Sweatin To The Oldies...Thin Lizzy - Jailbreak

"Hey you...good looking female...c'mere"

Ahh yes, i remember 1976 like it was just yesterday. I can remember when "The Boys Are Back in Town" completely dominated FM radio airwaves. I can remember cruising along the coast with the wind in my hair, my girl by my side, and the law on my tail, listening to this fantastic album by Thin Lizzy...well sorta.

Okay, so what if i didn't hear this album until 30 years after it's release...this album is easily one of my favorite rock n' roll albums of all time, it's got beautiful melodies, thoughtful lyrics, hair-singing riffage, and lots and lots of attitude.

By the time 1976 had rolled around, Thin Lizzy had already put out 5 albums in the past 5 years and still hadn't really scored a hit, i mean sure, they had alot of great songs on those first 5 albums, but NOTHING the likes of which they'd see on "Jailbreak", or after it for that matter. Really, the super pretty melodic songs on Jailbreak like "Fight or Fall" and "I'll Come Running Back" and "Angel From The Coast" were a style the band was all too familiar with on their first 4 albums, on "Fighting" they really started picking up on their soon to be signature dual guitar harmony sound. Jailbreak was the album where Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson really synced up their guitars to create some incredibly gorgeous rhythms and riffage that still stand tall to this day. Everyone nowadays is absolutely high as a kite on bands like Metallica, Down, Mastodon, Kylesa, Baroness, and countless, countless other bands that use dual guitarists to create some absolutely disgusting riffage, and most of those bands have Thin Lizzy to thank for that, in fact most of them even cite Thin Lizzy as a HUGE influence on their sound, and by listening to songs like: Jailbreak, Cowboy Song, and Emerald, that influence is definitely obvious, but the one song where the future of the rock guitar was changed forever, truly was located in the song "The Boys Are Back In Town", the song starts off with a thunderous riff that still to this day forces people to turn the radio up as loud as possible, then the riffs on the verse dance wildly until it breaks back into the opening riff and then BOOM BABY at 1:05 one of the greatest guitar riffs EVER comes in...that twin guitar harmony is just...words can't describe the emotions that riff makes me feel. That song is easily one of the funnest songs ever to air-guitar to, the riffs are so incredible that ANYONE can feel like a guitar god when strumming along to such heavenly riffage, it's just one of the few guitar riffs in rock n' roll history that is truly perfect.

Of course, 'Boys is one of my favorite songs ever, however...my favorite song on this album is, of course, the title track "Jailbreak" it's a song about...well, a jail break, but that's now what makes the song so mighty.

It starts off with a very mighty riff that transpires into another one of the greatest guitar riffs ever played by anyone ever. The guitar riffs paint this big epic painting that indicate the desperation and attitude in which this jail break needs in order to be pulled off, and the lyrics paint a story of somebody who feels he and his cohorts are wrongly imprisoned, so most of the song is about planning the escape and at 2:18 Phil Lynott loudly and proudly proclaims "BREAK OUTTTTT" and the alarms and sirens actually wail as indicated in the song, once the break out is performed the guitar riff, which is the same as when the escaped was being planned, now makes you feel like you have to run for your life to escape from the law who is surely on your trail, but not before stopping to talk to a good looking female and telling her to "c'mere".

Needless to say, i revere this album very very highly in the pantheon of rock music and feel that if this album had not been created, that alot of really good bands may not have even formed due to the lack of an album with such attitude and beauty. Even though i didn't grow up in the era that this album came out, and it took me forever to listen to the entire album and not just the singles, this album ranks very highly on my favorite albums of all time list, in fact, dare i say that this album deserves a spot in the top 10? I dare. This album is definitely one of my top 10-15 favorite albums of all time.