Killer On The Loose

Record collecting is a constant conflict. I usually just let my moods dictate what I want to purchase in the heat of the moment. No planning. I just buy what whatever excites me at the time. However, sometimes I stop and look at the big picture and I get disgusted that I still have some very large holes in the collection. At these times, I tell myself that I need to stop dicking around with goofy picture sleeve singles and multiple pressings, and focus on completing the album collections for some of my favorite bands.

This year I've discovered the earlier Thin Lizzy records...those first three records with Eric Bell on guitar, before they settled into their classic line up with Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham. As I was checking out the going price for the early Lizzy records, I decided to take stock of where my record collection stood for the band's other albums. Of the nine studio albums from the classic Thin Lizzy line up, I owned three. I was so upset at how far I still had to go with my Thin Lizzy collection that I immediately checked in to discogs to cross some of them off the want list.

When it comes to Thin Lizzy, I feel compelled to buy the original UK Vertigo pressings. A number of years ago, my friend Jeff gave me his copy of Johnny The Fox, but it was a US Mercury pressing. I was okay with it when he first gave it to me, but as the years went by, it was no longer cutting it. I needed those Vertigo UFO labels.

When I was picking up the Johnny The Fox album, the seller also had a copy of Chinatown available...so it obviously made sense to grab that one as well. Man, this album is so killer. Outside of the stone cold classics of Fighting and Jailbreak, Chinatown may give them a run as one of my favorite Lizzy albums. Sugar Blues, Killer On The Loose, Genocide, plus the title track...all are fucking killer top shelf Thin Lizzy songs. Very happy to add this to the collection.

Around 1980, Vertigo dumped the UFO label design, and went with more boring looking orange label. They aren't nearly as cool, but I've still got to have them for my Thin Lizzy UK first pressing collection.

While we are talking about Thin Lizzy, I'm going to add one more record to this post. This 7 inch single for The Boys Are Back In Town b/w Jailbreak came from my mom's boyfriends collection that was passed on to me when he died about four years ago. I ended up dumping a large majority of his records to Goodwill as it wasn't anything that I was interested in, but I did set aside a few cool records, and I "officially" add them to my collection and put them up on the blog when the mood hits me. This Thin Lizzy single isn't that impressive as it is just a regular US pressing with the simple record label dust sleeve, but seeing that it came from Steve's collection, I figured that I'd hold on to it for sentimental reasons. It's funny. I assume that both of these songs top the list of overplayed songs that most people probably never need to hear again...but for me, these songs still sound fresh and kick a lot of ass.