{"id":669074,"date":"2026-01-02T13:49:13","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T13:49:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/669074\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T13:49:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T13:49:13","slug":"the-legendary-thin-lizzy-song-the-band-always-hated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/669074\/","title":{"rendered":"The legendary Thin Lizzy song the band always hated"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Phil<\/p>\n

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

Fri 2 January 2026 10:25, UK <\/p>\n

It sounds counter-intuitive that a rock band be annoyed by the success of a rock single, but in 1972, it turned out Thin Lizzy<\/a> were. Their take on the Irish classic \u2018Whiskey in the Jar\u2019, a souped-up, electrified reimagining of an old folk tale about highwaymen, was only ever intended to be a B-side. Somewhat frustratingly for the band, it shot up the UK and Irish charts, quickly becoming one of their most enduring hits. <\/p>\n

They originally palmed it off to their record company as the reverse to \u2018Black Boys On The Corner\u2019, but given the runaway success of the earlier Dubliners version from 1968, the executives could sense the universal appeal of the tight guitar lines and Phil Lynott\u2019s iconic vocal. \u2018Whiskey in the Jar\u2019 became the single. <\/p>\n

Although he seemed slightly embarrassed by its success, the lyrics were a massive draw for Lynott. Written about a betrayed highwayman with a mysterious origin<\/a>, its narrative arc blended an almost country western sensibility with traditional Irish standards. Scott Gorham, Thin Lizzy\u2019s guitarist from 1974, noted Lynott shared the ability to \u201cbring the story side to fruition\u201d in a song. <\/p>\n

\u201cPhil is a lyricist, and you always learn to paint a picture \u2013 I\u2019ve noticed this about a lot of Irish writers,\u201d he told Goldmine<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s what they do. They\u2019re very vivid in their explanations within the songs without getting corny about it.\u201d That being said, Lynott did feel \u2018Whiskey in the Jar\u2019 wasn\u2019t a shining example of the band at their hard rock best. <\/p>\n

Gorham, who joined the band a few years after it had become a bona fide hit, said it always felt out of place in set lists. \u201cEspecially when we first started out, hearing the kind of songs that we were coming up with in writing and recording and playing,\u201d he explained. It also created an unspoken pressure<\/a> to veer further away from their bluesy, rock roots and into borderline pop territory to create another massive hit.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Phil Lynott with Thin Lizzy in concert. (Credit: Harry Potts)<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d get to \u2018Whisky in the Jar\u2019, and it just seemed to be the oddball song. It just seemed to be out of order. I said to him one day: \u2018Hey, how about if we drop \u2018Whiskey in the Jar\u2019? It\u2019s not really an original song. Let\u2019s just stand on our own two feet of things that we had written, not from songs that other people had written.’\u201d And Lynott surprised him, instantly agreeing to drop it from then on. <\/p>\n

\u201cNow, if I had got somebody new in the band,\u201d he joked, \u201cand they said to me, \u2018Hey Scott, maybe we ought to drop \u2018The Boys Are Back in Town,\u2019 it\u2019s a bit old. I would have said, \u2018Okay, you\u2019re fired.’\u201d<\/p>\n

Did Phil Lynott hate the song?<\/p>\n

If you are to believe the director of Phil Lynott: Songs for While I\u2019m Away, Emer Reynolds, it wasn\u2019t just Lynott that disliked the track, but the whole band. \u201cThin Lizzy always hated it and yet it\u2019s one of their biggest hits. The curse of the great hit!\u201d he told the Express. <\/p>\n

\u201cPhil says in the film that they recorded it almost as a joke,\u201d he continues. \u201cThey were shocked by its success and continued to be shocked by how much the audience loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not an unexpected feeling. So often can a band\u2019s greatest hit become an albatross around their neck. Kurt Cobain hated Nirvana\u2019s \u2018Smells Like Teen Spirit\u2019, Radiohead detest \u2018Creep\u2019, and the less Oasis hear \u2018Wonderwall\u2019, the better. But for Thin Lizzy it seemed to resonate more from the fact that the tune was a cover and not their original work. Either way, it has become an iconic moment in their legacy. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Related Topics<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Credits: Far Out \/ Alamy) Fri 2 January 2026 10:25, UK It sounds counter-intuitive that a rock band…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669075,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,269,91263,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-669074","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music","10":"tag-thin-lizzy","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115825827238339820","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669074","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669074"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669074\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669075"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669074"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669074"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669074"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}