No need to worry, Rob, I'll say something nice!
Phil Lynott was noteworthy for a couple of things:
- He consistently sang baritone in a hard rock band at a time when falsetto screaming was the thing to do.
- He didn't write merely escapist lyrics about dungeons and demons, fast cars and chicks, but very songwriterish, even poetic observations.
- Even an overt hit such as "Boys are back in town" is untypical for hard rock in its chord construction. It's actually more lounge jazzy than anything.
I don't remember his black background playing much of a role in the 70ies
in Europe, I think that is being overplayed now (I'm not belittling his encounters with racism in Dublin as a child and youth) - yes, he was perceived as "the black Irishman", but with the emphasis on Irishman, not his skin. He didn't have a traditional black voice nor was his bass playing or songwriting particularly black (he was a lot less black than Glenn Hughes in all three departments).
I do remember some comparisons to Hendrix in his frontman role (it probably was more due to the 'fro than anything, Phil and Jimi don't look similar to me at all, a penchant for historic uniform style jackets excepted), but more often to Bruce Springsteen (which Phil took as a compliment:
"I think he's great, it's an honor to be compared to him.") in his lyrical approach.
Things might have been different in America - with the schism between black and white radio, but I never heard that Thin Lizzy had issues getting on white radio or that Phil was perceived as a traitor by black Americans for playing to a strictly white boy (& girl) audience - hell, he was a European, not a "brother".
Anyway, he deserves to be in the RRHF and knowing him and his thirst for being accepted as a musician, I'm sure he would appreciate the honor.
For some reason, I always liked this song ... for the lyrics (teenage pregnancy), the harmonies, the sparse arrangement, the unusual interplay between drums and bass (the way he places the notes on this particular song does remind me of how a young Sting would play on those early Police albums),
it's kind of like a predecessor to the much later "Sun goes down" (which is another classic).