(In 1981, Renegade reached UK # 38 on Dec. 12 and on March 27 US # 157)
Phillip Lynott (Bass/Vocals)
Brian Downey (Drums)
Scott Gorham (Guitar)
Snowy White (Guitar)
1. Angel of Death (6:17)
About the predictions by a so called French prophet Nostrodomous who supposedly was able to foresee the future events of mankind.
(Here is an outtake from a Radio interview with Phil from Rock On, BBC Radio 1, 28th November 1981)
"The idea for the song came when I was reading the 'Prophecies of
Nostrodomous'. It's a very popular book in France now. Recently it's sales
have picked up because of the Cold War. He said that an 'Angel of Death'
would come and create a holocaust which everybody considers to be a
nuclear war."
(Here is another out take, this is also from a radio interview with Phil from Capitol Radio, 26th November 1981)
"I'd just finished reading the 'Prophecies of
Nostrodmous' and I thought it would be a good idea to write about that. So
I picked two great disasters that he prophesied and I gave the talking
piece where I ask people do they believe it. Then I talk about a personal
tragedy-a person watching his father die-a personal disaster and basically
the 'Angel of Death' coming down to destroy the world or to take you to
hell. It isn't full of humor and life is it?"
(Excerpt from Black Rose Magazine issue #8,
the article was compiled by Adam Winstanley and Guitar solo info by Jon
Sutherland)
A. Studio Recording. Lynott, Downey, Gorham, White, Wharton. Renegade album 6'17"
B. Live at Hammersmith Odeon, 27th November 1981. Lynott, Downey, Gorham, White, Wharton. 'Cold Sweat' 12" and double 7" single.
C. Live probably at Hammersmith Odeon, 12th March 1983, Lynott, Downey, Gorham, Wharton, Sykes. Life album 5'56.
Guitar solo: all three versions: Scott Gorham.
'Angel of Death' was premiered live in August 1981 when it's lyrics were rather different. The opening number of Thin Lizzy's live set during the 'Renegade' world tour of 1981/82, when it heralded the band on stage with the sound of air raid sirens. 'Angel of Death' was also an integral part of the 'Thunder and Lightning' set in1983. On the studio version Phil says "Oh my God there's millions of them!" during the opening notes and "I think they've gone now" during the fade out.
2. Renegade(6:08)
(An excerpt from "SFX Radio" Nov. 16, 1981)
(Phil says): "At the moment I like the title track, Renegade. It sounds like an aggressive number and really it’s about a Renegade from the inside."
(An excerpt from Capitol Radio, 26th November 1981)
(Q): "...in a moment I’d like to play the title track from the new album which you co-wrote called ‘Renegade' . Is it in any way...autobiographical?".
(Phil says): "I think, Yeah, obviously. What I was trying to do,Yes there is a Renegade in us all sort of thing. I got the idea, I seen a guy on a motorbike and he had a leather jacket and a denim piece over the leather jacket and he had a Motorhead patch on and he had a Thin Lizzy patch and underneath that he scrawled out himself ‘Renegade', I didn’t meet him he just passed us ...I thought it was a great, great thing, the Renegade."
"I just thought about a biker and a renegade and initially I was thinkin’ how would you write ‘renegade' Y’know, you think to come across as a real strong heavy hard rock sound ,cos that’s what the title sounds like. and then Snowy came up with this melody, Y’know the melody part and we’d been messin’ with the arrangement and I though if I gave...tried to work Renegade from the inside, Y’know to show what the rebelliousness within the song and how in some ways everybody is a bit of a .Renegade I would try to do it from the inside out rather that Y’know this brash, macho everything you think of when you think of...Thin Lizzy! Y’know that type of thing."
3. The Pressure Will Blow (3:47)
4. Leave This Town (3:49)
(An excerpt from Piccadilly Radio, Manchester UK, Nov. 28 1981)
(Q): "Would I be right in thinking that you got the idea for occasionally distorting your voice on tracks from ZZ Top?"
(Phil says): "Oh Yeah, the first track you played ‘Leave This Town’ , the minute I heard Scott play the riff, I went ‘That sounds like ZZ Top’ and I immediately sort of ripped off ZZ Top for all they’re worth, Y’know.n I’d rip off anybody if I could do it as well. If I could do it better, great. But if I could do it as well, yeah. and a couple of ideas did come from that. Recently I’ve been trying to work, even with the Fats track, I’ve been trying to go for the Bass and for the voice, the masculinity of the voice and use it Y’know, because there is not much you can do with a voice like mine except scream, Y’know so like I’ve been trying, especially on this album to go for lower parts of the voice I don’t use too often. Sometimes I try to sing real sweet Y’know."
