Thin Lizzy Johnny The Fox

Jailbreak was such a peak that it was inevitable that its follow-up would fall short in some fashion and Johnny the Fox, delivered the same year as its predecessor, did indeed pale in comparison. What's interesting about Johnny the Fox is that it's interesting, hardly a rote repetition of Jailbreak but instead an odd, fitfully successful evolution forward. All the same strengths are still here – the band still sounds as thunderous as a force of nature, Phil Lynott's writing is still graced with elegant turns of phrase, his singing is still soulful and seductive – but the group ramped up the inherent drama in Lynott's songs by pushing them toward an odd, half-baked concept album. There may be a story within Johnny the Fox – characters are introduced and brought back, at the very least – but it's impossible to tell. If the album only had an undercooked narrative and immediate songs, such digressions would be excusable, but the music is also a bit elliptical in spots, sometimes sounding theatrical, sometimes relying on narration.

Despite a huge hit single in the mid-'70s ("The Boys Are Back in Town") and becoming a popular act with hard rock/heavy metal fans, Thin Lizzy are still, in the pantheon of '70s rock bands, underappreciated. Formed in the late '60s by Irish singer/songwriter/bassist Phil Lynott, Lizzy, though not the first band to do so, combined romanticized working-class sentiments with their ferocious, twin-lead guitar attack. As the band's creative force, Lynott was a more insightful and intelligent writer than many of his ilk, preferring slice-of-life working-class dramas of love and hate influenced by Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and virtually all of the Irish literary tradition…

Both Johnny the Fox and Jailbreak were released in 1976 and are seen as the definitive Thin Lizzy studio albums featuring such hits as The Boys Are Back In Town, Jailbreak, Warriors, and Cowboy Song.
Jailbreak was released in March 1976 and was seen as the bands breakthrough album in America reaching number 18 in the Billboard charts and was a top ten record in the UK. Johnny The Fox was recorded in the same year and was released in October 1976 to critical acclaim and got to no 11 in the UK charts.
1976 is a new compilation box set containing the two versions of both albums, the original form and a new stereo mix by Richard Whittaker as overseen by guitarist Scott Gorham and mastered by Andy Pearce. The other discs contain unreleased mixes from the bands vault, radio sessions, and an unreleased show from Cleveland…