Thin Lizzy Song FAQ Site

Produced by John Alcock

(Jailbreak reached UK # 10, US # 18, Sept, 1976)

Philip Lynott - Bass/Vocals

Scott Gorham - Guitar

Brian Robertson - Guitar

Brian Downey - Drums

1. Jailbreak (4:01)

(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)

" 'Jailbreak' was probably the first album where we took the time to talk about the songs before we recorded them. We'd spend about six weeks rehearsing while everyone brought in thoughts and suggestions. With the song itself it was love at first sight, due to the hard edged guitar-riff and the great lyrics. That was the song that fitted the best to our image, which we tried to protect throughout our carrier. Bottom line, this was a very characteristic song for the album."

2. Angel From the Coast (3:03)

(Excerpt from Black Rose Magazine issue #8, the article was compiled by Adam Winstanley and Guitar solo info by Jon Sutherland)

Studio recording. Lynott, Downey, Robertson, Gorham. Jailbreak album 3'4"

Guitar solo: Brian Robertson

Also released as the b-side to the Cowboy Song single in USA and Canada.

Played live only during the Jailbreak tours of Britain and America, spring 1976.

(Excerpt from Black Rose Magazine issue #8, the article was compiled by Adam Winstanley and Guitar solo info by Jon Sutherland)

This is a number written about Scott by Brian and myself (Phil Lynott, Chicago 21st May, 1976).

(An excerpt from the book 'Thin Lizzy' written by Larry Pryce in 1977)

"Phil had read a book about the Mafia and had been listening to Scott who was telling him about the ideas of the old Mafioso Dons. The whole idea was of this professional hit woman moving into this boarding house, making a really top class hit, and then moving out again. The 'charge' could refer either to murder or the smoke. Phil tries a lot of the time to leave a large amount of the interpretation up to the listener, which he thinks is important, as the listener plays a big part in creating the imagery as well."

(Another excerpt from the book ' Thin Lizzy' written by Larry Pryce in 1977)

Phil is sure that every Irishman has a drunk friend. Apart from the lyrical references on 'Angel From the Coast' Phil has done songs before about alcoholism because he thinks it's a very Irish problem. in England he thinks the problem seems to be more of a sex thing..."

3. Running Back (3:13)

(Excerpt from Sounds, October 16, 1976)

(Phil says:) "...if somebody asked me about 'Running Back' off the ' Jailbreak' album, the chorus lines are all derived from the years I spent listening to Van Morrison; nobody asked me about that."

(Excerpt from New Musical Express, November 6th, 1976)

(Q:) "Who first turned you on to rock when you were a kid?"

(Phil says) "Van Morrison, the song 'Running Back' is very much influenced by Van. I really like that song. I used to go to Van's gigs in Ireland. He was the one one who was happening in England, he was with Them at the time."

4. Romeo and the Lonely Girl (3:55)

I met someone from Dublin who told me something about this song. He happened to meet a man in a wheelchair in Dublin who knew Philip. He told me that this Man in the wheel chair had a nice looking girlfriend and Philip would call him 'Romeo and the Girlfriend'. This Man in the wheelchair later heard the song 'Romeo and the Lonely Girl' when it came out and understandably thought that Phil had him in mind because of the song's title. The verse in the song '...never judge lovers by good looking covers....' was the part of the song that he felt most referred to him.

(This excerpt is from an article from Melody Maker called "Irelands' Own" which appeared in 5-01-77)

"...'Romeo and the Lonely Girl' where he puzzled many by using the word 'oneo' to rhyme with Romeo. Debasing the English language, many thought, but it's a word used a lot in Ireland, derived from a street skipping song."

5. Warriors (4:09)

(Submitted by Phil Osborne)

"Warriors" is about great guitarists who had died ; Hendrix, Allman etc.
From live tapes.

6. The Boys Are Back In Town (4:27)

(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)

"A nice song. It was one of the 16 or 18 songs we recorded for the 'Jailbreak' album. At that time we needed to decide what tracks would be on the album and what ones we would skip. We loved this song but at that time we had doubts whether we would put it on the album or not. I personally thought the lyrics were better than the music, Phil did a great job. Then our manager decided this was fantastic song and definitely should be on the album, we all consented. The rest is history, it was a top 5 hit in the US and made the Jailbreak album platinum. Sometimes you're so closely involved with writing songs you can't give an objective opinion about them anymore, you can't see the strong points and the weak spots anymore. You need someone outside the band to give their perspective, but anyway I'm very happy the song made the album !"

