WEBVTT - Thin Lizzy: Gangsters, Drugs, Punks and St. Patrick 0:00:00.160 --> 0:00:03.400 This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners. 0:00:03.840 --> 0:00:08.319 Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland is 0:00:08.320 --> 0:00:25.239 a production of Double Elvis. This is a story about 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:28.840 a rock stars, rock star and his band. A band 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:32.040 that made Ireland proud, a band that makes me want 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:35.080 to drive fast and break things. A band that some 0:00:35.159 --> 0:00:37.960 of you, for some reason, think I hate, but I don't. 0:00:38.400 --> 0:00:40.919 A band born belly up in a bar filled with 0:00:41.120 --> 0:00:44.720 bad men. A band who never really broke in America 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:48.800 the way they should have. A band named Thin Lizzie, 0:00:49.560 --> 0:00:54.200 A band that made great music, unlike that music I 0:00:54.280 --> 0:00:56.280 played for you at the top of the show that 0:00:56.480 --> 0:00:59.400 wasn't great music. That was a preset loop from my 0:00:59.440 --> 0:01:03.880 melotron called roll me over and do what Now? MK two. 0:01:04.760 --> 0:01:07.039 I played you that loop because I can't afford the 0:01:07.080 --> 0:01:10.480 rights to December nineteen sixty three, Oh What a Night 0:01:10.720 --> 0:01:13.600 by the Four Seasons? And why would I play you 0:01:13.640 --> 0:01:17.560 that specific slice of Jersey Boys Cheese? Could I afford it? 0:01:19.000 --> 0:01:22.120 Because that was the number one song in America on 0:01:22.200 --> 0:01:25.480 March twenty sixth, nineteen seventy six, And that was the 0:01:25.600 --> 0:01:29.360 day that Thin Lizzie released their sixth studio album Jailbreak, 0:01:29.720 --> 0:01:32.559 featuring the hit single the Boys Are Back in Talent, 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:36.840 a song that changed everything for them, for better and 0:01:36.920 --> 0:01:41.920 for worse. On this special Saint Patrick's Day episode a 0:01:42.040 --> 0:01:45.639 rock Stars, rock Star, Bad bad Man in the Pride 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:51.080 of Ireland, Thin Lizzie, I'm Jake Brennan and this this 0:01:51.200 --> 0:02:24.320 this great sign. You're Saint Patrick, the primary patron Saint 0:02:24.400 --> 0:02:28.080 of Ireland. You're the reason why barb An Accounting Where's 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:31.839 Green to the office each year on March seventeenth. You're 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:34.800 also the reason why on that same day, the lad's 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:37.120 knock back pints of guinness down at the pub at 0:02:37.160 --> 0:02:42.000 an ungodly hour, typically frowned upon for drinking. But although 0:02:42.040 --> 0:02:44.880 people around the world drunkenly celebrate you once a year, 0:02:45.280 --> 0:02:47.760 they don't really know you. They don't know that you're 0:02:47.800 --> 0:02:51.160 not even Irish, or that your name isn't actually Patrick, 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:55.160 your real name is Mainwin or something. But it doesn't matter. 0:02:55.520 --> 0:02:58.880 The point here is that you, Saint Patrick, are not 0:02:59.160 --> 0:03:01.680 who everyone thinks you. They don't know that you were 0:03:01.680 --> 0:03:04.600 born in Britain, or that when you were a teenager 0:03:04.760 --> 0:03:07.880 around four hundred and eighty ars so you were kidnapped 0:03:08.040 --> 0:03:10.640 by pirates who took you to Ireland and made you 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:13.760 a slave. You toiled in the fields as a shepherd 0:03:13.760 --> 0:03:17.640 boy for six long years, and then the voices started, 0:03:18.200 --> 0:03:21.680 voices inside your head. They told you to leave this place, 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:24.680 flee your captors, make a break for it, and go 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:28.120 back to the motherland. And so you did. For two 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:32.520 hundred miles straight. You ran. Your chest was pounding, your 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:35.520 knees were weak. You made it to the Irish coast, 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:38.000 where you convinced a group of sailors till you board 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:41.720 their boat headed to Britain, but the seas were too rough. 