't realize your problem now is getting the next hit or whatever."