Artist: THIN LIZZY
Album: FIGHTING REMASTERED (CD)

Release date: 1975/ 1996
EAN/UPS: 0731453229624
Media type: CD

Fighting is the fifth studio album by Irish band Thin Lizzy, released in 1975. After spending four albums trying to find their niche, Thin Lizzy finally forged an identifiable sound featuring the twin guitars of Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson. This sound draws from hard rock, folk, pop, and rhythm and blues. It set the stage for the big commercial breakthrough of the follow-up album, Jailbreak. The North American cover is pictured, other territories had a different sleeve.

Throughout Thin Lizzy's fitful and never-ending series of lineup changes (mainly in guitar players), the band did manage to stay true to leader Phil Lynott's desire that it remain a great guitar band. FIGHTING marks the beginning of the band's most commercially successful lineup (with Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson on guitar). Not coincidentally, the band's most consistent albums surfaced during this period as well. Lynott's grand artistic ambitions, which often resulted in half-baked concept ideas, began to rein themselves in to a more streamlined approach that better suited his basic hard rock attitude.

FIGHTING put forth the formula that earmarks nearly all of the band's best work: hard pumping rock & roll offset with tightly melodic dual guitar lines and Lynott's soulful vocals. Opening with Bob Seger's "Rosalie," a classic '70s power chord rocker, the band struts with confidence and more than a little swagger. The pounding "Fighting My Way Back" is propelled by a pulsing rhythm section, huge guitars, and sheer bravado on Lynott's part. And just when things seem to be on the verge of slipping into macho posturing, a yearning tear in Lynott's voice reveals the vulnerability that lies beneath all barre chords.

1996 digitally remastered version of the bands 1975 album on Mercury/Vertigo Records.

TRACKLIST:

"Rosalie" (Bob Seger) – 3:11
"For Those Who Love to Live" (Downey, Lynott) – 3:08
"Suicide" (Lynott) – 5:12
"Wild One" (Lynott) – 4:18
"Fighting My Way Back" (Lynott) – 3:12
"King's Vengeance" (Gorham, Lynott) – 4:08
"Spirit Slips Away" (Lynott) – 4:35
"Silver Dollar" (Robertson) – 3:26
"Freedom Song" (Gorham, Lynott) – 3:32
"Ballad of a Hard Man" (Gorham) – 3:14

LINE-UP:

Brian Downey - drums, percussion
Scott Gorham - guitar
Phil Lynott - bass, vocals, acoustic guitar on Wild One
Brian Robertson - guitar, backing vocals

With:
Roger Chapman (from Family) - backing vocals on 'Rosalie'
Ian McLagan (from The Faces) - piano on Silver Dollar