0:03:42.440 --> 0:03:45.800 The vessel shipwrecked near the coast of France. You were 0:03:45.880 --> 0:03:49.160 starving and the food was all gone, so the sailors 0:03:49.200 --> 0:03:52.080 began to pray. And this is when you found out 0:03:52.200 --> 0:03:55.640 that the sailors were Pagans, because they were praying to 0:03:55.720 --> 0:04:00.360 their pagan gods, which got you all buckus. They turned 0:04:00.400 --> 0:04:03.080 to you and they said, hey, why don't you try 0:04:03.120 --> 0:04:06.480 praying to your Christian God. So you did, and do 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:09.880 you know what happened? Suddenly a herd of pigs appeared 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:13.040 out of nowhere, which you, for one, were thankful for 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:15.280 because it meant you no longer had to worry about 0:04:15.320 --> 0:04:18.880 becoming a meal for a boat full of starving heathens. 0:04:19.320 --> 0:04:22.559 Hold up, did this really happen? Did Saint Patrick pray 0:04:22.720 --> 0:04:26.400 pigs into existence? Probably not. But this is where the 0:04:26.480 --> 0:04:29.480 larger than the life myth of Saint Patrick begins, a 0:04:29.480 --> 0:04:32.400 myth which includes the story of how he later returned 0:04:32.400 --> 0:04:35.440 to Ireland, this time not as a slave, but as 0:04:35.480 --> 0:04:38.479 an apostle to preach the good word, fight for the 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:41.440 end of human bondage, and drive all the snakes out 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:44.640 of the country. And since it's likely that Ireland never 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:47.360 actually had snakes in the first place, that part of 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:50.239 the story, just like the pigs thing, it probably isn't 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:54.000 true either. But if Saint Patrick didn't drive out actual snakes, 0:04:54.360 --> 0:04:59.040 he did drive out demons from Ireland, real demons, namely 0:04:59.080 --> 0:05:03.039 through his work as an anti slavery activist. Thus, Saint 0:05:03.040 --> 0:05:06.400 Patrick's spirit and legend loom large, just like a forty 0:05:06.440 --> 0:05:08.680 seven foot statue of him now looms large on the 0:05:08.680 --> 0:05:14.040 western coast of Ireland. These days, it takes about three 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:16.440 and a half hours to drive from that huge statue 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:18.960 of Saint Patrick all the way across to the opposite 0:05:19.000 --> 0:05:22.839 side of the island, specifically to Dublin, where a different 0:05:22.839 --> 0:05:27.200 statue celebrates a different patron. Saint of Ireland Philip Linett, 0:05:27.360 --> 0:05:30.839 lead singer, bassist in the primary songwriter for the band 0:05:31.320 --> 0:05:34.640 Thin Lizzie, which formed right there in Ireland's capital back 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:38.479 in nineteen sixty nine. Like Saint Patrick, Phil Leneck was 0:05:38.520 --> 0:05:41.240 born in Britain and later came to Ireland, in this 0:05:41.400 --> 0:05:45.400 case at seven years old. But unlike Saint Patrick, Phil 0:05:45.960 --> 0:05:49.719 was Irish on his mother's side. Phil's father, who left 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:53.400 when Phil was born, was from British Guiana. So, as 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:56.160 Phil said in his own words, he was Irish, and 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:59.120 he was black, and he was a bastard, which meant 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.279 from the jump growing up he had cultural, social, and 0:06:02.360 --> 0:06:06.359 even psychological barriers that made his personal struggle unique. He 0:06:06.440 --> 0:06:08.400 once said that if he couldn't make it as a singer, 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:11.800 as a rock star, well then he couldn't make it period. 