(Excerpts from an article that appeared in New Musical Express, April 9th, 1977)

"As far as Lynott is concerned, 'The Boys are Back In Town" is an update of Townsend's 'The Kids Are Alright'."

"...one of the few classic street songs. It was 1976's summer record."

"Lynott is proud of this achievement. It was inspired, he says, by both Manchester United supporters and a bunch of Manchurian tearaways called the Quality Street Gang. He reckons the message is pretty universal."

" 'Every street gang in the whole western world can identify with 'The Boys Are Back In Town,' he claims."

(Phil says) "It's a song where there's no chicks involved, just the lads out for a night on the town Getting wrecked on a Friday night and going to the match the next day."

(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:) "I came up with the rough outline and then I think it was Brian Robertson or Scott...I’m not sure who came up with the guitar riff over it. But I think that’s one of the things Thin Lizzy always tried to do was to have a song and put the riffs to the song, rather than make riffs."

"I had most of the lyrics done to that for ages and I couldn’t get the hook line, I couldn’t get ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ line and yet it sounds really natural, I was callin’ it ‘G.I. Joe is Back’ , ‘The Kids Are Back in Town’ and then I thought it was like ‘The Who’, you know, ‘The Kid’s Are Allright’ "

"And you’d think that ‘The Boys...’ would come to me, it wouldn’t but I couldn’t think....I knew it had to be someone back in town and I was goin’ around for about a week just waiting, and I knew when it’d come to me it’d be right but I couldn’t think it, I was wrekin’ me brains. It was a case of overthinkin’ . And somebody said to me one day ,’The boys are playin’ at such and such.’. That’s it!! I just went mad in front of this guy and he’s going ‘Wha??!!’. I’m just going mad, it’s OK. That was the ‘Boys Are Back In Town’. That was the word I was looking for."

7. Fight Or Fall (3:45)

(Excerpt from Sounds, April 14, 1979)

(Phil says) " 'Fight Or Fall' was definitely to the Brothers, to the Black Brothers. It's saying that a Black Man should definitely stand up for his rights, and not take any snidey remarks and insults and bad living conditions."

8. Cowboy Song (5:16)

(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)

"We just ended the US tour and everyone had fallen in love with Texas, especially Phil, who went bezerk in Dallas and Houston. When the tour ended we went straight to the recording studio and Phil wrote 'Cowboy Song'. I think it was a salute to the Texas audience because they've given us such a great welcome. I thought it was awesome, since I'm an American and never had been in Texas before. The first time we toured in the US was also the first time for me I visited several States. I'm from California and I remember when we arrived in New York for the first time The band asked me 'Ok, this is your country, where can we go for a beer in New York ?'. I didn't know, I had never been there."

9. Emerald (4:03)

It's no secret Phil loved Irish history, and no one knew more about it than himself. He used to tell us old Irish tales whenever we went to Ireland. He often wrote songs about it and 'Emerald' is a good example of that.

'Down from the glens came the fighting men with their shields and their swords.'

Excellent what he wrote there. Americans don't know a lot about their history but the English and Irish know everything about their country. Phil was proud to be Irish and especially proud to be able to write Irish songs but he did it his own way. He wrote with vengeance about certain Irish issues, 'Emerald' is an perfect example.

(This excerpt is from an article from Melody Maker called "Irelands' Own" which appeared in 5-01-77)

(Q:) "Was emerald referring to any specific time in Irish history?"

(Phil says) "No, I was just thinking of a generalization. That's why I said 'Down from the glen came the marchin' men with their shields and their swords.' It was just to show that violence has been going on for years. You could almost relate it any period of time."

"There's a part in the song where you hear the nice side of the Emerald isle, the nice melody, then it's back into the battle of the guitars. It's a really a simple concept."

(Excerpt from Sounds, April 14, 1979)

"But watch tem on a song like 'Emerald' when Lynott becomes the warrior leading a mighty avenging army and out in front of a couple of thousand hands flash skywards volunteering to leave homes, families and shit hole jobs and sign up in some volunteer force that'll rid the world of evil : that is Lizzy, no answers, no alternatives, just plain old fashioned Rock dream..."

(The following submitted by Alan Helfner, who went through a bunch of traditional Irish music records and found it pretty amazing how many pieces of these songs he pored over landed up in some way, shape or form in Thin Lizzy songs)

"Emerald" paraphrases a line from the opening verse of "McAlpine's Fusiliers":

"As down the glen came McAlpine's men, with their shovels slung behind them..."