Thin Lizzy’s second album Shades Of A Blue Orphanage was initially released this week in 1972. Now, 52 years later, Decca will release a gatefold vinyl edition of the album with a very special art card signed by original Lizzy guitarist Eric Bell on April 5.
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The album’s title came from an amalgamation of the members’, Philip Lynott (bass, vocals), Brian Downey (drums) and Eric Bell (guitar, vocals), previous bands Shades of Blue and Orphanage. The group didn’t see mainstream success with their early records, but were building their reputation as a live act and underground radio presence. Shades showcases the building blocks of what the group would become. Pitchfork later reflected that “Lynott’s lyrical voice was already providing a sturdy anchor to rally it around. The then-23-year-old Lynott was already singing with the rueful wisdom of a man several decades his senior, laying the foundation for the rugged-romantic archetype that would define his legend.”
Shades Of A Blue Orphanage didn’t feature any official singles, but “Sarah,” written for Phil Lynott’s grandmother who raised him when his mother, Philomena, was unable to do so, has, over time, become the record’s standout track. Lynott famously later recorded a second song called “Sarah,” this time for Lynott’s newly born daughter, which became a hit for Lizzy in 1979.
Only a few months after Shades’ release, in November 1972, Thin Lizzy’s rock arrangement of an old Irish folk ballad, “Whiskey In The Jar,” was released as a single and reached No. 6 in the charts the following February. In 2000, Metallica would go on to win a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance with their version of the song, inspired by Lizzy’s. The single was followed by the release of 1973’s Vagabonds of the Western World, which Decca reissued in 2023 with a 50th anniversary edition.
