{"id":581240,"date":"2025-11-19T21:53:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T21:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/581240\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T21:53:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T21:53:16","slug":"the-song-that-saved-thin-lizzy-from-rock-and-roll-exile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/581240\/","title":{"rendered":"The song that saved Thin Lizzy from rock and roll exile"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Phil<\/p>\n

(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy)<\/p>\n

Wed 19 November 2025 19:16, UK <\/p>\n

In 1972, \u2018Whiskey In The Jar\u2019 landed Thin Lizzy<\/a> a monumental hit in their native Ireland, and while it travelled just fine, it was rubbing shoulders with strong international competition. Just a month earlier, classic albums like\u00a0On the Corner, Heavy Cream, Talking Book,\u00a0and\u00a0Stealers Wheel\u00a0had all flooded the chart at once.<\/p>\n

While the Watergate Scandal may have been stealing all the headlines and terrorism tragically crept into sport at the Munich Olympics, with David Bowie emerging as a startling force, Led Zeppelin still flourishing, and Lou Reed returning from the dark, the musical world was entering its most diverse chapter.<\/p>\n

In fact, music spun out in such a kaleidoscopic blur of colour and quality, like a light show scattered in a spectrum from a disco ball, that monolithic albums such as The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars peaked at a mere 75th in the US charts. <\/p>\n

Now, that might seem so incredulous that it could cause the nervous minded to fart, but when you consider that the Rolling Stones released Exile on Main St., Neil Young dropped Harvest<\/a>, Curtis Mayfield laid down the groove on Super Fly, Bill Withers put out arguably his best with Still Bill and Aretha Franklin unleashed one of the greatest live albums ever with Amazing Grace, people were hardly pining for, well, anything at all.<\/p>\n

Thus, Thin Lizzy joined other greats like blessed Bowie in the doldrums and were swamped under the melee of 1970s rock greatness. They were in debt to their label, naive, difficult to manage, and on the brink of being dropped. An ultimatum was given to the band: If the record Jailbreak flopped, then, as they say in America, \u201cthey were out on their ass!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Thin<\/a>Thin Lizzy in 1983. (Credits: Far Out \/ Steve Knight \/ Andy Weaver)<\/p>\n

After ongoing roster changes, disputes over \u201cnaff\u201d production and various other ailments, the band\u2019s failure to chart was a lingering concern. \u2018Whiskey in the Jar\u2019 might have risen to the top spot in their native Ireland and sixth in the UK, but its failure to chart anywhere else and an expenses tab to match any international band left the Lizzy in a perilous tizzy. Almost four years later, in March \u201876, they still had never really mustered a follow-up hit. Jailbreak was a make-or-break moment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u2018The Boys Are Back In Town\u2019 was the first single from the album, and almost instantly, they could happily declare: the rest, as they say, is history. The band were so used to chart failure that the success of such an eponymous rock hit took the band by surprise. As guitarist Scott Gorham told Classic Rock, \u201cWe were playing in some club in the US when our manager came in and said, \u2018Well, looks like we\u2019ve got a hit.\u2019 We were like, \u2018Which song?\u2019 Seriously, we didn\u2019t have any idea at all which song it was that had taken off for us.\u201d <\/p>\n

Before adding, \u201cTo tell you the truth, we weren\u2019t initially going to put \u2018The Boys Are Back In Town\u2019 on the Jailbreak album at all. Back then, you picked ten songs and went with those because of the time restrictions of vinyl.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recorded 15 songs, and of the 10 we picked, that wasn\u2019t one of them,\u201d Gorham added. \u201cBut then the management heard it and said, \u2018No, there\u2019s something really good about this song.\u2019 Although back then, it didn\u2019t yet have the twin guitar parts on it.\u201d But it did have something that seemed distinctly, well, rock \u2018n\u2019 roll, in an age when such purity was being subverted by their peers, leaving Lizzy in a lucrative void.<\/p>\n

As Hugh Cornwell recently told me, a lot of what determines a hit \u201call comes down to timing really.\u201d And while competition was still fierce in 1976, with Frank Zappa, ELO, Patti Smith, Wings, and Genesis all also releasing albums that March, none of them can really be said to have been full on boozy, bluesy rock. So, there was a window of opportunity, and they slid in like bandits in waiting. After years of failure, they were still filled with uncertainty, though. But they didn\u2019t need to be for long. <\/p>\n

Now, it seems unthinkable to perceive the song as anything other than a sure-fire hit. It is a track full of more testosterone than a bodybuilding contest and more leather-clad ego than a field of the most arrogant cows in Aberdeenshire. It is a drunken track that makes subtlety seem senseless and celebrates cliches, and with it, they hit the nail so firmly on the head that it is still lodged in the legend of weekend rock history to this day. <\/p>\n

Their contract was renewed, and they were allowed to rock on.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

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