Phil Lynott/Thin Lizzy

[westen44]

I found both of these articles to be interesting.  Also, besides Phil Lynott there is a brief reference to Eric Bell who I like. 

https://www.loudersound.com/features/mr-lonely-heart-the-tragic-death-of-thin-lizzys-phil-lynott

https://ultimateclassicrock.com/thin-lizzy-hall-of-fame-reasons/

[Basvarken]

His father Cecil Parris was not from Brazil. He was from British Guyana.

[westen44]

People are always making mistakes about Brazil.  The most common being that they think Spanish is spoken there instead of Portuguese.  I used to have some really good Brazilian friends and they would talk about all the misconceptions.  In this case, Brazil shouldn't have been mentioned at all.

[uwe]

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).

[Basvarken]

As a child of a black father and a white Irish mother Philip was quite an exotic figure in the Dublin of the fifties and sixties. And also in the predominantly white world of hard rock he was an exotic figure.
He was a man of contrast. From the fierce rocker to the sentimental poet. That is what made him so unique I think.
Indeed his lyrics where miles above the usual hard rock lyrics. He did write about chicks and bikes, but always with a clever and/or funny twist.
I have both his poetry books. They're actually all just lyrics of (later) songs. None of the poems in those books were never put to music.

Oh and Uwe, speaking of the Hendrix comparison, I cant believe you missed the opportunity to mention Blackmore.
https://www.loudersound.com/features/baby-face-the-supergroup-that-almost-was

[Dave W]

i never heard of any racial issues with Phil or Thin Lizzy in the US.

[westen44]

i never heard of any racial issues with Phil or Thin Lizzy in the US.

Neither have I.  Not even once. 

[uwe]

I went out of my way not to mention that Baby Face session because I only wanted to write nice things - besides we've been over that before!

To be fair, Blackmore is a hard taskmaster as regards bassists, he expects them to be able to double most of what he does. He is also not a patient teacher - Glover said that one big difference between Morse and Blackmore is that the former will patiently take hours to show you something and encourage you along while Blackmore would sniff at you and leave if you didn't get it right immediately (something apparently only Hughes of all DP bassists could easily do though he never ever practiced, but would just grab his bass and nonchalantly repeat what Blackmore played to him).





That kind of fast "riff-doubling" was never Lynott's forte, he didn't need it for Thin Lizzy whose music is lot less riff-driven than Purple's. Lizzy is about melodies and chords, not those monolithic Blackmore riffs that stood for Deep Purple.

I wouldn't be surprised if young Phil suffered from nerves at those sessions too. Thin Lizzy were a young band with a novelty hit (Whiskey in the Jar) while Blackmore and Paice were around that time already rock royalty regularly leading the best guitarist and drummer polls. Phil was probably in awe.

And he was in good company: At one point, Blackmore has considered Nick Simper, Roger Glover, Craig Gruber, Jimmy Bain, and Mark Clarke all "not good enough" as bassists for his whims. He was a fan of the late John Glascock and his work in Carmen though



(obviously bass playing in another league, watch him at 0:27-32), but John preferred the offer from Ian Anderson to join Jethro Tull rather than the one for Rainbow.

[wellREDman]

the only racial connection I ever heard was when a radio interviewer asked him what it felt like to be black and Irish and he replied "like Guinness"

[uwe]

Brilliant answer.

[westen44]

I don't know much about Pete Townshend's contact with Phil Lynott.  But if he is going to talk the way about Jimi Hendrix as he does in this article, I don't know why he bothered to participate in such a conspicuous way in the unveiling of the English Heritage blue plaque ceremony for Hendrix in London years ago.  Since it's obvious that he didn't care for Hendrix, he should have just declined that invitation.  There is way more I could say in regard to Townshend/Hendrix, but I don't want to belabor the point.  But saying one thing in front of the cameras and something else away from them just doesn't cut it for me.  This contrasts to what others have said about Jimi Hendrix.  Some of them would say the real person was the one off the stage.  The real person had a sense of humor, joked a lot and was even often shy.  Watch interviews with Chas Chandler.  I think he knew more about Hendrix than Pete Townshend does.  Maybe Townshend never quite got over the confrontation between him and Hendrix before the bands got on the stage at Monterey. 

Townshend has never been one of my favorite guitarists.  However, I will agree with what he said about "I Can See For Miles."  He thought it was way underrated.  I think it was a rock music masterpiece. 

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/music/pete-townshend-i-woke-up-with-a-needle-in-my-arm-and-phil-lynott-standing-there-1.4072072