STILL IN LOVE WITH YOU
“Phil never had a doubt that this band would keep going forward”
SCOTT GORHAM
Even though he’s lived in London for almost 50 years now, Thin Lizzy’s longest tenured guitarist Scott Gorham still exudes the kind of laidback cool usually found lounging by a kidney-shaped pool in southern California.
I feel obliged to bring up the new ‘super deluxe edition’ Thin Lizzy box set, Rock Legends, which is coming in October, and it looks to be an impressive beast. From the press release: “Six CDs/DVDs, featuring 74 unreleased tracks, 83 tracks never previously released on CD, alternative versions of all the hits, rarities, live tracks and rare footage… previously unreleased Jailbreak demo… an A4 book, the rare ‘collected works of Philip Lynott’ poetry book, reproductions of nine tour programmes and four Jim Fitzpatrick art prints…”
But in the end, with 50 years of Thin Lizzy and Phil Lynott to discuss, we just talk instead. Much as we have been doing since we first met in 1976…
When you joined Thin Lizzy in 1974 did you still have to play Whiskey In The Jar?
When I auditioned for the guys the whole thing was wild and raucous and guitars were out front. Phil asked me to join that night, and gave me their records because I’d never heard anything Thin Lizzy had done. And here’s their one hit single, Whiskey In The Jar. I take it home, and I’m expecting to hear what I heard at rehearsal, right? Except what I’m hearing is ‘da-derderble-derble-derble…’ I’m going: “What the fuck is this?” Took an instant disliking to it. So after about six months of playing this damn song, I go to Phil and say, you know, Whiskey In The Jar, it’s great, but we got a new band now, we gotta stand on our own two feet, you know? He goes: “Yeah, I get it. Let’s get rid of Whiskey In The Jar.” You know, like it was that easy. Now if I reverse the whole thing, and say a new guy comes in years later and goes: “You know, Scott, The Boys Are Back In Town, this is a whole new thing. I think we’ve got to drop it. I’d be: “You’re so fucking fired!”
“What made the band so enduring was the songwriting from Phil, and of course the harmony guitar work.”
James Hetfield
The first Lizzy album of the new Lynott-Downey-Robertson-Gorham era was Nightlife. It got written off for its unexpectedly laid-back, funk-brother vibe. But 1974 was the year of Little Feat, the Average White Band, Rod Stewart doing Motown, Bowie’s Young Americans. Was the thinking: this is where we should be going too?
The rehearsals for that album were exactly the same way as when I went down and jammed with them: everything was loud, it was big. But when we got into the studio, Ron Nevison, the producer, kept saying: “Just turn the guitars down a little.” Robbo [guitarist Brian Robertson] and I would look at each other and go: “This is our first album, and this guy’s just worked with Led Zeppelin. So we’ll just take it down a notch.” And Nevison was like: “Could you turn it down a little bit more?” And the volume kept going down and down, to where the songs just didn’t have that drive any longer. We all walked out scratching our heads, going: “What the fuck just happened there?” That’s when Phil goes: “Fuck these producers, I’ll produce the next one.” I went: “Oh shit. What have we
