Phil Lynott

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Philip Parris "Phil" Lynott (/ˈlaɪnət/; 20 August 1949 – 4 January 1986) was an Irish musician, singer and songwriter. His most commercially successful group was Thin Lizzy, of which he was a founding member, the principal songwriter, lead vocalist and bassist. He later also found success as a solo artist.

Growing up in Dublin in the 1960s, Lynott fronted several bands as a lead vocalist, most notably Skid Row alongside Gary Moore, before learning the bass guitar and forming Thin Lizzy in 1969. After initial success with "Whiskey in the Jar", the band found strong commercial success in the mid-1970s with hits such as "The Boys Are Back in Town", "Jailbreak" and "Waiting for an Alibi", and became a popular live attraction due to the combination of Lynott's vocal and songwriting skills and the use of dual lead guitars. Towards the end of the 1970s, Lynott also embarked upon a solo career, published two books of poetry, and after Thin Lizzy disbanded, he assembled and fronted the band Grand Slam, of which he was the leader until it folded in 1985.

Phil Lynott (song)

"Phil Lynott" is a 2008 single by the Irish band Jape, taken from their third studio album, Ritual. Released on 19 December 2008, Jape fans were behind an unsuccessful online petition to establish the song as the Christmas number one in the Irish Singles Chart. "Phil Lynott" was well-received, with critics generally regarding it as one of the finer songs on the Ritual album and the Irish Independent naming it the best Irish song of the year.

Song information

"Phil Lynott" has been described as "a children’s fairy tale type of song". It is a simple song with three chords which describes the events of one night when the writer attended a live performance by the heavy metal band Mastodon in Dublin. Mastodon performed a cover of a Thin Lizzy song – the band fronted by the musician of the title. Following the show's completion, the writer and his friends witnessed a lunar eclipse. The lyrics "One day I will be a dead man who plays the bass from Crumlin/Like Phil Lynott" were praised in a review by the national broadcaster RTÉ for their mixture of "humour and seriousness through raw, emotional thoughts". Jape's founder Richie Egan, like Lynott, has connections to the Dublin suburb of Crumlin.