ALL GREAT SONGS - an exceptional, superb album***
The first Thin Lizzy album I bought (on vinyl!). It is a great album -- every bit as good as the legendary "Live and Dangerous" album. There is not a bad track on it. My album had a different cover picture (UK edition vs USA?). As far as songs go, Ballad of the Hardman is great hard rocker ("I've been beat up, cut up, told 'sit down and shut up', but I'm a hard man" - got to love it! "They have a scheme to sell your dreams to silver screens and glossy magazines."). Spirit Slips Aways is a beautiful, sensitive and soulful song "...that fateful day when your spirit slips away..." -- a contrast that somehow does not seem out of place. Brian Robertson is a wonderful and melodic, soulful player who provides a perfect foil to Phils vocals. Scott Gorham is also wonderful of course. The Freedom Song is rousing -- suprisingly powerful and soulful. I could go on but the point is, every song here is very strong and can stand alone. Definitely buy this one. Highly recommended.
Criminally neglected album from a criminally neglected band.
"Fighting" is a classic mid '70's hard rock album, often overshadowed by its immediate follow-up "Jailbreak". However I feel "Fighting" is the slightly better record. Bob Seger's "Rosalie" gives the LP a great lift off which an outstanding combination of acoustic and electric guitars and Philip's gutwrenchingly emotional vocal work as he pines for his 'favorite little record girl'. Other highlights include "Suicide", the first song to really demonstrate the awesome guitar partnership of Robertson and Gorham, "Ballad of a Hard Man", the title song, and "Spirit Slips Away". Irish balladry reigns supreme on "Wild One" and "Freedom Song". Does this record get any airplay?? Of course not Philip Lynott's legacy will always be as a great rock romantic whether corporate America chooses to recognize this fact or not. "Fighting" rules so stop buying the Eagles Greatest Hits and Led Zeppelin IV for God's sake!!
Just blow me away!!!
First, let me state that the UK album cover of "Fighting" is much cooler. (Very punkish looking, and if you listen to some of the album's tracks like "Ballad of the Hard Man", "Suicide", and "Fighting My Way Back", very appropriately. Like somebody else wrote, these guys were way ahead of their time).This, the first album featuring the classic lineup of Phil Lynott, Brian Downey, Scott Gorham, and Brian Robertson, is a high water mark in music to me. From the first time I heard them, the twin guitar sound of Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham grabbed me, and etched itself permanently on my brain. And that sound started with this album. I would put it just a notch below their next 4 studio albums (chronologically), Jailbreak, Johnny the Fox, Bad Reputation, Black Rose, but it is still a five star effort.
"Just blow me away!"
(That's the last lyric Phil blasts on the blistering final cut "Ballad of the Hard Man")
Some useless sidenotes, on the album version, "King's Vengeance" and "Spirit Slips Away" run into each other without a break. Why couldn't they do that on the CD? (Sounds trivial, but I grew up accustomed to it being that way). And further, the live version of "Suicide" on "One Night Only" really kicks. (But not as good as the original version heard here, with Brian. Great stuff).
the best
i read that this album originally only sold 10,000 copies on release! jeez! that's over five billion people that didn't buy it!
well bully for them; tracks like 'wild one' and 'spirit slips away' are the moodiest, darkest, most melancholic rock songs you'll ever hear. and if you don't like shoe-gazing skip to rosalie.
Brilliant, intelligent rock album, great lyrics
This apparently little known album is my favorite rock album. While "Live and Dangerous" is perhaps the best known Thin Lizzy album and the best rock album ever (failing that the best live album and/or the best double album), this album is every bit as inspired. There is not much overlap with Live and Dangerous either (just Rosalie & Suicide) and one is live -- so you should buy both albums (yes, really).
Every song is a highlight with great, memorable lyrics: the Freedom Song (inspiring), Ballad of the Hard Man ("I've been beat up, cut-up, told 'sit down' and 'shut up' ... but I'm a hardman", "They've got a scheme to sell your dreams to silver screens and glossy magazines" - got to love it!), For those who love to live ("you gotta take a little bit of hate from those who love to live. Take that hate..."). For me, this is better than the other Lizzy albums, including the highly acclaimed Jailbreak album. Awesome harmony guitar work and wah-colored leads from Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham decorating Phil Lynotts unique and wonderful lyrics -- Thin Lizzy at their very best. Not forgetting the Brian Downey's distinctive and inventive use of unusual rhythm changes and Phil's pushed melodies and "lazy" vocals. Awesome.
1996 digitally remastered version of the bands 1975 album on Mercury/Vertigo Records.
