LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES-MARCH 26, 2020…On this date, one of my favorite albums, “Jailbreak” by Thin Lizzy was released. Jailbreak is the sixth studio album by Irish hard rock band Thin Lizzy, released in 1976. It proved to be the band’s commercial breakthrough in the US, and the only Thin Lizzy album with a certification (in this case, Gold) in that country. The singles include ‘Jailbreak’ and the band’s breakthrough song ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’. This song was inspired by Thin Lizzy’s fans. The group wrote it after noticing that their shows were full of working-class guys looking to get out and have some fun. Their fans also had a tendency to drink heavily. Thin Lizzy were surprised when this became their breakthrough hit – because they hadn’t wanted it on their Jailbreak album. Guitarist Scott Gorham said in an interview: “We were playing in some club in the US when our manager came in and said, ‘Well, looks like we’ve got a hit.’ We were like, ‘Which song?’ Seriously, we didn’t have any idea at all which song it was that had taken off for us.To tell you the truth, we weren’t initially going to put ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ on the Jailbreak album at all,” he continued. “Back then you picked 10 songs and went with those because of the time restrictions of vinyl. We recorded 15 songs, and of the 10 we picked, that wasn’t one of them. But then the management heard it and said, ‘No, there’s something really good about this song.’ Although back then, it didn’t yet have the twin guitar parts on it.”
Here’s one of the greatest rock songs ever recorded, the title track, “Jailbreak” , live from 1976.