Out In the Fields is a song by Gary Moore and Phil Lynott, released as a single on 6 May 1985.
The two Irishmen had been friends since the early 1970s, and even been bandmates in Thin Lizzy, where Gary Moore was an on-and-off-again member for three separate stints. He would only be a recording member for his final stay, which resulted in Lizzy’s seminal Black Rose album in 1979.
Earlier that year, Lynott and Lizzy drummer Brian Downey had also appeared on most tracks on Moore’s 1979 solo album Back On the Streets, making this their most prolific year as far as musical collaboration.
Moore and Lynott shared a deep friendship and loved doing music together. On their best days, they clearly brought out the very best in each other, but they had rough patches as well. They could not have been more different as people, which created a push-pull energy that goes a long way towards explaining the ongoing on-and-off nature of their collaborations.
Moore was perfectionistic and very structured. Lynott was loose and happy-go-lucky. That might still not have been a problem. What Moore found especially frustrating with the drug culture surrounding Lynott and the Lizzy band. He felt people were throwing away their talent and potential, and perhaps even their lives, and frustrations around this led him to leave Lizzy for good in the middle of their 1979 tour.
Fast-forward five years. As Thin Lizzy disbanded in 1984, Lynott was in bad shape. Years of drug using had left their mark, and when Moore reached out to him in 1985 it was to offer him a lifeline – to try to motivate him to stop the destructive behaviour and give him a reason to continue. The actual decision needed to come from Lynott himself, but the promise of working together, as well as the offer of support and help if he agreed to get his act together, was hoped to be strong enough of a motivator. It certainly had a better chance of succeeding than leaving Lynott to his own devices.
In the long run it would turn out to be too late for Lynott. Just seven months after the release of the single he would be gone, but for a short time it looked like it might work.
Out In the Fields was written by Gary Moore and released as a collaborative single featuring both Moore’s and Lynott’s name. The song was also featured on Moore’s album Run For Cover later the same year.
The song is staunchly anti-war, and its general statement is that in war everyone is equal – “it makes no difference if you’re black or if you’re white.” Nobody has a better chance of not being killed.
It doesn’t matter if you’re wrong or if you’re right
It makes no difference if you’re black or if you’re white
All men are equal till the victory is won
No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
Out in the fields, the fighting has begun
Out on the streets, they’re falling one by one
Out from the skies, a thousand more will die each day
Death is just a heartbeat away
It doesn’t matter if you’re left or to the right
Don’t try to hide behind the cause for what you fight
There’ll be no prisoners taken when the day is done
No flag or uniform ever stopped the bullet from a gun
Hard rock and heavy metal was riding high and still on the rise in the mid-1980s, and Moore had released several albums that tapped into that wave prior to this single and coming album. This time, though, he wanted to be a bit less entrenched in that style. While he would still indulge in hard rock whenever it suited a particular track, he was keen to add more overall diversity to his music. Coming out of a 1970s rock expression, he was used to songs going in the direction they naturally felt like going in rather than forcing all of them to fit a template.
Out In the Fields is clearly a rock song, in some respects even a hard rock song, but not in a 1980s hard rock/heavy metal kind of way. The track had a message he felt was important, so it needed to have room for several moods and cast a wide enough musical net to reach music fans in general. Adding another vocalist to the track, especially one of Lynott’s pedigree, was one way of achieving that.
The sharing of vocals was a new thing for both of them, especially for Lynott. On most (if not all) of his recordings, Lynott was the lead vocalist, but he was happy to share the vocals here. The fact that he handles the moody and reflective deliveries, while Moore does the more energetic ones, suits the song, but it also suited Lynott. He would have struggled with a more consistently high-energy delivery at that time, although he did well in short spurts, as evidenced on the b-side Military Man. Lynott handles the lead vocals alone there, changing between a belting and a quieter delivery as the song changes its colours.
The song has a tremendous groove, with Lynott delivering a great bass track with urgency and punch like he always did. Moore adds layers of guitars as appropriate, dialling them back a bit when appropriate.
Moore was one of the most technically precise guitarists in the world at that point. He once again came up with a brilliant guitar solo which combines a razor sharp execution with a tasteful delivery full of emotion. This was par for the course for him at the time. His solos were unique, always having that Moore contradiction. On one hand, every single note in the solo would very clearly be 100% thought out in terms of what, where, and how much (or how little) to play, but at the same time they manage to tap into something that feels very real and spontaneous. Very few could pull off something like that. Gary Moore was one of them. His solos were always well worth waiting for, or even seeking out.
