Today as I was heading into a 7-11 a homeless
man stopped me and complimented me on my style. “Hey, man – are you a DJ?” I
assured him I was just a dude. He replied by saying “You look like…you know who
you look like? Like that guy…that guy…” he almost faded away completely before
his mind fired the memory, “You look like Ted Nugent!”
He actually looked more like Ted Nugent than I
did, but what the hell. The weirdest part was that earlier in the day I had
been listening to a killer live version of “Hibernation.” Listen to that here. I told him this and the synchronicity of it all blew his mind.
I’ll talk about my Ted Nugent album when I
roll it. For now, let’s talk about what I did roll.
Disc 1251 is… Self-Titled
Artist:
Thin Lizzy
Year of Release: 1971
What’s up with the
Cover?
I think this is some chrome on a car, reflecting another car. Neither car is
what collectors would call “cherry”. Also featured on this cover…an annoying
graphic advertising all the exciting content you’ll get in lieu of having a proper
cover photo.
How I Came to Know
It: This
was one of my first Thin Lizzy purchases, and I bought it in the glow and
excitement of realizing how much I liked them. My friend Spence had also sang its praises.
How It Stacks Up: I have ten Thin Lizzy albums. Thin Lizzy is a
great band, but someone had to finish last, and their eponymous debut is it,
landing in 10th spot.
Ratings: 2 stars but almost 3
Thin Lizzy’s first album is a bit weird. It isn’t annoyingly weird, or
obsessed with its own cleverness, it’s just all over the map and hard to get a
handle on.
This is an album by a band with enormous talent and no fear. All the
things that make Thin Lizzy great –rich guitar riffs, funky basslines and Phil
Lynott’s smooth flowing vocals – but it is all organized a bit haphazardly. The
band has all the elements it is going to need for success, but it hasn’t
learned how to get out of its own way. The result is a complicated brilliance
that I could always appreciate but couldn’t always groove to.
There are great moments on the record. “Honesty is No Excuse” is like a seventies FM radio hit (I say ‘like’
with purpose – this album yielded no hits). It is heartfelt and honest, the
kind of song you play for your girl on your car radio as you feel her thigh
through the thin jean of her bell-bottoms.
The album also has great Lynott ramblings. “Diddy Levine” is a rambling tale of love, regret, class warfare, and
I don’t know what. Frankly, it was hard to follow, but fun to try. Interspersed
with this rambling tale of various star-crossed lovers we get some killer
guitar work from Eric Bell. It is a great song even if I was never sure exactly
what it is trying to tell me.
“Diddy Levine” is representative
of the feel of the whole album. Bell’s guitar draws you in with its groove, but
the song as a whole is a complex meander that requires a lot of attention to
appreciate.
At times, it feels like Thin Lizzy is trying to play sixties psychedelia,
and at other times seventies rock but what is really happening is that they are
exploring a plethora of sound and seeing what fits them best.
My biggest gripe with this record are the 9 bonus tracks aggressively
advertised on the cover. This includes a bunch of A Side singles, the “New Day”
EP and four 1977 remixes. The best thing in there is a kitschy song called “Old Moon Madness” but it didn’t make up
for a lot of extras that just detracted from the original
album.
The musicianship on this record is stellar whatever the band is doing.
Listening to Lynott sing and Bell play guitar is a joy regardless of how many
times they decide to change the plot or musical style. That brilliance is what decided
me on keeping this record, even though when I started writing this review I had
consigned it to banishment. Sure, it is unfocused and wild, but when you play
this good, you get allowances.
Best tracks: Honesty is No Excuse, Diddy Levine, Remembering
(Part One)
No comments:
Post a Comment