Phil Lynott (Bass/Vocals)

Scott Gorham (Guitars)

Brian Robertson (Guitars)

Brian Downey (Drums)

This track has the famous intro by Phil:

"Has anyone got a little Irish in them? Are there any girls who'd like a little more Irish in them? This is Emerald."

"This song features the incredible solo by Brian Robertson, which was a solo Gary More played originally in 1974 on the 'Nightlife' album". I read somewhere that Robertson said that he would never be able to better the version played by Gary Moore. John Sykes plays his version on Live/ Life and I read somewhere that he said that he would always hand his guitar to Robbo for the song.

Written during Thin Lizzy's US tour in October 1977. Firsy played at Boston on 23rd October 1977 and has remained an integral part of Lizzy's live set ever since. Planned as a live single originally in 1977, it was promoted as the main track of the 'Killers Live' EP in 1981, with two appearances on Top of the pops.

A. Recorded live at Seneca College, Toronto, 28th October 1977. Lynott, Downey, Robertson, Gorham. Live and Dangerous album. 2'43".

B. Recorded live at the Rainbow, London, 29th March 1978. Lynott, Downey, Robertson, Gorham, Live and Dangerous video. 2'43"1st solo:Gorham; 2nd solo:Robertson.

C. Recorded  live outside the Sydney Opera House, 29th October 1978. Lynott, Moore, Gorham, Nauseef. The Boys are back In town Video (Austrailian release). 2'30".

D. Recorded live in RDS, Dublin 7th June 1980. Lynott, Downey, Gorham, White, Wharton. Killers  LiveEP

1st solo:Gorham; 2nd solo:Moore.

E. Live probably at Hammersmith Odeon. 12th March 1983. Lynott, Downey, Gorham, Wharton, Sykes. Life album 3'00"

1st solo:Gorham; 2nd solo:Sykes.

(An excerpt from an interview with Snowy Whiteon the Friday Rock Show,BBC Radio 1, 10th January 1986)

(Snowy says:) "We used to always kick off with 'Are You Ready', which is really a great song to kick off with. I used to enjoy running out on stage and going into that number."

This song only appeared on 'Live and Dangerous'. The song was part of the live set where Phil would introduce the band. This was mainly in the Gorham/Robertson lineup.

Ah now, this - this is a little more like it!

Not only is this the eagerly awaited Lizzy double live album, easily the best live rock album since the Feelgood’s "Stupidity", but it almost single handedly vindicates that hoariest battering ram of current crit cliché razor jobs: the trouncing of the live double album package. 

Because "Live and Dangerous" is the goods - that thrilling aural documentary that not only captures all the muscle, dynamism, cut and thrust and gorgeous brainplate scouring of being right there on the spot, but also - indefinitely more exiting - one of those of so precious ‘live' albums that captures rock action at it’s purest, most senses-pillaging transcendant ascendant - thus joining a lofty pantheon shared only by the likes of the Stones "Get Your Ya Ya’s" (not their "Love You Live" set), Jerry Lee Lewis’s "Greatest Show On Earth" and Dylan Albert Hall tapes.

"Live and Dangerous" is in fact a near perfect statement of intent by what is right now the best hard rock band in the world. It’s certainly the band’s finest recording yet - mating most of their finest songs with that positively lethal style of firepower hyper-drive they’ve mastered from the years of amping it out and honing it all down to the needle point, jugular stab passion-shots that have in turn made them the audaciously  live band they are.

The ingredients are easy enough to divine: a rock-steady granite-like anchor of a rhythm section providing a deadly pulse for the finest twin lead guitar duo ever (so good these days they cut even the legendary Duanne Alman / Dickey Betts pairing of aoens past to shreds)...

But that’s only half the story if that. The real  Lizzy ace up the sleeve is the material. Phil Lynott is a superb rock and roll songwriter, matching consistently riveting chord progressions - these the perfect epic sequences for the Robertson / Gorham gymnastics - that often borrow from classic hard rock and heavy metal riffing but have a classicly disarming twist to them, an edge that bites like a rabid dog, matching them to lyrics that while hardly ‘profound’ still posses an agreeably florid romantic pitch.

