what a great album!
i love all thin lizzy's stuff because the music is always top notch and the lyrics are always so sincere (even if they're almost corny sometimes!) in the mid 70's we used to swim in valley forge park everyday and listen to "jailbreak" and to this day whenever i hear anything off that record it reminds me of those days! i saw lizzy on this tour and they opened with soldier of fortune. they played opium trail and almost all of the "live and dangerous" album too! but everything here is classic, southbound, dear lord, bad reputation, it's all good! the greatest thing about thin lizzy is that they have an album to fit whatever mood you're in! get this one!
KILLER ALBUM
Thin Lizzy was once again a threesome on Bad reputation thanks to Brian Robbo Robinson's out of control behavior that one way or another forced him outta the band. While he did provide some guitar licks, the majority of riffs, solos, and killer leads are done by Scott Gorham. The quiet one in this bunch, he steps out of the shadow of Robbo and lays down some of Lizzy's best riffs ever with the title track, Opium Trail, and Killer Without A Cause. Phil Lynott is in fine lyrical and vocal form, penning some great slow numbers like South Bound and Dancing In The Moonlight. This is one of the band's finest albums and the tour and live album that follwed are absolutely sensational.
Dear Lord, it doesn't get any better
I can't think of another band that influenced me in my youth the way these guys did. I consider them the best rock band of all. I know Phil wrote the occasionally awful line, and at times the songs were just downright peculiar ("S & M" off "Black Rose" comes to mind), but the unique sound and look of the band set them apart, and gave them a unique, singular voice. Here is Thin Lizzy again offering very diverse material, songs that kick you in your butt ("Bad Reputation", "Opium Trail", "Soldier of Fortune" and "Killer Without A Cause"), what could be considered religious songs ("Downtown Sundown" and "Dear Lord", songs I find incredibly heartfelt, beautiful, and at times, awkward. God bless you, Phil), and pop songs with great guitar licks ("Southbound", "That Women's Gonna Break Your Heart" and "Dancing in The Moonlight", my least favorite track on the album). Not what you would expect from what everyone was saying was a "hard rock" band.
When I consider that Thin Lizzy released the following 4 STUDIO albums consecutively...."Jailbreak" (1976), "Johnny the Fox" (1976), "Bad Reputation" (1977) and "Black Rose" (1979), and when I listen to them now, scratches and all, ....I think that Thin Lizzy is still my favorite rock band, and I wish to god I could play guitar like Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson, and be as cool as Phil Lynott. These 4 albums are rock nirvana to me.
If push came to shove, I consider "Bad Reputation" their best album. It is more Scott Gorham than Brian Robertson, and for that,I give it up to Scott Gorham. But I wish the two would have stayed together, especially when you hear them together on "That Woman's Gonna Break Your Heart".
My biggest regret was not seeing them on November 1st, 1977 at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee WI, in support of this album. I was 14 at the time, and Thin Lizzy wasn't as popular as some of the other bands back then. Nobody really wanted to go to the show with me, and when your 14 you don't really feel comfortable going alone. As such, I never got the chance to see this band live, in person. But I hear that Scott Gorham and John Sykes have their version of Thin Lizzy touring this summer (with a date in my hometown, no less. Maybe I can fly there to see them).
FACTS.
Message to Pitchulo and cd-heaven (see more about me) from Poontang Heaven. Brian Robertson played lead on opium trail and killer without a cause.
Message to A music fan from Silver Spring, Maryland USA. Phil Lynott died of a drugs overdose.
Thin Lizzy strike again!
If you compare most rock bands of today with Thin Lizzy, it would be obvious that Lizzy were far more talented, creative and skilful. The lyrics by Phil Lynott are usually very good and it's not just empty words that sound cool or right to a particular song. Thin Lizzy had the ability to play anything from the hardest rock ("Bad reputation") to the most melodic and emotional pieces ("Dancing in the moonlight"). On this album, there's plenty of great songs that never gained the attention they deserve, "Southbound", "That woman's gonna break your heart", and "Dear Lord" are all in the line of the finest Thin Lizzy ever recorded.
That much rock & roll excess and that little sleep--it would be enough to ruffle anyone. Thus Thin Lizzy decamped to Canada to unwind from a year of incident and illness. There they produced Bad Reputation, which sounds, if not exactly laid-back, then at least damn smooth. Phil Lynott was confident enough to loosen Lizzy's atomic boogie and open his writing to jazz and folk influences, while the band, despite shifting membership, sound tighter than ever, playing with a new delicacy and thoughtfulness. Scott Gorham emerged here as a genuinely original guitarist, Tony Visconti's production sharpens the edges, and the title track, "Southbound," and "Dancing in the Moonlight" are among Lizzy's best. --Taylor Parkes
Digitally remastered reissue of the legendary Irish rock group's 1977 album. Features the original cover art & all nineof the original cuts, including the hits 'Bad Reputation' and 'Dancing In The Moonlight'. 1996 release.
