Thin Lizzy – Chinatown

Vertigo

1980

On 10th of October 1980, Thin Lizzy released their tenth studio album entitled Chinatown to mostly mixed reviews. The album was recorded at Good Earth Studios at Soho in London produced by the band with the help of longtime producer Tony Visconti’s engineer Kit Woolven. After the runaway commercial success of the stunning Black Rose: A Rock Legend, Lizzy were always going to be up against it as regards delivering a record of comparable quality. After all, the band tended to have previous in this respect; certainly Johnny The Fox was considered a relatively poor follow-up to the seminal breakout record Jailbreak. Nevertheless, Chinatown is not without its merits as we will see later and gets something of a bad rep in this reviewers eyes. I have to say, the promotional work done for this record was outstanding with some £50,000 spent on everything from silk tour jackets to posters done in the traditional Chinese style and other various elaborate displays featuring similar artwork. Speaking of artwork, Chinatown features a gorgeous album cover (and back) courtesy of longtime Lizzy collaborator Jim Fitzpatrick which lead Scott Gorham to marvel at the detail of the work itself, right down to the painstakingly drawn individual scales on the oriental Dragon.

Some of the undeniable fall off in quality can be attributed to the changing of guitar personnel with Chinatown; guitarist Garry Moore had left the band for the second and final time only to be replaced by sometime touring guitarist for Pink Floyd, Snowy White. White, an excellent guitarist in his own right and student of the Blues was an odd choice right from the off. To be the lead guitarist in Thin Lizzy required an individual who could indulge in the panache and spectacle and, of course, all the other various distractions. Not that front man Phil Lynott was too concerned as he told White; “Don’t worry, you’ll be the muso in the band” and Scott Gorham speaking to the late Mark Putterford for his seminal book Phil Lynott: The Rocker recalled how White got the gig in the first place, Gorham: “We ended up holding auditions for our new guitar player at Shepperton Studios but they were going nowhere… In one studio I found Cliff Richard rehearsing and who should be playing guitar but Snowy White! so I invited him down to our studio and he came along and jammed. It sounded great, so as we were getting close to our deadline for finding a new guy we asked him if he would be interested joining full-time”. White was and is the professional musicians musician, Thin Lizzy at this time, accomplished yet decadent, so naturally a kind of awkward culture clash was bound to occur and this sense of awkwardness is evident throughout much of Chinatown, but that in a strange way is also part of its charm.

And that awkwardness is there right from the off with the opening track “We Will Be Strong”, probably the most anemic start to a Thin Lizzy record this side of Nightlife. The track is not awful by any stretch; Phil’s anthemic vocals are a highlight and the chorus is strong but the guitars meld into one another (and not in the classic Lizzy dual harmonic way) save for a guitar solo in the songs bridge and the track really should not have been selected to open the album. That song, in my opinion, should have been the excellent “Chinatown” the album’s title track and easily one of the best songs Lizzy had ever written. Beginning with an intriguing guitar riff courtesy of White which then transitions into a descending scale harmonic riff leading into the song proper and backed by an excellent shuffle beat by the hugely underrated Brian Downey leading into an impossible catchy chorus section which then segues into an extended guitar solo. The whole band is on top form here; the guitars are on point, Lynott is in his sneering element and Downey grooves like it’s no ones business. The track featured a memorable music video too which effortlessly screams “cool”.

“Sweetheart” follows and it is the token Phil Lynott Lothario pop song; nearly every Thin Lizzy record has one and this is largely no different from previous iterations but welcome for that very reason all the same. Beginning with tribal toms from Downey and a heavy guitar riff leading into a dual harmonic recurring riff after the chorus sections and the vocal layered refrain of “sweetheart” will get stuck in your head. “Sweetheart” overall is an inoffensive track and comes and goes without outstaying its welcome. The bouncy “Sugar Blues” is next beginning with an electric bluesy riff and drum rolls from Downey before descending into a fairly redundant pop/rock tune. “Sugar Blues” is easily the weakest track on a so far decent record and is utterly throwaway as a result, with not even an extended guitar solo able to redeem the track.

The same, however, cannot be said of the next song; “Killer On The Loose”, an utterly gripping track from start to finish and one of the best the band had written. Beginning with an ominous guitar riff and driving bass (and featuring a dash of keyboard from silent, unofficial at this point, member Darron Wharton), the track leads into Lynott’s gleeful retelling of a killer who is on the loose and you really cannot argue with lyrics such as; “Some people they call me Jack, some people they call me insane, I’m looking for somebody and I don’t even know her name”. The track then leads out with a devastating solo from White and Gorham with the catchy chorus refrain of “there’s a killer on the loose again, a lady-killer on the loose”. The tune did receive some backlash however in Britain owning to the Yorkshire Ripper case, at the time a serial killer who was murdering women, mainly prostitutes in the Leeds and Bradford areas. Lynott and the band were, disgustingly, accused of glorifying rape and because of pressure from women groups and moral groups the band was forced to drop the song from their set. Imagine what would happen now?

Next up is “Having A Good Time” a real boys own song (Lynott can even be heard name checking White twice before then mentioning Gorham and Downey) which starts off with heavy guitar and an odd acoustic riff overdub which follows throughout the verse sections. “Having A Good Time” is a fun track if not somehow feeling a bit forced but its a decent drinking song to boot. “Genocide (The Killing of the Buffalo)” is next and it is a kind of political song with allusions to the plight of native American Indians. The track itself begins with a suitably weighty guitar riff and lyrically Lynott is on top form here with excellent lyrics such as; “So listen to my story of Genocide, how they were hunted and slaughtered till there was no place left to hide, did you know the redman used to hold his head with pride, till every man, woman and child was destroyed”. Vocally, Lynott is at his best on the record here especially in the chorus section and the catchy refrain of “Buffala-o”. “Genocide” is a genuinely excellent track and it is lyrically and musically interesting enough to hold the listener’s attention.

“Didn’t I” follows and it’s a fairly maudlin, throwaway track, (the song is essentially about lost love) and musically it’s just fine and it’s yet another vehicle for Lynott to show off his softer side, But bar a few slow classics, Lizzy were always at their best when on full on rock mode. “Didn’t I” is not awful by any stretch but it’s just so samey and had been done better by the band previously (“Still In Love With You” for example). Chinatown finishes with “Hey You” a decent closer to the record that begins with an interesting odd time signature with a catchy chorus as usual that then transitions into fast middle section which contains a furious guitar solo before reverting back to the verse sections. The track is actually a fairly experimental composition and a hugely underrated Lizzy track to this reviewers ears.

Chinatown received mixed reviews upon its release and critics felt disappointed with the follow-up to Black Rose. The record charted reasonably well, but nowhere near as successful as its predecessor but the fans came out to see the band regardless. Certainly, Chinatown cannot compete with Black Rose; it is the poor relation, but in all honesty the record is far from being Thin Lizzy’s worst and for all the criticism leveled at Snowy White, his performance on this album is rather good, if not a bit reserved. I feel this record has a certain vibe to it, that is at lest some way attributable to Jim Fitzpatrick’s excellent album art but also the lyrical themes and sometimes experimental music contained within. If the record passed you by at the time, do revisit it again, it has at least two stone cold classic Lizzy tunes in “Chinatown” and “Killer On The Loose” and when it rocks, it rocks. What more would you want?

Works Cited:

Scott Gorham with Harry Doherty, Thin Lizzy – The Boys Are Back In Town, Omnibus Press, London, 2012.

Putterford, Mark., Phil Lynott: The Rocker, Omnibus Press, London, 2002.