Phil Lynott – Bass

I loved this Thin Lizzy live album when I was a kid and this track was a favourite for reasons I cannot recall. It was only when I came to transcribe it that I discovered that it was written by Lynott and Brian Downey, not by one of the guitar players. I don’t know why that surprised me (other than blatant prejudice) but it did. Another question I was left with is the fact that the recording (from the Live and Dangerous album) appears to be in Gb and there is a low Eb in there. This pre-dates the prevalence of 5-string basses and I suspect the bass and guitars were detuned a half-step (a semi-tone, in old money). Which presents me with a dilemma. Do I write the chart out as I hear it or as I think it was played. Short answer? Both

A bit of rock ‘n’ roll fun, this is the complete Phil Lynott bass part to the tune ‘The Cowboy Song’ from the classic 1978 live album, ‘Live And Dangerous’.