Thin Lizzy ‎– Jailbreak

Anyone got the reel to reel? It sounds really good.

In many ways Jailbreak was to Thin Lizzy, what Electric Warrior was to T-Rex ... both of these great bands were drawn to the world's attention by these releases, and in so doing, for all that was gained, there was much that was lost; though you’d have to be a purist to understand this. Jailbreak was a dynamic album, it had the swagger, it had the hooks, and above all, it had the hits.

The previous five ... yes, the five previous albums from Thin Lizzy all had an aggressive hard edge, but here in the era of Steely Dan and slick often over produced records, Thin Lizzy attempted to walk a fine line by incorporating Townshend, and Hendrix stylistic maneuvers, while attempting to put a tougher edge on the narrative exploits of The Allman Brothers, where they stunningly tied together soaring flights of sound, and softer rock ballads that stood tall, attacking the listener in a subversive nature, a-la Bruce Springsteen. And while comparisons can be made, it’s the fact that these boys used their influences as building blocks, though they would never be more than an after-thought from the Springsteen ear.

Truth be told, Thin Lizzy make no bones about their lyrics, which is probably their greatest weakness. But that’s all cool, because with twin lead guitars, it’s all about the rock n’ roll, and how narratives of male angst and posturing tie the power of the music together. Seriously, it’s been more than thirty years, but when my head shifts gears from the music to the verse, and I hear lines like, “Oh, poor Romeo, sitting all on his owneo,” I tend to shutter with laughter, realizing that the album cover says it all. This is a very amateurish album, one that’s embarrassing at best ... but when nearly any one of the songs splinters my speakers, my hand reaches out instinctively, just to turn up the volume, and remember how good it felt to be so young and strong.

*** The Fun Facts regarding the album cover: "I was always proud of the ‘Jailbreak’ cover art but the poster was even better, as it combined the front and back artwork very effectively and gave added emphasis and meaning to the whole futuristic ‘warlord’ theme that myself and Philip came up with for the album.

Myself and Philip were both very influenced by H.G.Wells ‘War of the Worlds’ and American Marvel comics; Philip wanted something that reflected these influences and this artwork was the result. Together we worked on the imaginary story of ‘The Warrior’ that Philip had in his mind and I reworked the roughs to reflect this idea until it all held together. The influence of another great American comic book artist we both loved, Neal Adams, is all over this one. I loved the use of silver and we had to fight for it as an extra print run though the record company were up for it anyway so it got through."

*** The Fun Facts: Eric Bell, who played guitar for the band during their early period, was a huge fan of John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and Eric Clapton. He bought a copy of "The Dandy," a publication whose sister publication "Beano," was pictured being read by Clapton on the LP cover of the Bluesbreakers' album. There was a character in a story The Dandy named 'Tin Lizzie', and the band adopted the name, with the 'tin' changed to 'Thin' as a not-so-subtle riff on the way that Dubliners pronounce words like 'Thursday' and 'Throat', making them sound more like 'Tursday' and 'troat.' For some of their early gigs, the band were mistakenly promoted as Tin Lizzy or Tin Lizzie.

Review by Jenell Kesler

Solid release by Thin Lizzy; prob their best and most well know record. Great clear quality sound but a bit quiet on the whole. Damage to outer sleeve.

I have a copy with Mastering SID Code: IFPI L337
Matrix / Runout: SDMX-8227852 02

Awesome album from one of the most under rated and appreciated bands of all time !!

Are you sure that's a rerelease cause nothing is mentionned about a repress of 1980's. I've got the same edition and the only date of release that appears is 1976.