Phil Lynott: Songs for While I’m Away Saturday 10.00pm BBC2
Dec 3, 2021 9:54:18 GMT
charles, MrWaistcoat, and 2 more like this
Post by 4th Chord on Dec 3, 2021 9:54:18 GMT
As title.
Death of a rock star
Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott lived fast and died young – but his short life wasn’t wasted
THERE ARE two ways to view the life and career of Philip Lynott, the Thin Lizzy bass player, singer and songwriter famed for classic rock songs like The Boys Are Back in Town, Whiskey in the Jar, Jailbreak and Dancing in the Moonlight.
One is simply to admire what he achieved from such unpromising beginnings. The tale of a mixed-heritage boy born in England to an absent father and struggling young mother who became, in the words of Bob Geldof, “the first Irish rock star” is one of the great rags-to-riches narratives in music.
The other is to feel sadness and dismay at the waste of a unique talent. Lynott died of septicaemia and pneumonia in January 1986, aged just 36, following years of drug abuse.
Songs for While I’m Away, director Emer Reynolds’s documentary about Lynott, acknowledges both the joy and the pain of his life while ultimately accentuating the unlikely triumph of it all. The film tells his story using archive footage of Lynott, his voice and his songs, alongside new testimonies from friends, family members and collaborators. Famous faces include Midge Ure, Suzi Quatro, Huey Lewis and members of Metallica and U2.
Born in West Bromwich to a wilful Irish teenage runaway and a Guyanese stowaway, Lynott was raised from the age of seven by his grandmother in the Dublin suburb of Crumlin after his mother made what she described as the “heartrending” decision that he would have a better life there. He overcame a tricky family dynamic, racial prejudice and a lack of confidence to become a rock star, but it was not an easy transformation.
On the outside, with his studded wristband, predatory leer and leather trousers, Lynott was the archetypal rocker. Yet he was also vulnerable and riddled with contradictions. He was a shy boy who became an extrovert performer through sheer willpower; a thoughtful lyricist who sometimes played to the lowest common denominator; a party animal yet a perfectionist. In the film, his wife Caroline, from whom he had separated when he died, describes Lynott as a “very, very complex man”.
As the documentary makes plain, Thin Lizzy earned their success the hard way, spending years paying their dues in Dublin and London before they had their first hit in 1973 with Whiskey in the Jar, a throwaway reboot of an Irish traditional tune that Lynott and the rest of the band thought “terrible”.
They struck gold three years later with The Boys Are Back in Town. With its duelling guitars, unfettered machismo and ragged street poetry, it’s one of rock’s great anthems. Back home, the global success of a young, highly sexualised black man singing contemporary myths and legends signified the promise of a new Ireland, and galvanised would-be punks such as Geldof and U2 into action. Lynott remains a hometown hero. In common with James Joyce, a statue of him stands in Dublin.
The success of The Boys Are Back in Town should have elevated Thin Lizzy to the same level as Queen. However, dogged by misfortune, personnel changes and general carelessness, they gradually fell into decline.
THE DOCUMENTARY has some significant omissions. It skirts around the seamier side of Lynott’s later years, when he succumbed to heroin addiction, and doesn’t acknowledge the son that was given up for adoption in 1968.
Overall, however, it throws a welcome spotlight on an underrated artist. The contributions of his wife and their two daughters, Sarah and Cathleen, are particularly moving. Still very young when he died, they recall only hazy glimpses of their father, but find solace in the songs he wrote for each of them. Through their loving accounts, and the music he left behind, it’s clear that though Lynott’s life was much too short, it was far from wasted.
GRAEME THOMSON
Death of a rock star
Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott lived fast and died young – but his short life wasn’t wasted
THERE ARE two ways to view the life and career of Philip Lynott, the Thin Lizzy bass player, singer and songwriter famed for classic rock songs like The Boys Are Back in Town, Whiskey in the Jar, Jailbreak and Dancing in the Moonlight.
One is simply to admire what he achieved from such unpromising beginnings. The tale of a mixed-heritage boy born in England to an absent father and struggling young mother who became, in the words of Bob Geldof, “the first Irish rock star” is one of the great rags-to-riches narratives in music.
The other is to feel sadness and dismay at the waste of a unique talent. Lynott died of septicaemia and pneumonia in January 1986, aged just 36, following years of drug abuse.
Songs for While I’m Away, director Emer Reynolds’s documentary about Lynott, acknowledges both the joy and the pain of his life while ultimately accentuating the unlikely triumph of it all. The film tells his story using archive footage of Lynott, his voice and his songs, alongside new testimonies from friends, family members and collaborators. Famous faces include Midge Ure, Suzi Quatro, Huey Lewis and members of Metallica and U2.
Born in West Bromwich to a wilful Irish teenage runaway and a Guyanese stowaway, Lynott was raised from the age of seven by his grandmother in the Dublin suburb of Crumlin after his mother made what she described as the “heartrending” decision that he would have a better life there. He overcame a tricky family dynamic, racial prejudice and a lack of confidence to become a rock star, but it was not an easy transformation.
On the outside, with his studded wristband, predatory leer and leather trousers, Lynott was the archetypal rocker. Yet he was also vulnerable and riddled with contradictions. He was a shy boy who became an extrovert performer through sheer willpower; a thoughtful lyricist who sometimes played to the lowest common denominator; a party animal yet a perfectionist. In the film, his wife Caroline, from whom he had separated when he died, describes Lynott as a “very, very complex man”.
As the documentary makes plain, Thin Lizzy earned their success the hard way, spending years paying their dues in Dublin and London before they had their first hit in 1973 with Whiskey in the Jar, a throwaway reboot of an Irish traditional tune that Lynott and the rest of the band thought “terrible”.
They struck gold three years later with The Boys Are Back in Town. With its duelling guitars, unfettered machismo and ragged street poetry, it’s one of rock’s great anthems. Back home, the global success of a young, highly sexualised black man singing contemporary myths and legends signified the promise of a new Ireland, and galvanised would-be punks such as Geldof and U2 into action. Lynott remains a hometown hero. In common with James Joyce, a statue of him stands in Dublin.
The success of The Boys Are Back in Town should have elevated Thin Lizzy to the same level as Queen. However, dogged by misfortune, personnel changes and general carelessness, they gradually fell into decline.
THE DOCUMENTARY has some significant omissions. It skirts around the seamier side of Lynott’s later years, when he succumbed to heroin addiction, and doesn’t acknowledge the son that was given up for adoption in 1968.
Overall, however, it throws a welcome spotlight on an underrated artist. The contributions of his wife and their two daughters, Sarah and Cathleen, are particularly moving. Still very young when he died, they recall only hazy glimpses of their father, but find solace in the songs he wrote for each of them. Through their loving accounts, and the music he left behind, it’s clear that though Lynott’s life was much too short, it was far from wasted.
GRAEME THOMSON
