Song of the Week #24

I was first introduced to Thin Lizzy around 2005/2006, whilst on holiday with my family and some family friends, renting a villa in Cyprus. There was always some music on in the evenings whilst playing cards or hanging around (unfortunately for us kids, the pool was off limits after dark). The dad of the other family was a bit of a rocker, and on that trip introduced me to Oasis amongst others, but arguably the biggest impact on the type of music I listened to in my teenage years and beyond, was being introduced to Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy, one of my favourite bands of all time.

I was tempted to play one of the songs from my favourite album Chinatown, or point out the sumptuous guitar phrasing in She Knows, but for once, being a guitarist myself, I decided that actually, drums don’t get enough credit from me that often. So instead, I’ve picked a song I was introduced to on that holiday in the mid noughties, and one that (if I’m honest) I don’t think I’ve ever listened to the studio version of because of how good this performance is.

This Song of the Week is taken from the 1978 masterpiece Live and Dangerous, and involves one of the best drum solos of all time in my opinion. I’ve seen enough drum solos in person (some good, some not so) to know how they typically go (phrase, wait for crowd cheer, bigger phrase, bigger cheer, slow down, speed up to a finale). But this piece of wizardry is different, 2 minutes flies by in no time at all. Brian Downey just sounds to be having a whale of a time, refusing to pause and give respite, yet holding your attention without dragging on too long, and holding an underlying rhythm. Its how a drum solo should be, mid-song rather than stand alone, memorable, and (being recorded in the mid 70s) undoubtedly fuelled by cocaine. Sha La La (Live) by Thin Lizzy.