0:06:12.960 --> 0:06:16.560 Phil was motivated by these insecurities, just as Saint Patrick 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:19.200 was motivated by those voices in his head. And I 0:06:19.240 --> 0:06:22.120 believe it's those insecurities that inform Phil's code as a 0:06:22.120 --> 0:06:26.640 professional musician, a code which insisted that one you always 0:06:26.680 --> 0:06:30.560 be professional, two you never lose your cool, and three 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:34.120 you always remain in control, which is why in the 0:06:34.120 --> 0:06:37.080 early nineteen seventies, when Thin Lizzie was starting to make 0:06:37.120 --> 0:06:40.120 their mark, Phil Lynett kept his transgressions out of the 0:06:40.120 --> 0:06:43.159 public eye at a tucked away joint that only those 0:06:43.360 --> 0:06:46.919 in the know knew about. Oppa set of backstairs, passed 0:06:46.960 --> 0:06:50.440 some tough geezers standing lookout, and finally passing through the 0:06:50.480 --> 0:06:56.000 door into a place called the show Biz. The show 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:58.800 Biz or the Biz if you're into that whole brevity 0:06:58.800 --> 0:07:01.200 thing was an after hour his bar attached to a 0:07:01.240 --> 0:07:05.680 hotel in Manchester, owned and operated by Phil Linet's mother, Philhimina. 0:07:06.400 --> 0:07:09.040 Inside you get to rub elbows with the so called 0:07:09.279 --> 0:07:13.440 Quality Street Gang, a loose collection of scrappers and safecrackers, 0:07:13.680 --> 0:07:17.320 used car salesmen and other con artists. Guys with pickled 0:07:17.320 --> 0:07:20.120 faces and long rap sheets, the kind who may or 0:07:20.160 --> 0:07:22.640 may not have a concealed weapons smuggled into their fancy 0:07:22.680 --> 0:07:25.920 tailored suit. On any given night at the Biz, you'd 0:07:26.000 --> 0:07:29.400 run into guys like Jimmy the Weed, named so because well, 0:07:29.760 --> 0:07:32.880 he grew on you. Jimmy the Weed was an underworld zelig, 0:07:33.160 --> 0:07:37.000 busted for fraud, for drugs, even for murder, but somehow 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:40.640 eluding conviction every time. And then there were the local 0:07:40.680 --> 0:07:44.960 heroes like George Best, a legendary Irish footballer a winger 0:07:45.000 --> 0:07:48.520 for Man United. It was this crowd of famous and 0:07:48.680 --> 0:07:52.080 infamous faces that Phil Line and his Thin Lizzie bandmates 0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:55.640 guitarist Eric Bell and drummer Brian Downey were hanging out 0:07:55.680 --> 0:07:59.480 with on one particular evening in nineteen seventy two. Just 0:07:59.600 --> 0:08:02.440 hours earlier, they'd performed as the opening act for the 0:08:02.440 --> 0:08:06.240 popular glam rock band Slade. While Phil thought that then 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:09.240 Lizzie's set had been pretty good, he was shocked when, 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:13.520 just minutes after they finished, Slade's manager, Chaz Chandler, was 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:16.720 all up in his face. Normally Phil would welcome such 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:20.119 an interaction, seeing as Chazz had previously served as Jimmy 0:08:20.120 --> 0:08:22.840 Hendrix's manager, and to Phil, Jimmy was a god. But 0:08:23.160 --> 0:08:26.880 Chaz Chandler was not in a compliment giving mood. In fact, 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:31.960 Chaz was pissed the fuck was that. He asked Phil that, 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:35.160 of course, referring to Thin Lizzie set, you're here to 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:37.960 wake the crowd up, not put them asleep anymore. That 0:08:38.000 --> 0:08:40.200 ho hum bullshit on stage and you're off the tour. 0:08:43.240 --> 0:08:47.440 Phil then carefully watched Slade's headlining set, focusing specifically on 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:50.800 the group's front man, Naughty Holder, his flashy manner of dress, 0:08:51.160 --> 0:08:54.720 his wild charisma, every move calculated to put the audience 0:08:54.720 --> 0:08:58.280 in a fist pumping trance, and he understood exactly what 0:08:58.400 --> 0:09:01.640 Chaz was saying up there, and simply playing the songs 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:05.160 wasn't enough. Bowie knew this, Rod the Bod knew this, 0:09:05.640 --> 0:09:08.920 and now Phil Lyne did too, just like he knew 0:09:08.960 --> 0:09:12.440 that to truly succeed, he and Thin Lizzie would have 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:15.000 to do better than Whiskey in the Jar, their version 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:16.920 of an old folk song that was currently sitting at 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:19.360 number one on the charts in Ireland. It was the 0:09:19.400 --> 0:09:21.960 band's first bona fide hit, but Phil thought it was 0:09:21.960 --> 0:09:24.720 a joke. It was kind of a novelty song. Wasn't 0:09:24.760 --> 0:09:28.360 even his song. Phil's own songs reflected his life, and 0:09:28.400 --> 0:09:31.680 Whiskey in the Jar was not his life, not like 0:09:31.720 --> 