Wednesday 4 January 2012

Thin Lizzy - Are You Ready

Today is the official Thin Lizzy day! It is 25 years since Phil Lynott passed away and of course we pay tribute to this band with a truly Lizzy smoker. This is a band I actually wished that have seen Live!




Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Two of the founding members, drummer Brian Downey and bass guitarist/vocalist Phil Lynott met while still in school. Lynott assumed the role of frontman and led them throughout their recording career of thirteen studio albums. Thin Lizzy are best known for their songs "Whiskey in the Jar", "Jailbreak" and "The Boys Are Back in Town", all major international hits still played regularly on hard rock and classic rock radio stations. After Lynott's death in 1986, various incarnations of the band have emerged over the years based around guitarists Scott Gorham and John Sykes.

Todays tune "Are You Ready" is taken from the "Live and Dangerous" album, a live double LP, released in 1978. It was recorded in Philadelphia, London and Toronto in 1977, during the tours accompanying the albums Johnny the Fox and Bad Reputation.

Live and Dangerous was originally intended to be a studio album. Working with producer Tony Visconti, Thin Lizzy maintained huge success with their previous album Bad Reputation, and the group wanted to work with him again. However, Visconti had a very tight schedule, so Phil Lynott came up with the idea that they spend two weeks together compiling a live album instead.

It was also the last album to feature Brian Robertson, who went on to form Wild Horses with ex-Rainbow bassist Jimmy Bain.

On this album, the band segues immediately from "Cowboy Song" into "The Boys Are Back in Town", on the line "a cowboy’s life is the life for me". This technique was revisited with the same pair of live tracks in subsequent performances, and showcased more professionally on further live albums - examples being Thin Lizzy's later concert in Sydney with Gary Moore, and also on Thin Lizzy's Greatest Hits.



The tune also features on Life (subtitled Live, and labeled Life:Live on the original vinyl LP editions) is a double live album, released in 1983. This double album was recorded during their farewell tour in 1983, principally at the Hammersmith Odeon in London, UK. Phil Lynott had felt reluctantly that it was time to disband the group after the 1983 tour and to mark the occasion, former Thin Lizzy guitarists Eric Bell (1969-73), Brian Robertson (1974-8) and Gary Moore (1974, 1977 and 1978-9) joined the band on stage at the end of these gigs to do some numbers. This was called "The All-Star Jam".

live performance of the track "are you ready" taken from the live and dangerous album.



live performance of the track "are you ready" taken from the "Life" album, this is live in Dublin, Ireland, 1983



In February 2010 Live and Dangerous was ranked number one in PlanetRock.com's The Greatest Live Album Top 40.

More info @

Official Thin Lizzy Web

spotifyListen to ”Thin Lizzy - Are You Ready (Live 1983)" on Spotify here!

spotifyListen to ”Thin Lizzy - Are You Ready (1976)" on Spotify here!

spotifyFollow tuneoftheday.blogspot.com on Spotify here!

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