Phil Lynott

Phil Lynott 1980

Phil Lynott statue in Dublin

Philip Parris Lynott (born August 20, 1949 in West Bromwich , Staffordshire , England , † January 4, 1986 in Salisbury , Wiltshire , England) was an Irish rock bassist, singer and songwriter.

life and work

His parents were the Irish Philomena Lynott and Cecil Parris from Guyana . Shortly after he was born, his parents separated. Lynott grew up with his grandmother Sarah in Dublin. From 1967 to 1968 Lynott played in the Irish band Skid Row (not to be confused with the American band Skid Row ). In 1969 he founded the rock band Thin Lizzy in Dublin with Eric Bell and Brian Downey . The band line-up changed over the years - until they broke up in 1984. The most famous band member next to Lynott was Gary Moore (1974 and 1978/1979).

After the release of the live album Life in 1983, Lynott and his fellow musicians went their separate ways from Thin Lizzy and Lynott worked in the following period u. a. in solo projects by Gary Moore, e.g. B. in the song Out in the Fields on the album Run for Cover as a musician and co-author. He also founded the short-lived band Grand Slam .

Typical of Phil Lynott's great talent as a songwriter were his lyrics, which were often melancholy and contained outsiders, outcasts, desperate and misunderstood or male clichés.

In the 1978 concept album for Jeff Wayne's musical Version of the War of the Worlds , Phil Lynott took on the vocal part in the song The Spirit Of Man alongside Julie Covington .

For the birth of his daughter, Lynott wrote the song Sarah (on Thin Lizzy's Black Rose album , 1979), which became a hit. A song of the same title, but which concerned his grandmother, Lynott released in 1972, also with Thin Lizzy. The ambiguous line of text "I remember Par (r) is '49" in the song "Parisienne Walkways", which was written with Gary Moore, refers to Lynott's father.

Phil Lynott died in 1986 in Salisbury, England, not as a result of a heroin overdose , as is often falsely claimed , but from years of alcohol and drug use. He was hospitalized at Christmas 1985, where kidney failure was first diagnosed. On New Year's Day I got pneumonia. This and the general weakening of the body finally resulted in death from heart failure on January 4, 1986.

His grave is on the Howth Head peninsula near Dublin. The ornate tombstone was created by Irish artist Jim Fitzpatrick , who was also responsible for some of the cover paintings for the Thin Lizzy albums.

Discography

Albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		UK	IE
1980	Solo in Soho	UK28 (6 weeks) UK	-
1987	The Best Of Phil Lynott and Thin Lizzy	UK55 gold (10 weeks)UK	-
2010	Yellow Pearl - A Collection	-	IE37 (14 weeks) IE

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More albums

• 1982: The Philip Lynott Album

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		UK	DE
1980	Dear Miss Lonely Hearts Solo in Soho	UK32 (6 weeks) UK	-
	King's Call Solo in Soho	UK35 (6 weeks) UK	-
1981	Yellow Pearl Solo in Soho	UK14 (12 weeks) UK	-
1985	Out In The Fields	UK5 (10 weeks) UK	DE14 (11 weeks) DE
	Nineteen	UK76 (4 weeks) UK	-
1987	King's Call (1987)	UK68 (4 weeks) UK	-

Web links

Commons : Phil Lynott  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Phil Lynott in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• http://www.philip-lynott.com ( Memento of March 6, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
• Literature by and about Phil Lynott in the catalog of the German National Library

swell

1. ↑ ^{a b} Chart sources: UK IE DE
2. ↑ Music Sales Awards: UK

literature

• The adventures of Phil Lynott & Thin Lizzy, IP Verlag Jeske / Mader, Berlin, 1st edition 2006, paperback, 256 pages, ISBN 3-931624-38-2