‘Phil Lynott’ - Jape, 2008
This is a nifty, bare little tune lifted from a Dublin based band called Jape and their 2008 studio album Ritual. Jape is mainly composed of one guy called Richie Egan, who in a previous life was also the bass player in an instrumental rock band called The Redneck Manifesto (are they still together?) another band I had the pleasure to see on numerous occassions at various festivals throughout Ireland these past couple of years.
The song is an emotional tribute or ode to a famous Dublin man called Phil Lynott who was the singer of the band Thin Lizzy and are probably most famous for their song Whiskey in a jar, which is a shame because they were so much more than that. Incidentally both are bass players and both lived in Crumlin, a suburb in Dublin.
Lyrically this is a beautiful song that tells the story of Egan and a couple of mates out at a gig one night in Dublin when there is a lunar eclipse and the song goes on from there when they go outside to see the eclipse whereby Egan gets all bleary eyed and poignant about Phil Lynott and pays a cheeky reference to him while looking at the moon in the lines
“And when he took the stage he owned it
and there right in sky was his half opened eye
he’s still winking at girls in the front row.”
and then his own morality kicks in at the end of the song
“and I was thinking one day I will be a dead man who plays the bass from Crumlin
and I was thinking one day I will be a dead man who plays the bass from Dublin
like Phil Phil Phil Phil Lynott”
I haven’t heard all of the new album yet but I bet you won’t find all songs sung in a similar vain as this one. You can watch a live version of it here and for those of you lucky enough to be heading to the electric picnic festival this weekend in Laois, you could do a lot worse than checking Jape out.
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