THIN LIZZY – Live And Dangerous [Super Deluxe Edition Remastered Box Set 8-CD] (2023)

THIN LIZZY‘s ”Live And Dangerous” was released in 1978 and is arguably one of the best live albums of all time. It was recorded in London and Toronto in 1977, during the tours accompanying the albums Johnny the Fox and Bad Reputation.
Live and Dangerous was originally intended to be a studio album. Working with producer Tony Visconti, Thin Lizzy had had huge success with their previous album Bad Reputation, and the group wanted to work with him again. But since Visconti had a very tight schedule Phil Lynott came up with the idea that they spend two weeks together compiling a live album instead.
This new ”Live And Dangerous [Super Deluxe Edition Remastered Box Set 8-CD]” is the definitive version of the album, containing all the shows that make up the record newly mixed by Ben Findlay from the original multi-tracks, mastered by Andy Pearce and overseen by guitarist Scott Gorham.

This release goes to dispel the rumours that the album was extensively overdubbed in the studio and its presented here as the shows were intended with the rawness of a band, they were at the top of their game night after night.

This Super Deluxe version of ”Live And Dangerous” delivers the original masterpiece, plus seven live sets. There are three Johnny The Fox tour nights at Hammersmith Odeon in November ’76; two from Philadelphia and one in Toronto in October ’77 when Bad Reputation was new, plus the Rainbow Theatre set of March ’78 (taped after work on Live And Dangerous had begun, sticking close to the album’s running order).

This amount of material, arguably, muddied the waters. The band and producer Tony Visconti could have released a brilliant ‘Live And Dangerous’ a year earlier using only Hammersmith recordings (the third night’s disc is mind-blowing), but that would have meant a document without Southbound, Dancing In The Moonlight and Are You Ready (from the Rainbow).

Playing these seven bonus discs begins as an exercise in nitpicking, looking for mistakes repaired. Abandon that, it’s too hard.
Besides, no change was as dramatic – not even snippets so subtly removed from Rosalie, Dancing In The Moonlight, Baby Drives Me Crazy etc – as the re-sequencing necessary to make the 17 songs fit across four sides of vinyl.

Instead enjoy those left off: Johnny, It’s Only Money, Soldier Of Fortune, Opium Trail and Bad Reputation. Rejoice too in the spontaneous variations between performances while noting (despite what the original gatefold might have implied) that most come from the second night in Philadelphia (where Southbound was recorded at sound-check).

In 2023 we get unprecedented access to the legendary Lynott-Downey-Gorham-Robertson line-up in full flight, opening their sets with show-stoppers (Jailbreak and Emerald often in the first three), delivering favourites Still In Love With You and The Boys Are Back In Town before halfway, and climaxing with songs they hadn’t yet released: Baby Drives Me Crazy, Me And The Boys…, Are You Ready).

Visconti spent weeks polishing the original ”Live And Dangerous” into a masterpiece.
This box set suggests that all we ever needed was around 80 minutes, including encores. Seven additional, yet equally dazzling, versions prove that and give us Thin Lizzy in their prime: live, raw and dangerous.
HIGHLY Recommended

DISC ONE: Live and Dangerous remastered 2023
1 Jailbreak
2 Emerald
3 Southbound
4 Rosalie
5 Dancing In the Moonlight
6 Massacre
7 Still In Love with You
8 Johnny The Fox Meets Jimmy the Weed
9 Cowboy Song
10 The Boys Are Back in Town
11 Don’t Believe a Word
12 Warriors
13 Are You Ready?
14 Suicide
15 Sha La La
16 Baby Drives Me Crazy
17 The Rocker

DISC TWO: Hammersmith Odeon 14 November 1976
1 Jailbreak
2 Massacre
3 Emerald
4 Johnny
5 It’s Only Money
6 Still In Love with You
7 Johnny The Fox Meets Jimmy the Weed
8 The Boys Are Back in Town
9 Rosalie / Cowgirl’s Song
10 Suicide
11 Warriors
12 Sha La La
13 Baby Drives Me Crazy

DISC THREE: Hammersmith Odeon 15 November 1976
1 Jailbreak
2 Massacre
3 Emerald
4 Johnny The Fox Meets Jimmy the Weed
5 The Boys Are Back in Town
6 Rosalie / Cowgirl’s Song
7 Suicide
8 Warriors
9 Sha La La
10 Baby Drives Me Crazy
11 Me And the Boys Were Wondering…
12 The Rocker

DISC FOUR: Hammersmith Odeon 16 November 1976
1 Jailbreak
2 Massacre
3 Emerald
4 Johnny
5 It’s Only Money
6 Still In Love with You
7 Johnny The Fox Meets Jimmy the Weed
8 The Boys Are Back in Town
9 Rosalie / Cowgirl’s Song
10 Suicide
11 Warriors
12 Sha La La
13 Baby Drives Me Crazy
14 Me And the Boys Were Wondering…

DISC FIVE: Philadelphia Tower 20 October 1977
1 Soldier Of Fortune
2 Jailbreak
3 Johnny
4 Warrior
5 Dancing In the Moonlight
6 Massacre
7 Still In Love with You
8 Cowboy Song
9 Boys Are Back in Town
10 Opium Trail
11 Don’t Believe a Word
12 Emerald
13 Bad Reputation
14 Baby Drives Me Crazy

DISC SIX: Philadelphia Tower 21 October 1977
1 Solider of Fortune
2 Jailbreak
3 Johnny
4 Warriors
5 Dancing In the Moonlight
6 Massacre
7 Still In Love with You
8 Cowboy Song
9 The Boys Are Back in Town
10 Opium Trail
11 Don’t Believe a Word
12 Emerald
13 Bad Reputation
14 Baby Drives Me Crazy
15 The Rocker

DISC SEVEN: Seneca College Fieldhouse, Toronto 28-Oct-77
1 Soldier Of Fortune
2 Jailbreak
3 Emerald
4 Dancing In the Moonlight
5 Massacre
6 Still In Love with You
7 Johnny The Fox Meets Jimmy the Weed
8 Warriors
9 Opium Trail
10 Cowboy Song
11 The Boys Are Back in Town
12 Don’t Believe a Word
13 Bad Reputation
14 Are You Ready?
15 Me And the Boys Were Wondering…
16 The Rocker

DISC EIGHT: Rainbow Theatre 29 March 1978
1 Jailbreak
2 Emerald
3 Southbound
4 Rosalie
5 Dancing In the Moonlight
6 Massacre
7 Still In Love with You
8 Johnny The Fox Meets Jimmy the Weed
9 Don’t Believe a Word
10 Warriors
11 Cowboy Song
12 The Boys Are Back in Town
13 Suicide
14 Are You Ready?
15 Sha La La
16 Baby Drives Me Crazy
17 The Rocker

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www.amazon.co.uk/Live-Dangerous-Thin-Lizzy/dp/B0BBZ2DPMJ