Thin Lizzy: Hollywood
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Seventies hard rock icons Thin Lizzy sound so americanized in songs like classic radio staple The Boys Are Back In Town, with blazing riffs, driving drums, and stereotypically anony-metal vocal accents, it's easy to forget that bassist, primary songwriter, and lead singer Phil Lynott formed the band in his native Dublin. Late-career album Renegade, which came out in the early eighties, is not always considered the most cohesive remnant of their sound, but the core that made them famous is still there in spades in Hollywood.
Certainly, the early-era Thin Lizzy version of traditional Irish pubsong Whiskey In The Jar would seem to better befit our theme. The '73 release was, after all, their first real hit on the European charts. And adoption of a tradsong fits the founder's backstory: Lynott - born of an Irishwoman and an African-Brazillian father, and as such, one of few black men to make it in the world of hard rock - was born and died in England, but he was raised by his Irish grandparents, and always identified himself as such. But fittingly, the band itself generally disdained the cover, claiming it was not representative of their sound or their image. See if you agree.
Thin Lizzy: Whiskey In The Jar
[purchase]
