![]() The liner notes to this edition are quite excellent, among the best I have ever run into in a deluxe edition. (“Derby Blues” is also on a more recent release called UK Tour 75.) We’ll call it ‘Derby Blues'”. It still has all the energy and fire that it would later embody. “This is a new number, this one!” says Phil. The album ends with a live take called “Derby Blues”, which is an embrionic version of “Cowboy Song”. As an unreleased song, this is a valuable inclusion, albeit not a standout song. It is complete with some skeletal vocals from Phil, but this is essentially a blues jam. “Blues Boy” is a completely unreleased track, a blues as you might have guessed. Then there is an extended cut of “Fight Or Fall” with some very tasty slide guitar brought up to the forefront. BBC recordings of the title track, “Emerald”, and others are nice and clean. The remixes are followed by some live takes. I especially enjoyed the previously unheard lyrics from Phil. The result is some fine alternate versions that won’t replace the originals but serve as interesting companion pieces. Then he and Scott Gorham added previously unheard lyrics, solos and fills. His strategy was simple: some subtle fixes to out-of-tune guitars and drums that were mixed too low. The bonus disc kicks off with four remixes helmed by Joe Elliott, one of the biggest Lizzy fans out there. As good as the album version is, it was live that “Jailbreak” burned. The riff, the melody, but it really came alive in a live setting. In a way, this is Lizzy’s Bon Jovi song, but it is no less classic for it.Īnd “Jailbreak”? Everything about it is perfect. Didn’t Jon always sing about the boys being back in town back then? It had a tasty guitar harmony part for Richie Sambora to sink his teeth into, and it was melodic and radio-worthy. They covered it back in 1989 on a charity CD that I’ll cover another time. “Boys Are Back” is one I discovered initially through Bon Jovi. I don’t really need to talk “Jailbreak” and “The Boys Are Back In Town”, do I?Īlright, I will. They go together like peanut butter and jam. In my mind, the two songs are one in the same now. One of the true classics on Jailbreak was “Cowboy Song”, a song that melded live with Lizzy’s cover of Bob Seger’s “Rosalie”. This really anticipates where Iron Maiden were going to go later on. Once again, I feel that Steve Harris probably studied this song intensely. “Emerald” is another Phil historical epic. This is the kind of thing that Phil had done so well on albums like Nightlife. “Fight Or Fall” is a great ballad, acoustic and soulful. Multiple sections collide, thundering drums roll, and solos rage. It’s a classic heavy rocker that I am sure people like Steve Harris studied meticulously to learn the mysterious art of songwriting. But it works, because it’s Phil, and everything he did sounded sincere and cool. The lyrics are kinda cheesey: “Whoah-oh, poor Romeo, sittin’ all on his own-e-o”. “Romeo and the Lonely Girl” is another one of Phil’s romantic classic rockers. It rides on top a rhythmic, rolling guitar riff, but it’s also one of Phil’s more memorable compositions. I think the second track, “Angel From the Coast”, is one of Lizzy’s greatest album cuts. It’s a sweet little love ditty as only Phil can do it, romantic but classy all the way. Until I got this deluxe, I hadn’t played Jailbreak in a while, and I had completely forgotten about great album cuts like “Running Back”. An entire disc’s worth in fact! The remastering sounds good enough to me. Jailbreak‘s been given some cool bonus tracks. Underappreciated? Sure, while everyone knows at least two songs from this album, how many friends of yours actually own a copy? This classic underappreciated masterpiece of rock goodness has finally been expanded with bonus tracks. THIN LIZZY – Jailbreak (2011 deluxe edition)
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