The post-solo section features a quieter, poignant version of the chorus before the song returns to the full band delivery. That section always felt sombre, like a requiem for the fallen ones. The section sees the normal vocals dialled back to a quieter “Out in the fields” or just “Out” while Lynott somberly delivers some lines in a spoken word style: “They are falling one by one” and “No flag has ever stopped a bullet from a gun.” It is very effective.
The end of the track includes a few bars of the traditional song When Johnny Comes Marching Home – although it could be its Irish precursor Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye, which has the same melody.
The backgrounds of the two artists played into the song’s message. Moore was born in Belfast, Northern Ireland, while Lynott was born in England and was half-black, but was also Dublin to the core. This was a significant combination given the time the song was written and recorded.
The Troubles (the name of the ethno-nationalist conflict in Northern Ireland, sometimes causing terrorist activities all over UK, that lasted about 30 years from the late 1960s to 1998) was still very much an ongoing thing, and most people would naturally associate the song with, or apply it to, that situation. Moore later said that in spite of the accompanying video, which strengthens this association, Out In the Fields was not written specifically about Northern Ireland, but was “a general anti-war song.”
There’s no communication
No one to take the blame
The cries of every nation
They’re falling on deaf ears again
Lynott’s song Military Man was the b-side on the single. Written as a letter from a disillusioned soldier to his mother, which speaks about being tired of fighting. The two songs were unified in their anti-war stance, seeing conflict from different sides with a hope that it could end. Instead of delving into the politics behind it or taking any sides, but instead speaking of people’s feelings and urging for peace in a general sense, these songs could be embraced by anyone.
Expanded versions of the single also included the tracks Still In Love With You (written by Lynott) and Stop Messin’ Around (a Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac cover, foreshadowing Moore’s eventual change into a full-fledged bluesman some years down the road).
The combination of the two rock veterans’ names alone was enough to drum up some commercial interest, but the fact is that the song alone is incredibly strong and could have been a hit for anyone. It is up-tempo, has enough of a commercial flair to work on radio, and is one of the finest collaborations of two of the greatest musical talents to come out of Ireland.
Moore and Lynott did promote the song by doing some TV appearances. On Top of the Pops they dressed up in similarly styled uniforms (also used on the single sleeve photo) and played both sides of the single back to back.
The song performed well commercially, reaching #3 in Ireland and #5 in the UK, making it the highest charting single for both artists. It also did well throughout Europe, but especially in the Norselands where it reached its highest placement anywhere with #2 in both Norway and Sweden.
This song and its related b-sides turned out to be the last new music featuring Phil Lynott before his death on 4 January 1986. Nineteen was released as a solo single by Lynott in November 1985 and is often thought of as his final song, but that was a recording done by his Grand Slam project on 4 December 1984, predating his new songs with Gary Moore.
Lynott’s death impacted Moore deeply. His next few solo albums (Wild Frontier and After the War) were dedicated to Lynott and heavily inspired by their common Irish heritage, which they had also explored together on Black Rose in Thin Lizzy. He would immerse himself in this for the rest of the decade, before making a left turn and dedicating himself to the blues. But that is another story…
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This story, however, has a small postscript. Young Scottish fan Tommie Paxton met Gary Moore at a record store signing in September 1985. Moore was promoting the Run For Cover album at the time and signing copies that fans bought at the store. Paxton jumped into the queue when he saw what was going on, keen to meet Moore. He already had the new album, though, and did not feel like buying it again – signature or not! Instead, he handed over the only thing he had on him – a newly purchased Ebow (an early 21st birthday gift from his dad). Gary Moore seemed bemused by being asked to sign this unusual item and cheerfully signed the box. He could not resist asking “You’re not gonna play all that Big Country stuff, are you?,” in a slightly mocking tone, to which Paxton replied “I’m a Scotsman – I have to!”
The irony? Gary Moore’s next album Wild Frontier marked a sharp direction towards Celtic Rock and a more Big Country-inspired sound, making his sly comment all the more amusing. On top of that, Tommie Paxton ended up being the frontman for Big Country several decades later, bringing their meeting to full circle. Little did any of them know…
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