Fighting

Now to continue my one man quest to get you to put down your Viking metal albums and other silly things from Scandinavia and get you to listen to some Thin Lizzy! This is for your own good! Anyway, yes no reviews for this one either but than can be expected as ‘Fighting’ is one of the lesser known Lizzy albums which always struck me as odd as it’s a fucking corker.

‘Fighting’ is perhaps most significant as it’s the album where Brian ‘Robbo’ Robertson and Scott ‘Joni Mitchell’ Gorham discovered their signature twin guitar sound, meaning guitar harmonies a plenty. Also ‘Fighting’ can be considered the first truly focused and more importantly hard rocking Lizzy album, as previous albums weren’t really too consistent and showed a band trying and often failing to find their own identity.

Song wise Fighting shows a band truly hitting their stride, of course most will have you believe that ‘Jailbreak’ was the bands turning point, commercially this is true but ‘Fighting’ is a excellent collection of melodic hard rock songs that I must stress shouldn’t be overlooked. Bob Seger’s ‘Rosalie’ kicks things off and it’s a nice little rocking number, however when compared with the ‘Live and Dangerous’ version it sounds a tad weedy, but that minor gripe aside (‘Live and Dangerous’ absolutely destroys! Listen to it now!) it’s a still a classic fat slice of Thin Lizzy (Alan Partridge? Answers on a postcard). ‘For Those Who Love to Live’ is an overlooked masterpiece, and dedicated to another dead Irish legend George ‘Pist’ Best (an alcoholic football player, to those of you who don’t know), this is the first Lizzy song to display the twin guitar harmony sound that would prove so influential. ‘Suicide’ is the hardest rocking song on this album and well flat out rocks, Robbo’s guitar solo is one of my favourites especially the lick where he plays a double stop and then slides it up an octave, simply magic! ‘Wild One’ is simply one of the finest ballads the band, or anyone else for that matter has ever done. It’s steeped in Irish history and is sentimental and romantic without being sappy, something very few could pull off, but Phillip Lynott being god, of course could. Also take note guitar fans, the harmonised lead is absolutely magnificent it sends shivers down my spine, see I told you this was better than Viking metal! ‘Fighting My Way Back’ is another overlooked yet masterful Thin Lizzy track, upbeat and hard rocking. ‘King’s Vengeance’ yet again is exceptionally good, yet no ones heard the thing! Please, rock fans give this album a listen. ‘Spirit Slips Away’ is strangely ominous and during the songs recording Scott and Robbo supposedly discovered their guitar harmony sound but its one of the albums weaker moments. ‘Silver Dollar’ is just a bit of filler really, nothing too offensive but it doesn’t really warrant repeated listens. ‘Freedom Song’, sentimental and overtly romanticised but Phil and the boys pull it off in style, some lovely guitar harmonies and a story of a man being hung and shouting freedom (sounds like a Mel Gibson film!). ‘Ballad of a Hard Man’ is a funky hard rocker, but Lizzy could do funky quite well as Phil was black, however this rule doesn’t always work, for instance I don’t think Entombed could do funk…….but I digress.

This is without doubt the classic Thin Lizzy line up, the whole band shine and not a single note is out of place. Phil Lynott is not only the consummate songwriter but also a impossibly tight bassist with an instantly recognisable fat bass sound. Brian Downey, is one of the most underrated drummers in rock, hard hitting, neat and tight with a distinctive style. Now, at this point I must stress that Brian Robertson was actually better on guitar than Scott Gorham, but still Scott is still excellent although his playing is not quite as jaw dropping as on say ‘Bad Reputation’ or ‘Black Rose’. So Brian Robertson was the best guitar player in Thin Lizzy at this point, I can put this down to the fact that his playing is more balls out, than Scott’s, but then he was a whiskey drinking Scottish mentalist whereas Scott just looked like Joni Mitchell, so there you go.

Well if you want an excellent 70’s Rock ‘n’ Roll album look no further. ‘Fighting’ has it all great songs, exceptional playing and even a touch of romance, well what more could you possibly want?