About the time I hit 10 every band my 4 year older brother, Thomas, liked I liked. Regardless whether I had actually heard these bands or not. Guess that happens to a lot of younger siblings, they look up so much to the older ones with total faith. Either that or I was gullible beyond words....probably a mixture of both I'd say.
One day Thomas brought home a really poor copy-to-copy cassette, I mean the thing was about to fall apart and the sound quality...what sound quality? It kept going in and out and sometimes the sound was barely audible. Still my brother was excited, so naturally gullible #1 - that's me - was excited as well. The band in question? Thin Lizzy and the album? Renegade.
He kept playing the cassette for a good bit while I focused on being 10 with whatever that entails. However after a week or so, might have been slightly longer, he asked me: "Hey brother, you wanna buy a cool LP?" I replied, "Maybe, who's selling stuff?" Thomas and his friends were buying-selling-trading LP's so I automatically assumed one of his friends wanted to get rid of something. "None of my friends", he said, "but there's this great LP available at a distro and I think you're gonna like it". Now consider this...I never once questioned him why he wasn't buying it himself. There's gullible #1 for you again. It took him a few days of persuation but eventually I relented. Renegade was duly ordered and arrived about a week later.
However in my eagerness to please Thomas I had not consider one important thing...how to pay for it. I was on allowance like every one else but that wasn't enough to cover the expenses. Once I realized this I tried to tell him time and time again but his only response was "Don't worry about it, everything will be fine. We'll deal with that later."
Upon it's arrival I was happy as can be but naturally Big Bro hogged the LP so I barely got to listen to it on my own. He did let me listen with him but only whenever he decided to. Those moments were glorious though because when this album was played with proper sound quality it was so obvious Thin Lizzy was a great band. Even I could hear that without checking out Thomas' reactions.From the moment Darren Wharton's eerie and haunting keyboards kicks off the first song Angel Of Death I was hooked, totally hooked! Thin Lizzy took me on a journey through Armageddon, lies, love, deceit, western showdowns, jazz, being an outcast...you name it, they told it all. And it's been no turning back for me since. Both my brother and I became devoted Thin Lizzy supporters right there and then which is still unchanged. Hell I even have a slightly altered version of their Chinatown logo tattooed across my shoulders, I have been to Philip Lynott's grave in Howth, Ireland a couple of times...the list goes on and on.
You might wonder whatever happened to my brother's payment shenanigans? Well he did make me order Renegade so I could take the fall for it if he never liked the album. He knew I wasn't able to pay for it so Mom would have had to step in and I would be in a world of trouble. Thankfully that never occured...that time! Instead we both discovered our joint favorite band of all time and it has been a fantastic musical journey ever since.
"I was standing by the bedside
The night that my father died
He was crying out in pain
To his God he said, "Have mercy, mercy!"
His body was riddled with a disease
Unknown to man so he expected no cure
But before he died that night
He was lost, insane."
--Swedebeast