0:09:34.360 his mother's Hush Hush Bar, the Biz and the men 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:38.120 who haunted it, the quality street gang. Sitting there in 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:41.720 Manchester's best kept secret, he looked around the room, this 0:09:41.800 --> 0:09:46.880 little speakeasy sorts overrun with footballers, gangsters, actors from hip 0:09:46.960 --> 0:09:50.240 British television soaps, Jimmy the Weed in the Corner making 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:53.080 Man united to George Best nearly snort logger out of 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:55.400 his nose with a joke. And it was at this 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:58.880 moment that the Thin Lizzy we know now truly began 0:09:59.000 --> 0:10:23.959 to take shame. Before I go any further, I need 0:10:24.000 --> 0:10:26.760 to clear something up. I have no idea how this 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:31.240 rumor started online that I personally am not into Thin Lizzy, 0:10:31.679 --> 0:10:33.840 But nice work to all you guys, guys who have 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:37.720 been keeping the joke alive. It is ludicrous. I love 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:40.600 Thin Lizzy, and I pretty much have from the first 0:10:40.600 --> 0:10:45.080 moment I heard them. But don't take my word for it. 0:10:45.520 --> 0:10:48.839 Everyone from Huey Lewis to Sid Vicious loved Thin Lizzy. 0:10:49.400 --> 0:10:52.360 Phil Lynett even called both of those dudes his friends. 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:55.760 And to paraphrase Henry Rawlins, there's a Thin Lizzy song 0:10:55.840 --> 0:10:58.520 for everything, whether your head over heels in love or 0:10:58.640 --> 0:11:02.720 crushed halfway to death by breakup. Plus just look at them, 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:06.360 or actually just look at Phil. The platonic ideal of 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:10.600 a rocker, high heeled boots, black leather pants, big hair, 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:16.120 sharp mustache, mister Johnny Cool himself, those long legs spread 0:11:16.120 --> 0:11:19.160 in a power stance, his Fender pe bass shooting straight 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:21.560 up in the air like a craw rocket. It's a 0:11:21.600 --> 0:11:25.040 move that says this bass is a giant weapon, and 0:11:25.120 --> 0:11:29.080 also this bass is a giant penis, which is about 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:31.600 his rock and roll as it gets. But again, it 0:11:31.640 --> 0:11:35.120 didn't begin that way. It began when Jimmy Hendrix's former 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:38.040 manager Chas Chandler red Phil Line at the Riot Act. 0:11:38.400 --> 0:11:41.679 And then when Phil recognized that the true inspiration for 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:44.560 his biggest hits and thus the image of Thin Lizzie, 0:11:44.679 --> 0:11:47.520 those below the table badasses at the heart of incredible 0:11:47.559 --> 0:11:50.280 songs like the Boys Are Back in Town and Jail Break, 0:11:50.559 --> 0:11:52.880 We're all sitting around him at his mother's tiny pup 0:11:52.920 --> 0:11:56.800 in Manchester. And then when Thin Lizzie's original guitarist Eric Bell, 0:11:57.240 --> 0:12:00.600 exhausted from touring from the non stop partying the communal 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:03.240 house where the band lived, from the hamster wheel of 0:12:03.280 --> 0:12:06.520 promotion to make the suits that Decca records happy, distraught 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:09.280 over his girlfriend running off to Canada with their young son, 0:12:09.760 --> 0:12:12.280 taking one too many bad trips himself, by which I 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:17.120 mean LSD getting paranoid, Eric finally melted down halfway through 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:20.040 a show in nineteen seventy three, threw his guitar on 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:24.480 the stage and quit the band. Eric Bell clearly was 0:12:24.600 --> 0:12:27.439 unable to adhere to phill Line A's strict code. He 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:31.679 was not in control, and he most definitely lost his court. 