black rose: a rock legend

Thin Lizzy found the culmination of their sound with the hard rocking heavy folk of this mesmerizing mythic monument to the mountains of Mourne.  The band had enjoyed international success on their breakthrough album 'Jailbreak', with subsequent albums 'Johnny the Fox' and 'Bad Reputation' continuing to chart higher and higher in the UK.  All the while the band saw a revolving door for lead guitarists.  Brian Robertson left the group after their 'Live and Dangerous' album to be replaced by Gary Moore, who had filled in on a couple of previous occasions.  This was the first time that he was able to record an album with the band.  Moore looked back:    “I'll tell you how it started.  He said 'meet me tomorrow at nine in morning' and I thought 'what? Nine in the morning - how rock and roll is that?'  Then I went to meet him and we had a walk round Belfast and he took me to a Chinese restaurant and made me order something he knew I wouldn't like that meant he got to eat mine as well - and it didn't stop there - he always took what was mine, booze, women… but I loved him to bits. I still miss him today.  Phil was a great catalyst for what was going on. If you felt uncomfortable abut what was going on you could always go round and he would trivialise it - I was worried about punk and he said 'that's just rock with safety pins'.  We were hanging out with the guys from the Sex Pistols - I think Thin Lizzy were accepted by the punk community because we weren't so much older than them. Bands like Yes and Led Zeppelin were really shunned, they were seen as dinosaurs.  When I was in Thin Lizzy I was the straight guy. I was never into hard drugs or anything. When I was in America I would drink little bottles of Budweiser - it was so watered down you could drink twenty of them. The rest of the band would be on vodka and cocaine and smack. I stayed away, I just wanted to be a good player. I showed up on time and they would be late and high. I was a bit mad the first time I was in the band in 1974, but I was only 21.”

  The sessions for 'Black Rose' took place with producer Tony Visconti in Paris with Phil Lynott on bass guitar, lead vocals, and twelve-string guitar;  Scott Gorham on lead guitar, rhythm guitar, and backing vocals;  Gary Moore on lead and rhythm guitar, and backing vocals;  and Brian Downey on drums and percussion;   with Jimmy Bain playing bass guitar on "With Love"; Huey Lewis adding harmonica on "Sarah" and "With Love";  and Mark Nauseef sitting in on drums for "Sarah".   During the recording Lynott and Gorham became increasingly involved with heroin in addition to their usual excesses.    Visconti reveals:    "Being a father and studio owner brought about a certain air of responsibility and sobriety. I didn't expect a stretch limo to pull up outside my modest home and two inebriated rock stars to get out, waving large opened cans of Fosters lager. The rock stars were Phil Lynott and Scott Gorham. After greeting them at the door I could tell that these were not the first cans of lager they'd had that day. They were three sheets to the wind—maybe four! But they were laughing and friendly and full of enthusiasm...Moore replaced a very disenchanted Robertson, who was now pursuing a solo career. Both guitarists contributed greatly to Lizzy's legacy, but Moore was a pleasure to work with...Drugs were a staple for Lizzy. I believe they really killed Phil in the end...I once questioned his ability to play stoned. He replied that he'd been smoking dope for so long he could play extremely well stoned. According to Phil, it was the others in the group who shouldn't get high, not having the experience he had!"

Gorham describes Moore's contribution to the band:   "The guy was such a fantastic guitar player, but you really had to… umm… 'keep up' with Gary, if you know what I mean. He was very competitive. It seemed everything was a competition with him. So you got in there – got your competitive juices going also, because you never wanted to get left behind. It was good experience teaming up with him. Your game definitely had to tighten up when you’re working with a guy like that...It was more of a jam kind of thing. I would have a certain riff, and I’d say hey what do you think of this? Gary would say, 'That’s really cool, how about if we put this to it?' And he’d tag something of his onto it. And I’d be like yeah cool, and put my harmony line to it. Songs like those on ‘Black Rose’ they just kind of evolved themselves. Phil would always have some lyric going, and he’d ask to change a little bit here, so he could fit a different kind of melody line in there – and we’d accommodate that, yeah absolutely!"

Moore left the band during the subsequent tour to be replaced by Midge Ure who was replaced by Dave Flett who was replaced by Snowy White (who would be replaced by John Sykes).    Lynott would recall:    "Yeah, well we were looking for that solidness, y'know? The thing is, we got on well with Brian Robertson, but Brian was very independent.  Gary was a different type of character. Gary was very dependent, but in a way, because of his knowledge of the guitar he was a bit of a musical snob. He figured that because he knew more about the guitar than anyone else in the band he therefore knew how the band should be run better than anyone else in the band.  But with Snowy, Snowy's very quiet – but then so is Brian Downey very quiet. But quiet guys are the hardest to understand, because when they say no they mean no. They say it quietly but it's as strong as somebody screaming it, like me. Snowy'll go 'No, I don't want to play the song that way', and shows the strength of character. Obviously, we've gone for a little more security - someone who wanted to be in the band, and who wanted to have his say in the band but not just use it for his own benefit, who wanted the band to be a band. I think potentially now, if we can stay together, I think we can develop stronger now than with Gary. And I'm not saying that because every time you get a new guitarist you have to say 'this is the one!' But I think it balances better now. So potentially, we're up."

'Black Rose:  A Rock Legend' went to number eighty-one in the US, fifteen in Norway, eight in Sweden, and number two in the UK, making it the highest charting album of their career.







http://www.thinlizzyband.com/









"Róisín Dubh" combines traditional Irish folk tunes with original rock arrangements.  
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyuB_9VsdGk


Tell me the legends of long ago
When the kings and queens would dance in the realm of the Black Rose
Play me the melodies I want to know
So I can teach my children, oh

Pray tell me the story of young Cuchulainn
How his eyes were dark his expression sullen
And how he'd fight and always won
And how they cried when he was fallen

Oh tell me the story of the Queen of this land
And how her sons died at her own hand
And how fools obey commands
Oh tell me the legends of long ago

Where the mountains of Mourne come down to the sea
Will she no come back to me
Will she no come back to me

Oh Shenandoah I hear you calling
Far away you rolling river
Roll down the mountain side
On down on down go lassie go

Oh Tell me the legends of long ago
When the kings and queens would dance in the realms of the Black Rose
Play me the melodies so I might know
So I can tell my children, oh

My Roisin Dubh is my one and only true love
It was a joy that Joyce brought to me
While William Butler waits
And Oscar, he's going Wilde

Ah sure, Brendan where have you Behan?
Looking for a girl with green eyes
My dark Rosaleen is my only colleen
That Georgie knows Best

But Van is the man
Starvation once again
Drinking whiskey in the jar-o
Synge's Playboy of the Western World

As Shaw, Sean I was born and reared there
Where the Mountains of Mourne come down to the sea
Is such a long, long way from Tipperary








'Black Rose' 
full album:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddzXKQPsxT4



1. "Do Anything You Want To"   (Phil Lynott) 3:53
2. "Toughest Street in Town"   (Scott Gorham, Lynott, Gary Moore) 4:01
3. "S & M"   (Brian Downey, Lynott) 4:05
4. "Waiting for an Alibi"   (Lynott) 3:30
5. "Sarah"   (Lynott, Moore) 3:33
6. "Got to Give It Up"   (Gorham, Lynott) 4:24
7. "Get Out of Here"   (Lynott, Midge Ure) 3:37
8. "With Love"   (Lynott) 4:38
9. "Róisín Dubh (Black Rose): A Rock Legend" 7:06
    I. "Shenandoah"
    II. "Will You Go Lassie Go"
    III. "Danny Boy"
    IV. "The Mason's Apron"