With the deadline for the submission of the cover drawing near, Lynott travelled to the US to meet Fitzpatrick at his home in Madison, Connecticut, but went to Madison, Wisconsin by mistake. Thin Lizzy's usual cover artist, Jim Fitzpatrick, did not contribute to the cover of Bad Reputation, after a misunderstanding between himself and Lynott. Robertson stayed on for the subsequent Bad Reputation tour, which provided some tracks for the Live and Dangerous album (released 1978), but he left the band when the tour concluded. "We had to pull this together or we were going to go down in a ball of flames." "It was such an important album to us because of all the adversities that we'd been going through," recalled Gorham. He later added, "I tried not to go out to clubs for about a week, then succumbed." Robertson and Gorham shared lead guitar parts on only one song, "That Woman's Gonna Break Your Heart". However, he initially refused to socialise with the other band members: "Christ, I wouldn't even have a drink with them," he said.
Lynott relented, and Robertson flew to Toronto and recorded his lead guitar parts. He later said, "I was always a big believer in the magic circle – once you broke the magic circle, the whole thing was broken, right?" He deliberately left two songs ("Opium Trail" and "Killer Without a Cause") without guitar solos recorded, and persuaded Lynott to allow Robertson to return to the band to record the solos for them. However, Gorham believed that a second guitarist was required, particularly for live work, performing songs that were written for two guitars. Matter of fact, I think Robbo visited with Phil on Xmas Eve in '85 and told his mother Philomena that something just wasn't right after seeing him.Īnywho, BR is a 7/10 release and/or a B+ rating.With Robertson out of the band, band leader Phil Lynott had decided that Scott Gorham would be able to handle all the guitar duties himself, and that no replacement for Robertson would be recruited prior to recording the album. Despite Robbo being booted for good in '78, he and Phil still remained friends up until his death. It seemed as though some of the friction between he and Phil also brought out the better qualities in the two of them for material such as Massacre, Emerald, Borderline, Warrior and Rocky plainly display. Not sure why its never resonated with me as being significant, I just find it to be a bit overblown with pretention.įrom stem to stern, this record was a fine build towards Black Rose, which I find to be Phil and Lizzy's peak moment, and yet I'll always wonder if Robbo hadn't been such a pain in the ass towards Phil and sabotaging himself in the process, how Lizzy would've been had attitudes and cooler heads would've prevailed. The only cut that I never warmed much to, is album closer Dear Lord. Good collaborations with Phil, Downey and Scott on the title cut and Opium Trail and Killer Without a Cause is a buried nugget and nice Lynott/Gorham number as well. I think Phil came up with some good and solid material and it seems that he was on a roll with songs like Dancing in the Moonlight, Soldier of Fortune, That Woman., and Southbound (although I prefer the "live" soundcheck version of Southbound on L&D). The record is a natural forward step from Johnny the Fox(which I like), and it's a shame that Robbo made this one his last appearance on a studio release with the band(in his telling, he was simply doing a session). Agreed its fairly lacking in the recording mix and production side, which having Visconti as co-producer was a surprise to me. Phil didn’t speak to him for a few years.īad Reputation is a fairly strong release from the writing and performing aspect. He got him back on the Black Rose, but he left the tour halfway through with no notice. Gary went and did Colosseum II, and Phil waited for him to come back.
It’s been said that after that tour he wanted Gary full time. Phil had Gary Moore fill in for the 2nd time when Robbo got a bottle in the hand for the Queen tour. The people around the band have said that without Robbo’s contributions, Jailbreak wouldn’t have even happened. I also think Robbo resented Phil getting most of the writing credit. It’s sad that those two couldn’t get along. Tony wanted him all over the album, but Phil didn’t and Robbo wasn’t making things better with his attitude and drinking. Apparently, when Robbo showed in Canada to make the album, Phil wasn’t speaking to him and he was drunk and pissed at Phil. Tony Visconti asked for him and management also wanted the winning Lizzy team again. Click to expand.Rob I was recovered by then, but Phil didn’t want him back in the band.