walking upstream…
Thin Lizzy
photo: chris hakkens · cc by-sa 2.0 ↗Thin Lizzy
Formed in Dublin in 1969 around bassist and frontman Phil Lynott, Thin Lizzy fused hard-rock muscle with the storytelling instincts of Irish folk and the blues, Lynott's rare gift being a poet's eye for narrative wrapped in a swaggering rock voice. Twin lead guitars harmonizing note-for-note became the band's signature, most famously on the barroom-nostalgia anthem 'The Boys Are Back in Town' — a sound that echoed on through a generation of hard rock guitarists who followed.
the sound in question
1976
The Boys Are Back in TownThin Lizzy
walk the tributaries ↓
Van Morrison1970s · Celtic soul / Folk-jazz / R&B
Phil Lynott named Van Morrison his single biggest vocal influence and cited Astral Weeks specifically as formative. Writers have described Lynott's mature style as combining Jimi Hendrix's swagger with Van Morrison's 'street poetics' — a blend audible in the loose, folky, autobiographical songs about Dublin life on Thin Lizzy's early records.
listen: upstream & here
1968
Astral WeeksVan Morrison
1972
Shades of a Blue OrphanageThin Lizzy
listen forPut Astral Weeks' free-floating, jazz-inflected folk mysticism next to Thin Lizzy's 'Shades of a Blue Orphanage' — both are long-form, impressionistic, first-person songs more concerned with mood and memory than a conventional verse-chorus structure.
Jimi Hendrix1960s · Rock / Blues rock / Psychedelic rock
Lynott was candid about Hendrix's impact, telling broadcaster Gay Byrne that 'Jimi Hendrix proved that a Black fella could front a rock band.' The influence shows up directly on Thin Lizzy's 1971 debut in the Hendrix-indebted 'Ray-Gun.'
listen: upstream & heresource: Far Out Magazine ↗
1968
Voodoo Child (Slight Return)Jimi Hendrix
1971
Ray-GunThin Lizzy
listen forHendrix's 'Voodoo Child (Slight Return)' rides a heavy, wah-drenched blues-rock riff that Thin Lizzy's own 'Ray-Gun' echoes closely on the band's first album, right down to the fuzzed-out guitar tone.
Bob Dylan1960s · Folk / Folk rock / Rock
Before Thin Lizzy, Lynott played Dylan covers in his early Dublin band Orphanage, and critics have traced Lynott's mature songwriting — his working-class narrative dramas of love and violence — back to Dylan's storytelling tradition alongside Van Morrison and the Irish literary influences he grew up on.
listen: upstream & here
1964
The Times They Are a-Changin'Bob Dylan
1976
Johnny the Fox Meets Jimmy the WeedThin Lizzy
listen forDylan's 'The Times They Are a-Changin'' is a plainspoken narrative ballad; Thin Lizzy's own story-song 'Johnny the Fox Meets Jimmy the Weed' works that same character-driven, folk-troubadour storytelling into a hard-rock frame.