0:12:32.240 --> 0:12:35.199 Phil on the other hand, was very much in control, 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:37.360 which meant that he was the one who was left 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:40.000 to pick up the pieces, and he did because he 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:43.360 was built for this. He was born against all odds, 0:12:44.520 --> 0:12:46.839 and he didn't ask for help to do it, just 0:12:46.880 --> 0:12:48.760 as he didn't ask for help back when he was 0:12:48.800 --> 0:12:51.480 the only black kid in his school. This time he 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:55.160 got not one but two guitarists, and not for artistic reasons, 0:12:55.160 --> 0:12:59.040 but for insurance. When asked why he hired Brian Robertson 0:12:59.080 --> 0:13:03.000 and Scott Gorm Scotsman in a Californian, respectively, to replace 0:13:03.120 --> 0:13:05.920 Eric Bell, Phil said, and I quote, the next time 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:08.200 one of those cunts walks out, there'll be another one there. 0:13:08.400 --> 0:13:11.400 I'm not going to be caught out again. Failure for 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:15.360 Phil Line was not an option. Remember, if he couldn't 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:17.760 make it as a singer, as a rock star, then 0:13:17.760 --> 0:13:23.199 he couldn't make it period. The thing is. Phil Linet 0:13:23.320 --> 0:13:25.560 had no idea that the choice he just made would 0:13:25.600 --> 0:13:29.200 lay the groundwork for Thin Lizzy's breakthrough innovation and push 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:35.800 them higher than he ever could have imagined. If you 0:13:35.840 --> 0:13:38.720 know Thinn Lizzie, you know what I'm talking about. That 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:43.000 harmonized twin guitar attack an integral part of Thin Lizzie's sound, 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:46.240 which began on their fifth studio album, Fighting, released in 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:50.720 nineteen seventy five. But the twin guitar thing wasn't planned. 0:13:51.120 --> 0:13:54.640 In fact, it was a mistake. It happened like this. 0:13:55.360 --> 0:13:58.680 Brian robertson Robbo was laying down his guitar part in 0:13:58.679 --> 0:14:02.920 the studio, some nice melodic stuff, unaware that the engineer 0:14:03.080 --> 0:14:06.360 had absentmindedly left an echo or delay effect on what 0:14:06.440 --> 0:14:08.480 he was playing on guitar, so the guitar begins to 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:13.200 feedback on itself and thus harmonizing with itself. Scott's guitar 0:14:13.559 --> 0:14:16.600 was harmonizing with Scott's guitar, and then when I start 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:19.200 hearing it in the playback, they're all freaking out. The 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:21.760 engineers like fuck. He leaps from his seat to fix 0:14:21.840 --> 0:14:23.800 the issue, worried that he's gonna get his ass fired. 0:14:23.840 --> 0:14:25.920 But He's shocked when he hears the guys in the 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:28.400 band say no, man, don't touch anything that's awesome. This 0:14:28.480 --> 0:14:31.480 is great, and thus was born in the process by 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:34.880 which Robbo and Scott wrote out harmonized lead guitar parts, 0:14:35.200 --> 0:14:37.120 which yeah, I know, weren't new at the time. The 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:39.280 Allman Brothers for Want had been doing it for a minute, 0:14:39.320 --> 0:14:42.720 but the way Thin Lizzie did it was fresh because 0:14:42.760 --> 0:14:46.360 it truly was an attack, written and performed like duel 0:14:46.400 --> 0:14:49.000 of switchblades. It snapped open in the middle of the song. 0:14:49.480 --> 0:14:53.640 This sound perfectly complimented Phil's songs about tough guys, about 0:14:53.680 --> 0:14:57.120 cowboys and escaped inmates, powering the big hits on their 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:01.080 beloved nineteen seventy six album Jailbrey, both the aforementioned title 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:03.680 track and the Boys Are Back in Town, the band's 0:15:03.680 --> 0:15:07.720 biggest hit in America, and Man, oh Man, what a 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:12.600 song When that song was climbing the charts in the 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:15.680 summer of seventy six. Then Lizzie were forced to cancel 0:15:15.760 --> 0:15:18.680 the second half of their American tour, which was supposed 0:15:18.720 --> 0:15:21.160 to finally break them in the States after seven long 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:25.920 