Still Dangerous (Live at the Tower Theater, Philadelphia 1977)

If there is one true travesty of justice here at Metal Reviews it's that we didn't have a single Thin Lizzy review in our database (until now). Their monumental live album Live and Dangerous is on my short list of classic albums to (eventually) review but with all the new releases we have to take care of around here, it keeps getting pushed back. I won't go too much into detail about this band as I want to save that for when my review for Live and Dangerous finally gets its due. Suffice to say, there is little doubt of the massive influence that this band had on Metallica and Iron Maiden to name a few. Iron Maiden's "trademark" lead guitar harmonies on tracks like The Trooper and Hallowed Be Thy Name were a result of Steve Harris' love for the Thin Lizzy twin lead guitar sound. This particular live album Still Dangerous, was recorded during the Bad Reputation tour in 1977 at the Tower Theater in Philadelphia; the legendary venue where David Bowie's 1973 live album David Live was recorded. During this tour and the one previous to it in support of their Johnny The Fox album, live shows were recorded that eventually ended up on the 1978 Live and Dangerous album.

Originally recorded and broadcast for the King Biscuit Flower Hour Concert series on FM radio, this show has been available as a bootleg for many years now and in fact can be heard in its entirety at Wolfgang's Vault. The original show had 17 songs whereas this release has surprisingly been trimmed down to just 10 songs. Remixed by veteran producer Glynn Johns and long-time Thin Lizzy guitarist Scott Gorham, Still Dangerous presents Thin Lizzy in its most pure and raw form in a live setting. There has been much controversy about just how "live" the Live and Dangerous album really was with rumours of overdubs etc. being added later in the studio. The versions of Cowboy Song, The Boys Are Back In Town and Massacre found here sound very much like the versions that eventually ended up on Live and Dangerous. This show and one recorded at the Seneca College Field House In Toronto, Canada in 1976 were the primary sources of material for that legendary live album. Besides other concert favs like Jailbreak, Dancing In The Moonlight, Massacre, Don't Believe A Word, Baby Drives Me Crazy and Emerald, we get excellent versions of tracks like Soldier Of Fortune and Bad Reputation as well as Opium Trail from the newly released Bad Reputation album; with the latter being the version that ended up on the Killers Live EP from the early 80's. There's also the concert fav Me And The Boys; a track that never appeared on any Thin Lizzy studio album.

I'm not sure why the entire show was not included here. This whole CD clocks in at around 56 minutes with lots of room for more tracks. There was so much hype about this "long lost" Thin Lizzy recording that I can't help but feel a little disappointed. The production quality is not all that great and besides the rare live versions of Bad Reputation tracks like the title track, Opium Trail and Soldier Of Fortune, other live recordings have much better sounding versions of all the other concert favorites at that time. As a long-time fan, this one's a nice addition to my collection as I must have everything even remotely related to this band but it's really only for the serious collectors and long-time fans. For a truly kick-ass live Thin Lizzy experience, Live and Dangerous is the stuff. More on that one later.......