In a new interview with ClassicRockHistory.com, guitarist Scott Gorham shares the stories behind six iconic Thin Lizzy and Black Star Riders tracks.
Talking about Thin Lizzy's classic 1976 hit, "The Boys Are Back In Town", Gorham reveals, "The classic one was 'The Boys Are Back In Town', it wasn’t even considered a single at all, right? At first, there were no harmony guitars on it or anything; it was just the basic chord pattern and Phil’s vocals on it. And I actually thought the lyrics that he put down were very cool, and I saw we also had spots in there where, musically, something had to be done to be able to lift the song up.
"And that’s where Brian Robertson and I kind of jumped in to add those bits, you know? I think it was me who came up with the initial bit, and then Robbo jumped in with the harmony, and it just kind of evolved from there to the point where we got it down, recorded it, and still didn’t think of it as a thing, you know? With the first two albums, we always could pick the single, but there was nothing, you know, no traction on any of them.
"So, for this third album, we thought, “Let’s let the record company pick one,” they did and picked the wrong one. [Laughs]. Whatever it was, I can’t remember [Thin Lizzy’s US label Mercury Records initially chose “Running Back” as Jailbreak’s lead single over “The Boys Are Back In Town”]; it was the wrong one. So, we were touring in America, and there were two disc jockeys in Louisville, Kentucky - and again, I wish I could remember their names - who fell in love with that song, 'The Boys Are Back In Town'. They kept playing it to the point where radio stations around the area picked up on it.
"They started playing it, and once it started being bombed around this circle of radio stations, it just exploded all over America. It came down to these two DJs in Louisville, Kentucky, who just happened to love that song. So, I’m doing a book right now; it’s a biography, and a guy is doing a book on me, and I’m gonna find out the guys’ names and make a big deal out of them when we get to that part of the book!"
Read more at ClassicRockHistory.com.