years of making music. Instead, Phil Lynett, who had quickly 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:28.120 fallen under the spell of a sex, drugs, and rock 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:30.600 and roll lifestyle, looked in the mirror and saw that 0:15:30.640 --> 0:15:35.520 his eyes had turned orange hepatitis. He told a friend 0:15:35.560 --> 0:15:37.760 he probably got her from shooting up with a dirty needle, 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.120 and though it should be noted, at this point, Phil 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:43.760 was merely dabbling in heroin, with cocaine, marijuana and alcohol 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:48.120 being more central to his drug diet regardless. Instead of 0:15:48.160 --> 0:15:51.680 conquering America, Phil watched from a hospital bed in Manchester 0:15:51.800 --> 0:15:54.040 as a pre taped performance of The Boys Are Back 0:15:54.040 --> 0:15:56.080 in Town played on top of the Pops from a 0:15:56.080 --> 0:15:58.520 tiny television set on the wall. While back in the 0:15:58.640 --> 0:16:01.800 US the singles slow only slipped back down the charts 0:16:01.800 --> 0:16:06.880 after peaking at number twelve. Just months later, it happened again. 0:16:07.440 --> 0:16:10.360 Thin Lizzy were set to conquer America a second time, 0:16:10.640 --> 0:16:13.040 only to once again be forced to cancel when Robo 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:16.040 got in a fight at a London nightclub, severing tendons 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:18.040 and an artery in his hand when he tried to 0:16:18.040 --> 0:16:21.880 deflect a broken bottle. It seemed that Americans were destined 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:25.840 to never truly know Thin Lizzy. Breaking America, of course, 0:16:25.960 --> 0:16:28.400 was the dream of any band from across the pond, 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:31.200 and for Thin Lizzy and Phil Line, it wrong plays, 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:40.320 wrong time quickly became an unfortunate reality. Dublin, August twentieth, 0:16:40.520 --> 0:16:44.680 nineteen seventy seven, hometown heroes Phil Line and Thin Lizzy 0:16:44.800 --> 0:16:47.200 were back to headline the Capital of Ireland's first open 0:16:47.200 --> 0:16:51.040 air rock festival. But that was tomorrow. Today or tonight 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:53.960 was Phil's twenty eighth birthday, and he was celebrating in 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:58.520 style at Castletownhouse, a lavish mansion owned by the Guinness family, 0:16:58.800 --> 0:17:03.120 specifically Esmond Guinness, second son of Brian, the famous brewer 0:17:03.200 --> 0:17:05.880 and heir to the Guinness beer empire. But I digress. 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:10.359 The doctors had told Phil to avoid these sorts of 0:17:10.480 --> 0:17:13.240 environments where the booze and the coke floated like well, 0:17:13.480 --> 0:17:15.320 you can imagine the deluge of booze and coke and 0:17:15.400 --> 0:17:18.000 a party happening at a Guinness mansion in nineteen seventy seven. 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:21.680 It was simply too dangerous given the complications from his hepatitis. 0:17:22.280 --> 0:17:25.760 Phil however, didn't look to doctors as role models these days. 0:17:25.760 --> 0:17:28.200 He looked up to the great Freddie Mercury, whom Phil 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:31.080 had witnessed during a recent tour when thin Lizzy opened 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:35.760 for Freddy's band Queen Freddy was decadence in Carnie. The 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:39.920 hotel suites, the entourages, the willing enabled groupies, the piles 0:17:39.920 --> 0:17:43.840 of illicit substances served on silver platters. Everything was bigger 0:17:43.840 --> 0:17:46.560 for Freddie Mercury and Phil Lynett wanted to reach that 0:17:46.760 --> 0:17:50.640 hallowed ground where Freddy and Queen now found themselves. Followed suit. 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:54.920 In Freddy, Phil even saw a reflection of himself, someone 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:57.520 who had his own set of insecurities to overcome simply 0:17:57.560 --> 0:18:02.560 based on who he was. Freddy's gave Phil confidence and hope, 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:05.760 But any feelings of hope or of birthday joy were 0:18:05.840 --> 0:18:09.000 suddenly dashed when the front door of the Castletown mansion 0:18:09.040 --> 0:18:13.359 flew open into the party, barged the gardener at the 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:16.159 State Police Force of the Republic of Ireland. They were 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:19.080 here on a tip that they'd find musicians and thus drugs, 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:22.600 and they did. A ton of blow and weed was seized. 