Johnny the Fox
| Johnny the Fox | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
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| Studio album by Thin Lizzy | ||||
| Released | 16 October 1976 | |||
| Recorded | London, August 1976 | |||
| Genre | Hard rock, blues rock | |||
| Length | 35:37 | |||
| Label |
Vertigo (UK, Canada) Mercury (US) |
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| Producer | John Alcock | |||
| Thin Lizzy chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |
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| Classic Rock |   |
Johnny the Fox is the seventh studio album by Irish band Thin Lizzy, released in 1976 (see 1976 in music). This album was written and recorded while bassist/vocalist Phil Lynott was recovering from a bout of hepatitis that put him off the road halfway through the previous Jailbreak tour. "Don't Believe a Word" was a British hit single. Johnny the Fox was the last Thin Lizzy studio album on which guitarist Brian Robertson featured as a full member of the band, as the personality clashes between him and Lynott resulted in Robertson being sacked, reinstated, and later sacked again.
Once Lynott had returned to the UK from the aborted US tour in June 1976, when they had been scheduled to support Rainbow, he spent time in hospital in Manchester recovering from hepatitis. He had an acoustic guitar with him and wrote the songs for Johnny the Fox during June and July, with one outing to play a gig at Hammersmith Odeon on 11 July. After his release from hospital, Lynott joined the other members of the band and travelled to Munich in August to record the album at Musicland Studios with producer John Alcock. Alcock has said that the decision to record outside the UK was for tax reasons.
Early in the recording process, it became clear that neither the band nor the production team were happy with the studios or the recording process, and they experienced particular trouble obtaining a satisfactory drum sound. Lynott was still finishing the songwriting and, according to Alcock, the band were arguing about musical direction. On 6 August, they abandoned the sessions and returned to Ramport Studios in Battersea (where the previous Jailbreak album had been recorded), and Olympic Studios in Barnes, London. Brian Robertson has said that there was plenty of material from which to choose for the album, up to eight or nine tracks apart from the ten that appeared on the final album. However, Alcock claims that the album suffered because Lynott needed more time to finish the songs, and that some tracks, like "Boogie Woogie Dance", were not strong enough to make the album.
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