Emerald is one of the all-time classic Thin Lizzy tracks. It can be found on their sixth and best known album Jailbreak (released 26 March 1976), which is often regarded as the start of their golden era. The trip of albums that followed it are certainly all stone cold classics: Johnny the Fox (1976), Bad Reputation (1977), and Black Rose (1979).
Thin Lizzy were one of those bands that weren’t afraid to dip into their cultural heritage from time to time, going all the way back to their early hit with Whiskey In the Jar (1972). Much like their fellow Irishmen and folk-rock trailblazers Horslips, they would at times make a potent mix of Celtic/Irish folk music and hard guitar-based rock’n’roll. The song we’re talking about today is a striking example of this combination.
Emerald concludes the Jailbreak album, and is notable as the only composition credited to all four band members. The song originated from a riff that Phil Lynott had. Guitarist Scott Gorham later said, “It’s got the real sort of Irish-y feel in it. Brian Robertson and I came up with the harmony guitars in there. But the main riff came straight out of Phil. It’s a song about ancient times in ancient Ireland, talking about the warring clans and all that.”
Phil wrote the lyrics in tribute to his Irish heritage, and combined with the music the song takes the form of a thematic ‘fight’ against invaders, with dueling guitars and many different passages which nicely symbolise the various stages of battle and rebellion. According to Phil Lynott biographer Mark Putterford, Emerald was “the last word on the author’s burning fascination with Irish history, a blood-curdling clash of steel and morality embedded upon a spectacular Gaelic guitar riff”.
The song pulls no punches as the charging sentiments refer to the more violent aspects of the country’s history:
Down from the glen came the marching men
With their shields and their swords
To fight the fight they believed to be right
Overthrow the overlords
To the town where there was plenty
They brought plunder, swords and flame
When they left the town was empty
Children would never play again
The track has ended up being one of Lizzy’s most recognisable and loved tracks, and it remained in the live set right until the end.
The song features a lot of intricate dual guitar lines, but the duelling guitars during the end section are particularly striking. Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson take turns as they strike back and forth at each other, symbolizing the battle that the song is describing in a sensational manner.
“It was the first time that Brian Robertson and I did the bounce off lead guitar thing where he starts,” Scott Gorham said. “I start, he starts, I start… the back and forth. That’s the first time we actually got that one together. It felt so good and it felt so right, so we then started to try that out on a couple of other songs. That was kind of a launching pad for that style of writing between the two guitarists.”
Phil Lynott also gives a passionate and heartfelt, yet menacing, vocal performance here. The lyrics really needed that something extra in their delivery as they are unusually rough for Thin Lizzy. This was a huge stretch for Lynott, who very much was a self-declared “lover, not a fighter.”
From their graves I heard the fallen
Above the battle cry
By that bridge near the border
There were many more to dieThen onward over the mountain
And outward towards the sea
They had come to claim the Emerald
Without it they could not leave
As mentioned, this song comes last on an album which otherwise contains a mix of straight hit material, more mellow songs, and mid-tempo rockers, Emerald becomes a huge (if late) high point on Jailbreak, towering over all the songs that came before it. The all-round intensity and passion is undeniable, as the band deliver an interesting take on a historic (and raw!) part of Irish history with an excellent mix of Celtic folk and hard rock. It all helps ensure that this track is remembered as one of their very best.
Thin Lizzy would dip their toe into the Celtic folk-rock pond a few more times, most notably on the Black Rose (1979) album. The title track Black Rose (A Rock Legend) was an out-and-out rock epic, featuring Gary Moore on guitar.
There are two postscripts to mention.
First: After Lizzy broke up in 1984, Moore tried to start a folk-inspired rock project with Lynnot. A few songs emerged, and they even had a hit with Out In the Streets. Moore wanted to help Lynnot focus on something other than the addiction which ultimately took his life in January 1986. After that, Moore instead plunged himself into a couple of Celtic-inspired hard rock albums in tribute to his friend, getting an international hit with the track Over the Hills And Far Away. Blood of Emeralds (from After the War (1988)) is however the biggest tribute to his friend, being a musical and spiritual follow-up to Emerald as well as Black Rose (A Rock Legend).
The second postscript: In January 1986, when Phil Lynott passed, the lads in Big Country were in the studio putting together an excellent Celtic-inspired rock album of their own called The Seer. The news about Lynnot would have reached them during the time they worked on the album in the studio.
It is likely that Lynott’s passing made them want to make a tribute of sorts. The dual harmony guitars from Emerald were certainly a big inspiration that inspired a similar guitar harmony part on Big Country’s Red Fox.
In listening to the band’s early play-through of the song from the very beginning of their work on the album, there are no signs of any dual guitar playing there, meaning that the inspiration from Emerald would have been added to the song in the time following Phil’s death. Big Country pulled it off wonderfully. I love the fact that it was done, and that both songs are equally poignant in their own way. They both tap into the legends of their homelands and are epic musically and lyrically.
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