Label: Vertigo Records (US), 842 433-2
Style: Hard Rock, Classic Rock
Country: Dublin, Ireland
Time: 38:26
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 238 Mb
Now to continue my one man quest to get you to put down your Viking metal albums and other silly things from Scandinavia and get you to listen to some Thin Lizzy! This is for your own good! Anyway, yes no reviews for this one either but than can be expected as ‘Fighting’ is one of the lesser known Lizzy albums which always struck me as odd as it’s a fucking corker.
‘Fighting’ is perhaps most significant as it’s the album where Brian ‘Robbo’ Robertson and Scott ‘Joni Mitchell’ Gorham discovered their signature twin guitar sound, meaning guitar harmonies
a plenty. Also ‘Fighting’ can be considered the first truly focused and
more importantly hard rocking Lizzy album, as previous albums weren’t
really too consistent and showed a band trying and often failing to find
their own identity.
Song wise Fighting shows a band truly hitting their stride, of course most will have you believe that ‘Jailbreak’
was the bands turning point, commercially this is true but ‘Fighting’
is a excellent collection of melodic hard rock songs that I must stress
shouldn’t be overlooked. Bob Seger’s ‘Rosalie’ kicks things off and it’s a nice little rocking number, however when compared with the ‘Live and Dangerous’
version it sounds a tad weedy, but that minor gripe aside (‘Live and
Dangerous’ absolutely destroys! Listen to it now!) it’s a still a
classic fat slice of Thin Lizzy (Alan Partridge? Answers on a postcard). ‘For Those Who Love to Live’ is an overlooked masterpiece, and dedicated to another dead Irish legend George ‘Pist’ Best
(an alcoholic football player, to those of you who don’t know), this is
the first Lizzy song to display the twin guitar harmony sound that
would prove so influential. ‘Suicide’ is the hardest rocking song on
this album and well flat out rocks, Robbo’s guitar solo is one of my
favourites especially the lick where he plays a double stop and then
slides it up an octave, simply magic! ‘Wild One’
is simply one of the finest ballads the band, or anyone else for that
matter has ever done. It’s steeped in Irish history and is sentimental
and romantic without being sappy, something very few could pull off, but
Phillip Lynott
being god, of course could. Also take note guitar fans, the harmonised
lead is absolutely magnificent it sends shivers down my spine, see I
told you this was better than Viking metal! ‘Fighting My Way Back’
is another overlooked yet masterful Thin Lizzy track, upbeat and hard
rocking. ‘King’s Vengeance’ yet again is exceptionally good, yet no ones
heard the thing! Please, rock fans give this album a listen. ‘Spirit Slips Away’
is strangely ominous and during the songs recording Scott and Robbo
supposedly discovered their guitar harmony sound but its one of the
albums weaker moments. ‘Silver Dollar’ is just a bit of filler really, nothing too offensive but it doesn’t really warrant repeated listens. ‘Freedom Song’,
sentimental and overtly romanticised but Phil and the boys pull it off
in style, some lovely guitar harmonies and a story of a man being hung
and shouting freedom (sounds like a Mel Gibson film!). ‘Ballad of a Hard Man’
is a funky hard rocker, but Lizzy could do funky quite well as Phil was
black, however this rule doesn’t always work, for instance I don’t
think Entombed could do funk…….but I digress.
This
is without doubt the classic Thin Lizzy line up, the whole band shine
and not a single note is out of place. Phil Lynott is not only the
consummate songwriter but also a impossibly tight bassist with an
instantly recognisable fat bass sound. Brian Downey,
is one of the most underrated drummers in rock, hard hitting, neat and
tight with a distinctive style. Now, at this point I must stress that
Brian Robertson was actually better on guitar than Scott Gorham, but
still Scott is still excellent although his playing is not quite as jaw
dropping as on say ‘Bad Reputation’ or ‘Black Rose’.
So Brian Robertson was the best guitar player in Thin Lizzy at this
point, I can put this down to the fact that his playing is more balls
out, than Scott’s, but then he was a whiskey drinking Scottish mentalist
whereas Scott just looked like Joni Mitchell, so there you go.
Well
if you want an excellent 70’s Rock ‘n’ Roll album look no further.
‘Fighting’ has it all great songs, exceptional playing and even a touch
of romance, well what more could you possibly want?
(metal-archives.com/reviews/Thin_Lizzy/Fighting/4445/)
Album recorded and mixed in the analog domain - AAD. That is, a minimum of digital processing.
A=Analog.
D=digital. The first letter stands for how the music was recorded. The
second letter for how it was mixed. The third letter stands for the
format (all CD's will have D as the last letter).
01. Rosalie (03:15)
02. For Those Who Love to Live (03:11)
03. Suicide (05:16)
04. Wild One (04:21)
05. Fighting My Way Back (03:15)
06. King's Vengeance (04:08)
07. Spirit Slips Away (04:39)
08. Silver Dollar (03:28)
09. Freedom Song (03:35)
10. Ballad of a Hard Man (03:13)
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