Bruce Springsteen’s Born to Run was released a year before this and it was said to influence this album. The album was Jailbreak and was the bands sixth album. It was their breakthrough album.
The album peaked at #18 in the Billboard Album Charts, #5 in Canada, and #10 in the UK in 1976. The album had three well known Thin Lizzy songs…The Boys Are Back In Town, Cowboy Song, and the title track.
The title track didn’t chart in America but it did peak at #31 in the UK in 1976.
Thin Lizzy was founded in Dublin in 1969 when Lynott and drummer Brian Downey left their group Orphanage to form a new band with musicians formally from the last incarnation of Van Morrison’s Them.
Thin Lizzy’s sound was made of Phil Lynotts songwriting and voice…along with the dual-guitar interplay of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson.
Jailbreak
Tonight there’s gonna be a jailbreak
Somewhere in this town
See me and the boys we don’t like it
So were getting up and going down
Hiding low looking right to left
If you see us coming I think it’s best
To move away do you hear what I say
From under my breath
Tonight there’s gonna be a jailbreak
Somewhere in the town
Tonight there’s gonna be a jailbreak
So don’t you be around
Don’t you be around
Tonight there’s gonna be trouble
Some of us won’t survive
See the boys and me mean business
Bustin’ out dead or alive
I can hear the hound dogs on my trail
All hell breaks loose, alarm and sirens wail
Like the game if you lose
Go to jail
Tonight there’s gonna be a jailbreak
Somewhere in the town
Tonight there’s gonna be a jailbreak
So don’t you be around
Tonight there’s gonna trouble
I’m gonna find myself in
Tonight there’s gonna be a jailbreak
So woman stay with a friend
You know it’s safer
Breakout!
Tonight there’s gonna be a breakout
Into the city zones
Don’t you dare to try and stop us
No one could for long
Searchlight on my trail
Tonight’s the night all systems fail
Hey you good lookin’ female
Come here!
Tonight there’s gonna be a jailbreak
Somewhere in the town
Tonight there’s gonna be a jailbreak
So don’t you be around
Tonight there’s gonna be trouble
I’m gonna find myself in
Tonight there’s gonna be trouble
So woman stay with a friend
this and of course “The boys are back in town” were the only two Thin Lizzy songs I knew growing up. Something about the song always suggested to me it could have been done by AC-DC if a little louder and faster.
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Funny you say that…AC/DC has a song called Jailbreak…with Bon Scott…thought quite different.
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Ironically enough AC/DC does have a song as well called Jailbreak!
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I was just telling Dave that! Quite different but Jailbreak all the same.
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Great track as this one local
Crap radio still plays on occasion along with TBABIT!
I need to do more of a deep dive into this catalog at some point
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My favorite by them is the “Cowboy Song” because I love when they kick in…it’s really cool… I also like their version of Whiskey in a Jar.
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Yep alot of good stuff. Such a great act really.
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When Thin Lizzy released Jailbreak, these boys weren’t just back in town, as this is when they started running it.
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Lynott always reminded me of a more rockier Van Morrison…the way he sings them.
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I’ve come to dig Thin Lizzy quite a bit. For the longest time, I had only known “Whiskey in the Jar.” For some reason, it took me much longer to explore their music beyond that tune. I love when they do harmony guitar playing. Whiskey and “The Boys Are Back in Town” are great examples.
As former bassist, I also like the fact this great band was led by a bassist, Phil Lynott. Not to mention his mixed racial background. Not something you see very often in rock!
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The Cowboy Song is great…I love how it builds up and explodes…they were a great hard rock group…Phil had a Van Morrison type feel to his phrasing also…
Yes he was a great bass player and yes…an Irish black bass player…he was perfect.
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Great song! The whole album is pretty good too. I love the guitar sound in this… I know nothing about guitars, but whatever they do with them here rocks!
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Glad you liked it…yes…Thin Lizzy does rock!
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I haven’t heard this in years.
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It’s a good one.
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