Retro Video of the Week: "Killer on the Loose" by Thin Lizzy

Continuing the Thin Lizzy love fest from yesterday, I decided to go with "Killer on the Loose" as the Retro Video of the Week, even though it's technically outside the parameters of Retro Video of the Week since it was released before MTV came into existence.  But shit, it's my blog.  I don't even give a care.

Released in September 1980 off of the Chinatown album, "Killer on the Loose" is a frantic, almost punkish rocker about, well, a killer on the loose, with references to everybody's favorite serial killer, Jack the Ripper.  The song hit #10 on the UK charts (the band's last Top 10 hit in the UK) and #5 on the Irish charts, although not without controversy.  When it was released, the Yorkshire Ripper had been terrorizing British women for several years, and between August and November 1980, he murdered two more women and attacked three more.  Needless to say, the references to Jack the Ripper and stalking victims in the song, as well as the trench coat worn by Phil Lynott and the images of women in the video didn't sit well with an already edgy public.  Worry not, they caught the Yorkshire Ripper in January 1981, so all's well that ends well -- not for his 13 victims or their families, I guess.