READ MORE 
Thin Lizzy drum legend Brian Downey on 'Still Dangerous'

As many a classic-rock buff will attest to, Thin Lizzy’s classic 1978 release, Live And Dangerous, is one of the greatest concert releases of all time.

With a grade-A set list and top performances, the set captures all the fire of the classic Phil Lynott-Scott Gorham-Brian Robertson-Brian Downey lineup. Recently, a follow-up of sorts was issued via VH1 Classic Records, Still Dangerous, a set recorded at Philadelphia’s Tower Theatre Oct. 20, 1977. Although it contains fewer songs than Live And Dangerous, Still Dangerous is even more raw, and hence, rocks harder.

Interestingly, the tapes of this show were all but forgotten over the years, as longtime Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham recently explained.

 “It came about really through, of all people, accountants. They were trying to figure out why we were paying certain bills. Two items that kept coming up — that we were paying for month after month, year after year — were these two lock-ups. We had no idea what was in there — it could have been old equipment or Phil’s leather couch! So we sent somebody down there to open these things up. And what we found was a huge mountain of multi-track recording tape. So I went there to look at it myself and I couldn’t believe the volume of stuff that was in there.”

What they had found was a treasure trove of material.

“There were boxes, and one had written on it ‘Philadelphia 2,’” says Gorham. “I remember doing Philadelphia for the ‘King Biscuit Flower Hour,’ but what was the ‘2’ all about? So I called one of our old managers, and he reminded me that we had done two nights at the ‘King Biscuit Flower Hour.’ We had requested two nights because this was a two-week warm-up period we were going on that was going to precede this three-month arena tour. You can hear on the album what we were doing was road-testing these new songs that we had just recorded for the Bad Reputation album.”

With explosive readings of such Lizzy classics as “Jailbreak,” “Cowboy Song,” “Don’t Believe A Word,” and, of course, “The Boys are Back in Town,” Still Dangerous also features songs that did not appear on Live And Dangerous, including the album-opening “Soldier of Fortune,” as well as “Opium Trail,” and the longtime set-closer, “Me and the Boys” (the latter of which never appeared on a studio album).

Also available is a vinyl version that includes a 45 that features two tracks not available on the CD, “Bad Reputation” and “Emerald” (these two non-CD tracks are also available through iTunes). Does Gorham feel this was Lizzy at their in-concert peak?

“I think we had a few more ‘peaks’ left in us after that [laughs],” he says. “I think that was a good period. Other people have preferences, but I always preferred playing with Robo. For us, that was a really creative period. Brian and I together started our dual-guitar harmony thing together. Everybody after that kind of knew there was a guide that they had to adhere to.”

Although it’s tough to declare which of the two aforementioned Lizzy live albums takes top prize, Gorham offered his pick.

“Sometimes I have to watch myself [with this question], because I know how near and dear the Live And Dangerous album is to a lot of people. But I think that the Still Dangerous album is a better album. The playing is probably a little better, and the production is definitely better, with Glyn Johns. If it’s not better than Live And Dangerous, then it certainly stands up shoulder-to-shoulder next to it.”

Undoubtedly, having Glyn Johns manning the boards was Lizzy’s ace in the hole on this project. One of rock’s all-time great producers and engineers (he has worked on classic releases by The Rolling Stones, the Who, Led Zeppelin, Eric Clapton, the Eagles, etc.), Johns first crossed paths with Gorham not in a recording studio, but on the fairway.

“I’ve known Glyn for seven or eight years — we play golf together, we go out to dinner, and we’ve got a whole bunch of the same friends,” says Gorham. “He had mentioned on several occasions that he would love to get a hold of a couple of those earlier Lizzy studio albums and cherry pick tracks — ones that we dig or the ones that had really great potential and didn’t really make it — and kind of strip them all down and remix the whole thing. He kept saying, ‘You won’t believe the difference in the sound.’ I knew he wanted to get involved with something Thin Lizzy, so when we found these tapes, he was the first guy I went to and said, ‘Hey Glyn, I know you want to do [the earlier idea], but how about this?’ And my way of thinking was, ‘Completely iconic producer, classic ’70s rock band … what a great marriage!’ I mentioned it to him, and he was like, ‘I’ve got the studio. I’ll see you at 5:30!’ Before I knew it, I wasn’t sitting next to Glyn Johns my buddy who I golf with. I was sitting with Glyn Johns the producer.”

And as for the earlier idea — of Johns revisiting and re-tweaking earlier Lizzy tunes — Gorham would still like to see it happen.

“I’m really into all of that,” he says. “I’m not the kind of person that’s like, ‘Oh, don’t touch the sacred cow whatever you do!’ Because they’re out there already. If you want those albums, they’re there. I’m more into the aesthetic side of the production — what can be done to make these songs sound even better. So that idea is definitely in the works for the future.”

Also possibly in the offing are more vintage Lizzy live recordings found in the same stash that brought forth Still Dangerous.

“Yes, but it’s going to take me grabbing an engineer, going into the studio, and going down the menu that’s cataloged, and figure out what we have in there,” says Gorham. “That’s going to be the time-consuming thing.”

But Still Dangerous is done. At the time of that record, Lizzy was still considered a “band to watch” in the U.S., with the classic-rock radio standard “The Boys Are Back in Town” still a relatively new addition to DJs’ play lists. Gorham recalls how the song took off.

