The Boys Are Back In Town

The initial anti-war lyrics – possibly about soldiers coming home from Vietnam, or maybe an idea Lynott lifted from the G.I. Joe comic strip – were jettisoned. Here’s how Gorham described it to Hot Press in 2020:

“I think the remnants of the Vietnam War were still there and it had really stirred up an anti-war feeling,” he recalled. “But, finally, Phil said ‘Nah, that idea has been overdone, so many people have written anti-war songs’. He turned it into more of a gang song. He looked at all of us: what do we do on a Saturday night? We go out, we have a lot of drinks, try to pull the chicks and have a great time. And that is what that song is: it’s Saturday night with all your buddies. That’s what the song is about. Nothing more.”

Nothing more? In a way, at least for people in a certain age bracket, that nothing more is everything. In fact ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ captures that spirit of camaraderie and shared feeling that people all over the world have experienced, getting back together with what they think of as their own posse. Which is why so many fans see it as evoking the excitement that was in the air, when Philip and the gang landed in Dublin, as well as the energy and the buzz, when he got together with his old mates, visiting the treasured haunts of his youth – in this case Dino's Bar and Grill becomes a local Italian with a jukebox in the corner, in a Dublin suburb like Terenure or Rathmines, where the young Philo used to hang out. Plus, of course, there’s the Dublin sense of humour: the gang are having a laugh.

There are other theories. Some have suggested that it was inspired by the infamous Quality Street Gang, who effectively ran the underworld in Manchester, where Philip’s mother Philomena operated a hotel with a late night bar that was home to a variety of celebrities, bohemians and rockers. They were “a far from sweet bunch of characters” as Lynott once put it himself, and they used to hang out at a spot called Deno’s, a Manchester nightclub where blood was probably spilt more than once. Jimmy The Weed, a member of the gang, was also immortalised on the next Lizzy album.

In a sense, none of that matters. What does is the impact that the song had – and still has – on listeners. The track was recorded in late 1975 at Ramport Studios in South London, with John Alcock in the producer’s seat. Gorham and Brian Robertson put the trademark guitar harmonies together, although sections were adapted directly from ideas that Philip had developed. Drummer Brian Downey added his own distinctive shuffle. Some have pointed towards Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Kitty’s Back’ from his 1973 masterpiece, The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle as musical inspiration. But while there’s a lyrical similarity in the chorus, this is rock 'n‘ roll in action, with one great artist feeding off another, and everyone’s a winner. Both songs are bursting with lightning-in-a-bottle joie de vivre.

A demo included on the Rock Legends box set has a different set of lyrics, but Lynott’s subsequent draft improves things immensely. And yet, this was no shoo-in as a hit single. The way Scott Gorham recalls it, the band were touring America to far less than full houses and generally not feeling the love. Things were motoring on, in that less than promising vein, when a DJ in Kentucky heard the Jailbreak album and began to put ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ on repeat. Sometimes that’s all it takes: one or two champions can make all the difference. With the benefit of hindsight, you think: how come no one else spotted that this was a classic? Well, they soon did. Other stations picked up on the song – and the momentum built inexorably until the record company honchos were forced to put it out as a single. The same Chris O’Donnell called the band to tell them that they had a hit on their hands, prompting Phil and the boys to finally start including it in their live set. Strange how things pan out. The single reached No.1 in Ireland, No.8 in the UK, No.8 in Canada and No.12 in the US.

It’s a song that has since entered the Global Rock Song Canon. It was a Lizzy live mainstay, one of their crucial songs, most notably in the Live and Dangerous phase, which saw them ascend to the status of Best Hard Rock Band on the Planet. With ‘The Boys Are Back In Town’ as a centre-piece, the album went to No.2 in the UK (where it achieved double-platinum status), and was a hit in New Zealand, Sweden, Germany and the US, among other territories.