MS...
CLAS
SiC
Li
VE
BU AL
33
1/3
RPM
THIN LIZZY Live And Dangerous
A landmark year for legendary American record producvocal is to sing the song in the same way. Otherwise the live er Tony Visconti, 1977 saw him help to create two of David voice will poke through if the new voice is not in sync. Bowie’s greatest works, Low and “Heroes”, before applying “We spent a few days re-recording a few vocals. It went his skills to Irish rockers Thin Lizzy and guiding them towards very well. Once we established a sound and a system to do their golden period. this, Phil suggested that we re-do all the vocals. So we did. Hot on the heels of the Visconti-produced Bad Reputation, “Then we noticed that Gorham and Robertson were not Lizzy’s eighth studio album, the band embarked on a 40on mic for backing vocals half the time. If you listen closely date North American tour, before ending the year with a run you can hear Phil doubling the backing vocals at the same of UK shows. It was during this tour that Live And Dangerous time he was singing lead! Then Phil realised that he’d missed – a double album claimed by many a few notes on the bass when he to be one of the best live collections was singing live. Could we replace Released: June 2 1978 on Vertigo Records of all-time – was recorded. Recorded: in Philadelphia, London & Toronto some? ‘Of course!’ Featuring definitive versions of “The bass was harder and more Produced by: Thin Lizzy & Tony Visconti ‘Still In Love With You’ and ‘Rosaprecise and so all the bass parts lie’/‘Cowgirl’s Song’, along with were replaced. In walked Gorham ‘Jailbreak’, ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ and other recent and Robertson. Since it was so easy to replace Phil’s parts, chart hits, Live And Dangerous represented a major peak could they re-do theirs? “Of course!” But now it was obvious for the ‘definitive’ line-up: Phil Lynott, Brian Downey, Scott that this was not completely live anymore. The guitars, bass Gorham and Brian Robertson. and vocals were replaced – just Brian Downey’s drums and Despite the lofty status of Live And Dangerous, however, the audience reaction were left! Fortunately, Downey liked like so many other albums of its genre, it relied only partly on his playing and we kept all the drums. the live recordings taken from the U.S. and London shows, “I will stand by the fact that much of it is overdubbed in when Lizzy’s crew included tour manager Frank Murray and the studio for the reasons I have already stated. One more FOH sound engineer Peter Eustace. detail is that, whereas the bass, lead vocals, backing vocals With a full diary, Visconti (above far right) could not imwere replaced, the live guitars were used, but they were mediately commit to a follow-up to Bad Reputation, and so double-tracked in the studio, giving them a much fuller Lynott persuaded the producer to quickly compile the best sound. So, you are hearing a bit of the live guitar perforrecordings from the recent tours. This he did, alongside the mances. I’ve listened to the remastered CDs recently and I genius frontman, at the former’s own Good Earth Studios in can clearly hear the sound of double-tracked guitars. London (later to become Dean Street Studios). “Despite the necessary trickery this album is very real. It Visconti takes up the story: “We listened to at least 30 hours represents electrifying moments before an audience and of tape. We definitely had something, but the task of choos- fabulous second chances to get it right in the studio.” ing the right takes was awesome. When we did, Phil asked if The reformed Thin Lizzy are now active as Black Star Riders, he could touch up some vocals. There was no harm in that while Visconti’s relationship with David Bowie was renewed –– this is commonly done for live albums because of techniwith the acclaimed 2013 ‘comeback’ album, The Next Day. cal faults, like microphone wire buzz and other gremlins. The trick to getting a studio vocal to sound like a convincing live tonyvisconti.com • thinlizzy.org • blackstarriders.com 42 • input beta