(L to R) Scott Gorham, Phil Lynott, Snowy White, Brian Downey
5. Hollywood (Down On Your Luck) (4:10) (UK # 53, March 13, 1981)
(An out take from a Capitol Radio, 26th November 1981)
(Q): "There are two tracks with an American influence, ‘Hollywood (Down On Your Luck) and ‘Mexican Blood’...there seems to be a preoccupation with the American influence in this album, more so than before both in terms in the ways that you write and writing about America and also it would be fair to say that you are looking to the American market with this album, it’s far more focused than previous albums. Would you shoot me down in flames or agree with that?".
(Snowy White says): "I think...I don’t know if we’ve thought of that. I think it could’ve been aimed toward the American market truthfully but now you’ve said it, to me it’s good news, that’s all I can say."
(Phil says): "I thought it in mind, definitely, like say with a song like Hollywood (Down On Your Luck), it was a song that Scott had come up with, Y’know and the basics of the song Scott had come up with. Like, we’re always messin’ around with Scott and sayin’ , like because you put a camera on Scott and he’s posing. We always say to Scott, ‘You can take the boy out of Hollywood, but You can’t take Hollywood out of the boy’!"
"The idea for Hollywood was , I was tying to write how Scott doesn’t like New York, Y’know he’s from L.A. and there’s a rivalry between New York and L.A. and I just wanted to write what it would be like to be a Los Angelite broke in New York or in London. Obviously Scott went through that in London. I was trying to relate the song I was trying to do with Scott if you know what I mean?"
6. No One Told Him (3:36)
(An out take from a Capitol Radio, 26th November 1981)
(Phil says): "No one told him was like a little ditty, we just knocked it out. From the time I wrote it I just said to the boys, ‘This will make the album and be a strong track or forget it, use it as a B-side’. It was just one of them songs that just came as a complete piece."
"Most of the time I draw on the imagination and something that’s happened. I definitely always try to write about something that I experienced, imagined or whatever. Where the inspiration comes from I don’t know.
Graham Parker had an album called ‘Squezing Out the Sparks’ , really that’s what it’s like, you just sit around and wait. You just wait for that something to happen."
1. Fats (4:00)
(Submitted by Phil Osborne)
The song ' Fats' and Fat's Waller ? ( he's certainly mentioned "Waller, he didn't like that cat ...." ), and perhaps Fats Domino too; I don't think it is too specific about anyone.
(Here is an outtake from a Radio interview with Phil from Rock On, BBC Radio 1, 28th November 1981)
(DJ:) "That’s a track called ‘Fats' , you’ll find it on the new album by Thin Lizzy called ‘Renegade', I really like the keyboard solo on that, I also like the lyrics on that too! Freud and Fats Waller together in the same song."
(Phil says): "I was going to make up a great story, you know to give the tale of the song about when Sigmund Freud went to see Fats Waller and Fats Waller didn’t want to see him but of course they never met, as far as I know! I was going to tell a lie, but I’m telling the truth, that’s my New Years resolution.
"The idea was a simple one, I just thought ‘Thin Lizzy play Fats’, y’know and that is as corny as you can get and then the idea...I played a fretless Bass in it and it reminds me of ‘Dancing in the Moonlight’ to a certain extent with the Bass hook is predominant. The idea was a very simple one, to touch on the Jazz idiom."
(Scott says): "It makes you feel like you’re in some smoky little down home club with the smoke lingering down, guys in dark corners..."
8. Mexican Blood (3:41)
(An out take from a Capitol Radio, 26th November 1981)
(Phil says:) "Mexican Blood was a continuation of something like the Cowboy Song where I’m just influenced by old TV or Americana..."
9. It's Getting Dangerous (5:34)
(Here is an en excerpt from a tape of a Swedish Fan Club interview with Phil from 7/2/81)
(Q:) We heard a track on your new album, you have a song called "It’s Getting Dangerous For Us"
(Phil says:) Yeah, that’s a new idea I got at the moment.
(Q:) For the next album?
(Phil: says) I don’t know. It’s just a song at the moment called "It’s Getting Dangerous For Us" and just working on it, that idea...
(Q:) The name of the song is very interesting
(Phil says:) "Yeah, I wanted to use the word ‘dangerous’ in a song but I just had "Live and Dangerous" , I wanted it to sound different, you know what I mean? I didn’t want it to sound like I was milkin’ "Live and Dangerous" so all of a sudden this thing "It’s Getting Dangerous", You Know what I mean? And like that was the problem and I think I may have solved it!"