Album: Jailbreak
Year: 1976
A long time ago, well before that fucking asshole bought and totally destroyed Twitter, my friend Will did a poll asking — and I’m paraphrasing here, as he smartly exited Twitter at some point during the systematic destruction — whether or not The Boys of Summer could defeat The Boys Who Are Back. This was around the time, of course, when one of the weird low-key running Twitter jokes was making references to “The Boys Are Back in Town.”
Anyways, my thought has always been that the Boys Who Are Back would totally kick the asses of The Boys of Summer. After all, The Boys of Summer were summer beach wusses, while the Boys Who Are Back are full of violence and booze. And have pool cues.
One thing to realize: Thin Lizzy recorded a dozen albums before songwriter, bassist and lead singer Phil Lynott passed away in 1986 at the age of 36. And their breakthrough, Jailbreak, was right there in the middle. Once again, it really only happened in the 1970s: a hard rock band could release a half-dozen albums in as many years before having any kind of breakthrough. We’ve seen it over and over, and it goes to how just different the record industry was a short time ago.
Oh wait, my sources are telling me that this was all nearly a half-century ago. That can’t be right. I need new sources.
As is often the case with these things, Thin Lizzy were on their last legs with their record company, as five albums yielded but a single hit single, 1972’s “Whiskey In The Jar,” which was a #6 in the U.K. and #1 in their native Ireland. (It did nothing here at the time.) And as is often the case with these things — I mean for bands that actually made it, as history records that there were many many many many many many many many many many more who didn’t — they responded with their utter peak as a band, 1976’s Jailbreak, featuring three pretty classic songs: the title track, “The Cowboy Song,” and of course “The Boys Are Back in Town.”
Guess who just got back today?
Them wild-eyed boys that’d been away
Haven’t changed, hadn’t much to say
But man, I still think them cats are crazyThey were askin’ if you were around
How you was, where you could be found
Told them you were livin’ downtown
Drivin’ all the old men crazy
If I was the (presumably) hot (presumably) female to whom Lynott is either phoning or telling this news to face-to-face, I think I wouldn’t be all that happy that he’d given the Boys even that much information. And maybe leave town. Or at least stay away from Dino’s for awhile. Also, did the Boys have a spokesboy who asked Lynott about her? Like so many things in this song, it’s unclear.
Anyways, that opening verse starts after some big sustained chords from either Brian Robertson or Scott Gorham or maybe both, leaving plenty of space for some bass runs from Lynott. It’s all underpinned by a quintessentially 1970s bluesy shuffle beat — the kind of beat that was basically banned by law when Punk came around, though boogie bands were grandfathered in — from drummer Brian Downey, as propulsive as it is unhurried, giving Lynott plenty of time to get all of his words in before sliding into the call-and-response chorus. Everybody sing!
The boys are back in town (the boys are back in town)
I said (the boys are back in town)
(The boys are back in town)
The boys are back in town
(The boys are back in town)
The boys are back in town
(The boys are back in town)
That chorus is, of course, a call-and-response between Phil Lynott and, er, Phil Lynott. Maybe nobody else showed up to the studio when it came time to record the vocals? And yet, despite that, it’s insanely catchy and utterly celebratory, and I love how Lynott sings each version slightly differently.
And, arguably it’s not even the biggest hook in the song. Because that chorus is followed by a singalong guitar duet between Gorham and Robertson that became instantly iconic, and led to the second verse.
You know that chick that used to dance a lot
Every night she’d be on the floor, shakin’ what she’s got
Man, when I tell you she was cool, she was red-hot
I mean, she was steamin’And that time over at Johnny’s place
Well, this chick got up and she slapped Johnny’s face
Man, we just fell about the place
If that chick don’t wanna know, forget her
The great thing about this second verse is it’s definitely somebody several pints in reminiscing about what it was like the last time the Boys Were Back. Or maybe it wasn’t. And it leads to a whole bunch of questions. Is the cool, red-hot steaming chick also the one who slapped Johnny? Maybe. Is Johnny’s place a bar or a house? Possibly. Is Johnny one of the boys? Unclear. Who exactly were the Boys? Even more unclear. All that mattered was that they were back in town. Again.
After the second chorus, there was another guitar break, and a bridge, punctuated by a couple of great drum rolls smashing against the guitars where Lynott asks “Spread the word around / Guess who’s back in town / Just spread the word around.”
Why? Because shit was about to go down in a major way.
Friday night they’ll be dressed to kill
Down at Dino’s Bar’n’Grill
The drink will flow and blood will spill
And if the boys wanna fight, you better let ’emThat jukebox in the corner blastin’ out my favorite song
The nights are getting longer, it won’t be long
Won’t be long ’til summer comes
Now that the boys are here again
And I guess all of that violence is just fine with Phil Lynott, just as long they don’t fuck with the jukebox, and of course when summer comes, so will the Boys of Summer. Who, as I already mention, are gonna get an ass-whuppin'”
After one last chorus, when ends with the guitars dropping out while Lynott — still gleefully — whispers “The boys are back” a couple of times, leading into one last guitar duet from Gorham & Robertson over Lynott pointing out that “the boys are back in town again,” just in case we hadn’t yet heard it.
Look, I was thirteen when “The Boys Are Back in Town” came out in the spring of 1976, and it didn’t matter if I heard the single version on KYNO or the album version on KFIG, it was just too much fun to ignore. And I certainly didn’t care that it didn’t really make a whole lot of sense. I loved that song, enjoying it when I saw Thin Lizzy at Selland in 1979, after which I bought their first live album, Live and Dangerous, which wasn’t enough of either for me. Eventually, I picked up Jailbreak, as well.
And of course, “The Boys Are Back in Town” went to #12 on the Billboard charts, #8 in the UK and Canada, and was their second #1 in Ireland. And while they continued to chart overseas, “The Boys Are Back in Town” was pretty much all she wrote for Thin Lizzy in America, as they only charted twice more: “Cowboy Song” at #77 and “Do Anything You Want To” at #81, making Thin Lizzy (this whole time, I’ve been writing “Think Lizzy,” which would be pretty good name for a Thin Lizzy cover band) true one-hit wonders.
That said, Thin Lizzy made some pretty good records afterwards: I enjoyed both 1977’s Bad Reputation, and 1979’s Black Rose: A Rock Legend, but if you don’t think that this song is their legacy, just check Spotify, where it has just shy of 400,000,000 plays, four times as many as any of their other songs.
“The Boys Are Back in Town”
“The Boys Are Back in Town” Live on Rockpalast
“The Boys Are Back in Town” Live in 1983
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