“‘The Boys Are Back in Town’ had nothing to do with the label at all. It was a direct result of a radio station in Louisville, Ky. Two guys fell in love with that song and kept playing that song. Other radio stations in that area picked up on it, and it just grew — until the record company went, ‘Holy crap, they’re playing this Thin Lizzy song! What’s going on?’ It wasn’t a record-company thing — it was down to the radio station to actually break that song.”

Soon after, Lizzy was invited on some prime U.S. arena tours, including a full set of dates with Queen.

“That was a pretty amazing time really,” says Gorham. “It was kicking off in a really big way for both bands. There was a lot of excitement around that tour, just because of the package that was going out. Everybody seemed to love the idea of Queen, the really slick ‘pop’ kind of band that had a lot of production going for them, going with this rock, almost punk-y/outcast band. The package gave you both ends of the genre. We became really good friends with all the guys in Queen — we used to pal around. All of a sudden, you’re playing in these massive, sold-out arenas.”

It also didn’t hurt that Lizzy offered a string of classic studio albums around this time. As for his favorite Lizzy studio album, Gorham says, “Personally, it’s probably Bad Reputation. That was the first one we did with Tony Visconti, so it seemed at that point that the production level stepped up. Plus, I got to play most of the guitar on it — I’m a little biased there! If we’re talking purely on a sonic level, it would probably have to be Black Rose, and probably in third place, Jailbreak, because of the songwriting content.”

While it was Gorham’s twin-harmony lines (with whichever other guitarist he was paired with at the time) that served as one of Lizzy’s sonic trademarks, one mustn’t forget the heart and soul of Lizzy, the late/great Phil Lynott — the group’s singer, bassist and larger-than-life poet/frontman, who sadly passed away in 1986.

“Because of who Phil was, and the way he looked and conducted himself, people don’t realize what an absolutely generous person this guy was,” says Gorham. “You knew he was a very magnetic personality, the aura he had. He would walk in the room, and everybody would stop talking. But he was one of those guys that wanted to push everyone around him forward. He often said it himself, ‘Thin Lizzy is not ‘Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy’ or the ‘Phil Lynott Solo Group.’ It’s Thin Lizzy, so everybody is expected to be in the spotlight. You’re expected to step up, be noticed and be a major part of the show.’ He encouraged you to do that.

“He didn’t want to do it by himself — he wanted to be in a band. I guess the big misconception was that Phil made all the decisions in Thin Lizzy, which is just not true. Thin Lizzy was a partnership, and we all had a say in what we were going to do, where we were going to go. Phil was a louder voice — there’s no doubt about that — but it was a very democratic society that we had in Thin Lizzy. He loved Van Morrison; Van Morrison was number one. Not only was he Irish [as was Lynott], but Van Morrison was a storyteller — a great lyricist. I think Phil really took his lead from people like that — guys who were songwriters but also storytellers. But then again, he loved ZZ Top. When we got to finally play with ZZ Top, he was like, ‘Man … this is f**kin’ great!’”

Gorham also offered to explain the status of the much-talked about movie project about Lynott’s life, which at one point, had “CSI”’s Gary Dourdan playing the part of Lynott and Holly Hunter playing the part of Lynott’s mother, Philomena.

“We were playing a show in London about three years ago, and Gary Dourdan had flown over to meet me and talk about that [the film],” explains Gorham. “He was given a script for the movie about Phil and Lizzy. We were talking about this, that and the other. He admitted, ‘The first script they gave me was great — that’s kind of what caught my attention.’ And then somehow, the scriptwriter or the producer said, ‘Let’s do a rewrite,’ and then it got shittier. Then the third re-write was terrible, and then I think it went to a fourth one. Gary was saying, ‘I don’t get this, because the first one was great, and now it’s turned into a pile of shit. Is there anything that you can do about it?’ I’m going, ‘Well to tell you the truth, they won’t send me a script.’ I’d asked them, and they wouldn’t do it. I think they wouldn’t do it because they knew I would have read it and said, ‘This is a pile of shit! You aren’t going to get away with this crap.’ So that’s why the whole thing got put on the backburner — I wouldn’t agree to it and the estate wouldn’t agree to it. Something like that could happen — and I’d like to see it happen — but there is a quality-control factor here. You can’t do these things just to make money and just to have your name in lights. That’s only going to shorten things. Give me something that we can both talk about and is decent to read, and yeah, I’ll be on your side.”

In addition to Still Dangerous and the other aforementioned Lizzy projects on the horizon, Gorham also finds time to play in another band, 21 Guns, which is preparing their first new studio album in 12 years.

“I’ve got another group, called 21 Guns, and we’ve been working on a new album for the last two years,” says Gorham. “But we’ve got it all recorded now — I think I’ve got one more visit to Oslo to clean up little corners, and then we’re finally going to get it out. It should be out in the next few months.”

Since 1996, Gorham and latter-day Lizzy guitarist John Sykes have toured as Thin Lizzy, as a tribute to their fallen friend Lynott. While the new-look Lizzy has focused solely on live shows and hasn’t issued a studio album of new material, this may change in the near future.

“Number-one question, everyone asks that,” says Gorham. “I think because we’ve done this one here, and everybody seems to love it, this has helped me get over that emotional hump. I know John and I have been out doing the Lizzy thing for quite a few years now, but it’s always been a sort of emotional hurdle for him and me to get in a studio, write songs, put the Thin Lizzy name on it and know the big guy is not going to be up there. Maybe it’s time to loosen the rope on that, not be so emotional about that and get in a studio with John.”