50 Years Ago, This Beloved Rock Song Saved The Band’s Career
Irish hard rock band Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys Are Back in Town” celebrates its golden anniversary this April.
Released in 1976 as a single for their “Jailbreak” album, the song has been described by its bandmates as the song that saved the band. In an interview with Sound, guitarist Scott Gorham said that the song almost didn’t make it on the album. “We had demoed maybe 15 songs and were only going to put ten on the album. As a band we chose that ten,” Gorham said. ”It was one of the managers that went through the ones we’d rejected and The Boys Are Back In Town was among them, though it didn’t have any guitar harmonies on it at the time, though the lyrics were complete. So we swapped it over. We were pretty bad at picking the singles.”
He continued to agree that the song was “their savior” and the defining album statement. “If it wasn’t for The Boys Are Back In Town and a couple of others, you and I wouldn’t even be talking,” the guitarist said.
A month after the song’s release, “The Boys Are Back In Town” entered Billboard’s Hot 100 in the US and by July, it peaked at No. 12.
Since then, the song has had a place in pop culture, the rock song has been voted No. 272 on the 2021 Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Songs of All Time” list, a whopping upgrade from being No. 499 in the original 2004 list. Additionally, it’s been featured on numerous film and television soundtracks, including: A Knight’s Tale, The Simpsons, Rick and Morty, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and more.
Rolling Stone went on to credit the charm and success of the song to late frontman Phil Lynott’s “Gaelic soul of a self-described ‘black Irish bastard’” and the twin-guitar lead by Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson.
Although it’s been speculated what and who the song was about, it was never confirmed by the band. However, it has been speculated that the song was in reference to the Mancunian “Quality Street Gang., some of whom used to frequent his mother’s, Philomena, workplace’s bar.
Lynott’s mother addressed those allegations in an interview with the Manchester Evening News, referencing Lynott writing two songs about the patrons. “All of those people came in my bar and Philip liked them. They were characters,” says Philomena “He loved the nickname Jimmy The Weed. When the song became a hit, he gave Jimmy his own gold album.”
She added that she heard the rumors that Jimmy was a member of the gang. “If there ever was such a gang – and I did meet most of them that got named – they were lovely people. Gangsters today are going round shooting people. I never heard of those boys shooting anybody,” Philomena added.
Despite touring with the likes of Bob Seger, Slade, and BTO, “The Boys Are Back In Town” was what helped “Jailbreak” and Thin Lizzy earn their only RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) recognition, receiving a gold certification. In their home country of the United Kingdom, the album charted for a whole year.
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