Day After Day #66: Don't Believe a Word

Day After Day is an ambitious attempt to write about a song every day in 2024 (starting on Jan. 4).

Don't Believe a Word (1976)

Rock history is filled with bright lights who were taken too soon. One of those is Phil Lynott, the founder, singer, bassist and main songwriter for the Irish hard rock act Thin Lizzy. A charismatic stage presence with a commanding voice, Lynott led the band (which had a rotating collection of guitarists and drummers over the years) to be one of the leading touring acts of the '70s before substance abuse derailed the group in 1983. Lynott died just three years later at the age of 36. 

But over a 12-year span, Thin Lizzy released 12 albums with a wide variety of excellent songs, from outright rippers to sweet ballads to Celtic-tinged laments. In the middle of that run, the band released its seventh album Johnny the Fox in October 1976. It was the last studio album that featured on-again, off-again guitarist Brian Robertson as a full-time member. The band was notable for its use of harmony guitar parts, so Gary Moore (who was an on-again, off-again member of the group) stepped in for the tour. 

Johnny the Fox was following up Jailbreak, the band's biggest album featuring its two biggest songs, the title track and "The Boys Are Back in Town." Reviewers found it a bit underwhelming compared to the big rock sound of Jailbreak, but it has its defenders and its strong points. The strongest is the song "Don't Believe a Word," which Lynott first brought in as a slow 12-bar blues jam. Robertson told him the song was "shite" and Lynott took off for a few days. In the meantime, Robertson and drummer Brian Downey reworked the song to be faster and heavier, and when Lynott returned, he liked what he heard. 

"Don't Believe a Word" packs a lot into its 2:20 as Lynott sings some decidedly unromantic words to a would-be partner. The protagonist is unfaithful but wracked with guilt as he tells his lover she shouldn't believe anything he says.

"Don't believe a word/Words are only spoken/But your heart is like a promise/Made to be broken/Don't believe a word/Words can tell lies/And lies are no company/When there's tears in your eyes."

The song ended up going to #12 on the UK Singles Chart, the only hit from that album. The live version below from the Midnight Special show in 1977 is a great display of the raw power of the band at that time. Moore ended up recording the original slower version of the song for his 1978 album Back on the Streets, featuring Lynott on bass and Downey on drums (see a live version below).

Thin Lizzy was a veritable Spinal Tap of guitarists, even bringing in Midge Ure (who about to join new wave act Ultravox, which is where he found fame and fortune) to replace Moore after the latter had abruptly quit in the middle of a tour. The last Thin Lizzy album, 1983's Thunder and Lightning, featured John Sykes (later of Whitesnake and Blue Murder) on guitar. With multiple band members, including Lynott, struggling with addiction, the band split up in late '83. Lynott started a new band called Grand Slam but it never really got off the ground. He contributed to Moore's solo album Run for Cover in 1985, garnering a UK hit with "Out in the Fields." 

Lynott was planning to reform Thin Lizzy in 1986, but he ended up in the hospital in December 1985, suffered multiple organ failure and died in January '86. Sykes reformed Lizzy in 1996 with various former members joining over the years to play concerts but not record new material. Sykes left and Scott Gorham took over, playing shows as Thin Lizzy and then eventually recording new songs as Black Star Riders. 

Lynott is beloved in his hometown Dublin, where a memorial statue of him was erected in 2005. I never saw Lynott in action, but when we were in Dublin seven years ago, I was able to get a picture with the statue, which was pretty cool in and of itself.