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:24.679 But one of the many things Phil Line had had 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:26.960 learned from a guy like Freddie Mercury was how to 0:18:27.040 --> 0:18:29.280 keep your vice as a secret, which is how Phil 0:18:29.320 --> 0:18:31.480 had managed to get someone else to hold onto his stash. 0:18:31.600 --> 0:18:34.240 The party when he was stopped and searched by the Garda. 0:18:34.720 --> 0:18:39.639 He was clean. Two days later, however, the headline on 0:18:39.680 --> 0:18:42.639 the front of the Irish Independent newspaper read six held 0:18:42.640 --> 0:18:45.639 in drugs raid on pop party, and none other than 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:49.440 Phil Lenett's name was right there in the mix. Phil 0:18:49.640 --> 0:18:53.720 was furious. Was he using that night? Sure? But was 0:18:53.760 --> 0:18:56.760 he holding? He wasn't that stupid, at least not on 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:59.880 that particular night. The police hadn't found anything, and now 0:18:59.920 --> 0:19:02.439 here he was being branded public offender number one by 0:19:02.480 --> 0:19:05.359 the press. He walked over to the paper's office and 0:19:05.400 --> 0:19:08.080 paid a personal visit to the editor, whom he berated 0:19:08.119 --> 0:19:11.359 in front of the entire staff. My grandmother saw that. 0:19:11.480 --> 0:19:14.119 He shouted, it's not fucking true what you printed. I 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:19.480 didn't have any fucking drugs. It was just as Freddy said, 0:19:20.000 --> 0:19:22.600 It was all about what you showed them, what they 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:27.520 saw the controlled narrative. Phil Lineing for one, locked down 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:30.080 his private life even as it began to spin out 0:19:30.080 --> 0:19:39.879 of control. Behind locked doors, We'll be right back after 0:19:39.960 --> 0:19:51.439 this word word word. Sid Vicious, bass player for the 0:19:51.480 --> 0:19:54.520 Sex Pistols, stumbled out of Phill Linett's bathroom with his 0:19:54.520 --> 0:19:57.680 girlfriend Nancy sponge and hanging off his track mark Daram 0:19:58.560 --> 0:20:01.159 behind them. They left their own blood splattered on the 0:20:01.160 --> 0:20:05.320 bathroom wall. The junk was coursing through their veins, now 0:20:05.640 --> 0:20:09.040 slowly animating them like stop motion skeletons. Down the hall 0:20:09.119 --> 0:20:11.200 to the living room, where they collapsed on a couch 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:13.880 next to Phil, who was watching an old Elvis Presley 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:18.320 movie on a giant TV. Hey, Sid, Phil said himself 0:20:18.520 --> 0:20:21.000 high on one substance or another at the moment, when 0:20:21.000 --> 0:20:22.560 are you gonna let me show you a few things 0:20:22.600 --> 0:20:26.080 on the base? Mate? Sid scrunched his face in disgust. 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:29.280 I'm not interested in that crap. I'm in the fucking 0:20:29.359 --> 0:20:36.320 Sex Pistols. It was the summer of nineteen seventy eight, 0:20:36.640 --> 0:20:40.280 so actually Sid's math, or more likely, his mind, was off. 0:20:40.720 --> 0:20:43.520 The Pistols had broken up earlier that year after releasing 0:20:43.600 --> 0:20:46.439 one studio record which sent shockwaves through the rock and 0:20:46.520 --> 0:20:50.200 roll world. Things were changing, and changing fast, all because 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:52.639 of bands like the Sex Pistols taking the piss out 0:20:52.680 --> 0:20:56.040 of the status quo. Phil Linett and Den Lizzie were 0:20:56.080 --> 0:20:58.520 not exactly status quo when it came to rock and roll, 0:20:58.560 --> 0:21:02.520 but they were close enough. Phil knew that adaptation was 0:21:02.640 --> 0:21:05.520 essential for survival. If you can't beat him, join them 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:08.600 in all that, which is how Phil found himself moonlighting 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:12.040 in the Greedy Bastards, a