CoronaVinyl Day 1 (A Favorite Album): Jailbreak by Thin Lizzy

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Given that today is St. Patrick's Day, a selection from Ireland's greatest rock and roll band ever seems appropriate.  Thin Lizzy is one of my favorite bands, and their 1976 album Jailbreak is arguably the best of their twelve studio albums.  Prior to this album, the band was not very well-known outside Ireland and the U.K., and Jailbreak helped break them into America.  It was their first album that charted on the Billboard album chart, rising as high as #18, and it was the first of five albums in a row that hit the Top 100 in America.

For anyone looking to get into Thin Lizzy, this is the album I would suggest as the first purchase. Not only does it have the band's two biggest and most-recognizable songs -- "The Boys Are Back In Town" and "Jailbreak" -- as well as some other Lizzy classics like "Cowboy Song," "Emerald," and "Warriors," but it features everything that made the band great: great riffs, lyrics that tell stories, twin lead guitars, and tight rock songs.

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Jailbreak"
The title track is a classic.  What a great barroom song.  That riff just grabs you. Its ballsy and teeming with mischief. Brian Downey's drumming is sneaky good, and Phil Lynott's lyrics are dangerous and dirty.  Overall, it's simply a fantastic hard rock song. VH1 rated "Jailbreak" as the 73rd best hard rock song of all-time. I probably would have put it higher, but they didn't ask me.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Cowboy Song"
How a half-black Irishman could capture the spirit of the American old west so well is beyond me, but that's why Phil Lynott was a better songwriter than you and I could ever hope to be. If you didn't know any better, you would think he was from Texas when you hear this song and its lyrics about rodeos, coyotes howling, busting broncs, and Southern girls. Regardless, this is a great rock song. It starts off slow and a cappella, like you're sitting around a campfire out on the range, and then it kicks into gear with Lizzy's classic twin-lead guitar attack brought to you by Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson.  Lynott wails.  There's a great guitar solo.  And then there's another great guitar solo that makes you want to grab the nearest spatula and bring your kitchen to its knees.