Plus Lynott is a dynamic singer. Comparisons with Springsteen have often been made, but I’ve always believed that Lynott has outclassed the latter as a vocalist to the point where his self assertive dynamism (which consistently helps transcend the often dubious aspects in his ‘narrative’ lyrics and particularly the jive boy, semi-obnoxious braggadocio stance so noticeable in, say "The Rocker") has made Springsteen’s style of earnest, deep throated vocals sound positively leaden by comparison.

OK, so the ingredients have been acknowledges - now the product boasting their presence. "Live and Dangerous" has three sides of dazzling tour de force hard rock that never, never lets up for a second: hard rock that stands the very epitome of the term. The all important stationing of the mobile sound studio is perfect (a factor so, so many other bands recording live fall to even take into consideration) so that the full muscle of the band is there, flexing out superb performance after superb performance - and you’re there between them and the audience. The whole experience on all the potency of An Event as well.

The pacing of the repertoire is also superb. From the opening cut and thrust of "Jailbreak" through the heroics of "Emerald" , the irrepressible swagger of "Southbound" and side one’s imperious rock out of Bob Segar’s "Rosalie" , there are no gaps, no fillers (just the goods delivered and performed in definitively fine fettle.

Side two takes care of the business with a spry reading of "Dancing in the Moonlight" before Lizzy’s rock warrior stance is given full throttle vent with "Massacre" and a passionate, affectingly sensitive rendition of "Still In Love With You" , where Brian Robertson’s guitar solo demonstrates all the grace, grandeur and melodious panache that other, indefinitely more prestigious players (and here I’m thinking of Jimmy Page, in particular) simply don't supply. A sly sleazy version of "Johnny the Fox" leaps out with impish sure-footedness in every bar.

Events reach a peak on side three, which stands in toto as being as gorgeous a celebration of hard rock heroism as I can recall. "Cowboy Song" starts off with a deftly imitable sway that just wills you to be moved, sweeping off as it does with a slice of audience participation that never gets out of hand - and just as the song’s about to end, there’s a sudden magic chord before the band storm into "The Boys Are Back In Town" . It’s such a damned exhilarating moment that it defies mere description (as do all of the true rock epiphanies); you just feel it thrashing your pleasure centers into shreds.

But even after this spine snapping thrill, the fireworks are not yet even halfway over, as only two seconds after "Boys" concludes, the Lizzies blitzkrieg into "Don't Believe A Word" and it sounds - God - even better, "Warriors" is up next, a new song in "Are You Ready?" which thunders along like God himself setting up shop for the apocalypse, and the listener has been repeatedly KO’d into the kind of frenzy that is the very essence of rock mania. A savage concoction, all told.

Unfortunately side four chalks up a few minus dockets, these due to the implementation of (a) one fairly duff song in "Suicide" (b) "Sha-La-La" a piece that concedes to some of the tiresome ploys - extended solos et al - that the band elsewhere so staunchly stayed clear of, thereby granting the preceding sides such a corporate ferocity. and (c) "Baby Drives Me Crazy", little more than an excuse for tedious audience rabble- rousing with nothing of any musical merit to back it up.

But even when you’ve decided that this is only 75% proof killer and that side four is a turkey, the band abruptly belt into a finale of "The Rocker", performing this classic with such unrelenting locomotion that it virtually obliterates the trace of all that immediately went before. And you’re right back in the throes of the mania that kept you entranced on that stupendous third side. God knows, this band is nothing if not irrepressible and to pour more superlatives on the fire would be, to say the least, redundant.

One important point though - Lizzy are now easily the the best mainstream hard rock band, as I’ve said, in the world and this is the clincher. This band should be huge - not merely big but HUGE - because they have more power in one bass pedal than all the others geriatric behemoths who are currently shifting like we shit beans.

It’s not merely the new wave onslaught we should be concerned with - but also getting Lizzy up there to give the likes of Led Zeppelin, and the Stones even, a kick off the pedestal.

Meanwhile "Livea and Dangerous" is as hot as they come, and as hot as it gets. Lizzy have always played like warriors and this is the album made by heroes.

For your Listening Pleasure. What more could you possibly ask for?