supergroup of sorts that featured 0:21:12.080 --> 0:21:15.240 Sid Vicious, Steve Jones and Paul Cook from the Sex Pistols, 0:21:15.359 --> 0:21:18.200 plus Brian and Scott from Thin Lizzie, Bob Geldoff from 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:22.040 Dublin's own Boomtown Rats, and more. They played sets at 0:21:22.040 --> 0:21:24.679 places like the Electric Ballroom in Camden, and a version 0:21:24.680 --> 0:21:27.000 of the group even appeared as the Greedies on Top 0:21:27.040 --> 0:21:29.600 of the Pops. And it wasn't just the punks in 0:21:29.640 --> 0:21:32.639 England who are taking a film over in America. In 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:35.560 New York City, Johnny Thunders was sitting in his room 0:21:35.600 --> 0:21:38.240 at the Chelsea balancing some Heroin on his guitar pick 0:21:38.280 --> 0:21:40.760 to kill time, waiting for his fix, and waiting on 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:44.040 a friend. That friend being Phil Lightning, who wound up 0:21:44.040 --> 0:21:46.200 playing bass on a bunch of the tracks on Johnny's 0:21:46.200 --> 0:21:52.159 classic nineteen seventy eight solo record So Alone The Thing Is. 0:21:52.600 --> 0:21:55.479 Nineteen seventy eight was supposed to be huge for Thin 0:21:55.600 --> 0:22:00.879 Lizzy Punks or No Punks. This is the year that 0:22:00.880 --> 0:22:04.000 they released their double live album Live and Dangerous, a 0:22:04.040 --> 0:22:07.160 record which not only featured Phil's very unpunked buddy Huey 0:22:07.240 --> 0:22:10.040 Lewis on harmonica, but is widely considered one of the 0:22:10.040 --> 0:22:12.840 greatest live albums of all time. It was a huge 0:22:12.920 --> 0:22:15.720 hit for the band, also number two on the UK chart. 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:17.960 This is the kind of record you pull out when 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:19.520 the aliens land and they want to know what a 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:23.080 killer rock show sounded like in the nineteen seventies. Fuck 0:22:23.320 --> 0:22:26.800 Brampton Comes Alive. Live and Dangerous has got the goods 0:22:27.480 --> 0:22:30.160 as amazing as it is. However, Live and Dangerous by 0:22:30.200 --> 0:22:32.760 Thin Lizzie has a dirty little secret, and I'm sorry 0:22:32.760 --> 0:22:34.600 to be the one to tell you, but your favorite 0:22:34.600 --> 0:22:37.960 live album probably shares the same secret, and it's this 0:22:38.840 --> 0:22:43.200 Live and Dangerous is not live, at least not entirely. 0:22:44.160 --> 0:22:47.919 Here's what I mean. Thin Lizzie's producer, Tony Visconti, was 0:22:47.960 --> 0:22:51.040 tasked with assembling a cohesive listening experience from a ton 0:22:51.080 --> 0:22:53.639 of concert tapes taken from shows the band played throughout 0:22:53.640 --> 0:22:56.359 Europe and North America. A lot of live albums are 0:22:56.400 --> 0:22:58.919 made this way. You cherry picked the best versions of 0:22:58.960 --> 0:23:01.200 the songs you want to win from an entire tour, 0:23:01.640 --> 0:23:04.480 but Tony Visconti had a problem. The tapes were all 0:23:04.560 --> 0:23:08.400 different speeds, different formats, and in various shades of quality. 0:23:08.760 --> 0:23:12.040 He couldn't edit together a consistent balance sound based solely 0:23:12.080 --> 0:23:14.560 on what he had in his hands. So the solution 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:17.600 was to have Thin Lizzy come into the studio and 0:23:17.680 --> 0:23:21.040 re record some of their parts. But once they started 0:23:21.080 --> 0:23:23.960 the overdubbing process, they thought, well, instead of just re 0:23:23.960 --> 0:23:26.720 recording the bass part or that vocal part, why not 0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:30.800 re record the whole thing. By producer Tony Visconti's estimation, 0:23:30.920 --> 0:23:33.879 about fifty percent of Live and Dangerous is not live 0:23:34.040 --> 0:23:38.600 and is therefore not dangerous, but instead it's a studio recreation. 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:42.159 Some of the audience noise isn't even from Thin Lizzy shows, 0:23:42.359 --> 0:23:44.920 but instead from the tapes for David Bowie's so called 0:23:44.960 --> 0:23:48.919 live album Stage, which Tony Visconti was also working on 0:23:49.000 --> 0:23:54.440 at the time. The true backstory of Live and Dangerous 0:23:54.520 --> 0:23:56.640 was just as much of a secret as was Phil 0:23:56.720 --> 0:23:59.679 lein It's life. These days, no one on the outside 0:23:59.760 --> 0:24:02.000 knew it, and many on the inside didn't either. But 0:24:02.320 --> 0:24:05.439