from the LP Fighting, Vertigo Records, 1975“Wild one won't you please come home, you've been away too long, will ya; we need you home, we need you near, come back wild one, will ya…” Had a great conversation with an old friend over the extended weekend, both of us having spent our adolescence as cast-outs & black sheep from our family, only to fall back into the mix after getting our “shit” together, and then be eclipsed by other family members’ drama; it’s a strange thing when you’re used to being the fuck-up and, suddenly, you find yourself amidst the haloed majority, the eagle eye of judgment’s glare now averted to other, more fucked up relatives. The perspective feels awkward, even after holding it down for almost a decade now, and although our former roles imbue us with a greater empathy for the new screw up(s), I selfishly adore not dealing with my folks’ ire anymore! Who’s to say though, we could always re-take that crown at some point in the future again, although most of us try as hard as we can to avoid that from happening. Some of us never really get it together, and sadly, Thin Lizzy bassist & vocalist Phil Lynott falls into this latter category (dude with the bat on the cover); it would’ve been easy to be fooled into thinking that, with all his songs featuring strung-out anti-heroes, someone with that much insight must surely be smart enough to find his way out. Sadly, that was not the case, and Lynott succumbed at 37 to health complications brought on from years of heroin and alcohol abuse. Thing is, once you live long enough, you realize that it can be any one of us at any time falling down that slippery slope, which means, my dear brothers and sisters, we all gotta do a better job of looking out for one another. “…so you go your way, wild one, I'll try and follow; and if you change your mind, I will be waiting here for you tomorrow…”
