GREAT IRISH BANDS, PART 23: THIN LIZZY/PHIL LYNOTT
Mar 16th, 2008 by Conor McCabe
There’s an old photograph of Dan that I wish you could-a seen
Of him and the boys posed, standing in St. Stephen’s Green
Ya see, they were a part of the great freedom dream
But they were caught and detained and are locked inside the frame
of the photograph (Shades of a blue orphanage)
It took me a while to appreciate Thin Lizzy, mainly because one of my brothers was into them and my brothers - apart from Ger - had god awful taste in music. At least, that’s that I thought when I was twelve. By the time I was fourteen I had grown to like Thin Lizzy, and to love Phil Lynott. My brothers, well, that took a bit longer.
It’s hard to explain, but for me Phil Lynott is Dublin. The city seeped from him, from everything he did, from the way he moved and talked and looked. It’s hard to think of Phil Lynott coming from anywhere else but Dublin, and even at that, from anywhere else but a Dublin corporation estate. The city was such a part of him, and him of it. This mutual love same together in one of Phil Lynott´s finest moments, Old Town and its subsequent video. It’s a perfect pop song, the Sargent Pepper horn coming in just at the right moment. Sheer class.
The song was covered somewhat recently by the Coors, who should have been clubbed to death for what they did to it.
No matter, here’s the original.
Enjoy.
The band’s name also has its origins in a very particular Dublin joke; they were initially going to call themselves Tin Lizzy, after the Model-T Ford, of course, but then they reckoned that they could add a ‘h’ without affecting the pronunciation of the name in Dublin.
That´s right! I forgot about that. Cheers seanachie.
Love ‘Old Town’ too - even love that cheapo video - it’s nearly like newsreel footage these days - I lived in that f@@@ing Dublin (early 80s) but it seems like such a distant place to the city I go back to now. (What boozer is it BTW - is it the Long Hall ? or one of the Grafton St. ones ?)
Keep your baseball bat clean though Conor - and let those poor Corr lasses live - just try to forget their version ever existed.
For all his quintessential Dublinness - I don’t think Dublin wasn’t too tender with him (like our other great black pearl, Paul MacGrath). In both cases, the shit they had to put up with as kids later showed up in their tendancies to self destruct. And Lynott chose that most 80s Dublin of methods - fucking heroin….
The man had his demons, it is true. And being the only black kid in Crumlin in the 1960s and 1970s, that’s no easy gig. And I think the pub is the Long Hall alright.
What I absolutely loved, and continue to love, about Phil Lynott is the wonderful craftsmanship in his songs. Really, they’re so well constructed, and Old Town is just one example of that. It’s a song guaranteed to bring a sniffle and a tear to me. I think it’s simply marvellous.
Shite - I managed a double negative in my comment - that should read ‘I don’t think Dublin was….’ It’s those Corr wans that have me garbling my English. Lynott’s songs were certainly better crafted than my prose :->
Sean,
It’s the long hall alright. Hasn’t changed much since then either. Often have a scoop just at the same seat….
Thats not Pat B there is it ?? The greatest bassist Kilbarrack ever heard ?? If so - long time no hear, how’s tricks ?? … If not, how’s tricks anyhow and thanks for the answer.
Went by the Long Hall when back in Dublin there a fortnight ago - they seem to have given the outside a lick of paint and finally fixed up upstairs and the buildings either side… unfortunately, I wasn’t able to pop in for the pleasure of a mid-afternoon pint as they’d cut back the opening hours. I noticed this in a few other decent Dublin pubs (the Globe as well). Hope it isn’t the first stage before closing them….
though they couldn’t possibly close a gem like the Long Hall, could they ??
[…] Lynott and Lizzy featured, logically enough in one of Conor’s Great Irish Bands slots a while back : GIB N° 23 - Lizzy / Lynott […]