Initially released in 1972, Thin Lizzy’s second album ‘Shades Of A Blue Orphanage’. The album’s title came from an amalgamation of the members, Philip Lynott, Brian Downey and Eric Bell, previous bands Shades of Blue and Orphanage. While not a hit then, the album, which experimented with psychedelia acoustic folk influences, has since grown in stature.

Pitchfork commented, “Lynott’s lyrical voice was already providing a sturdy anchor to rally it around. The then-23-year-old Lynott was already singing with the rueful wisdom of a man several decades his senior, laying the foundation for the rugged-romantic archetype that would define his legend.”

While no singles were lifted from the album, the song ‘Sarah’, written for Phil Lynott's grandmother who raised him when his mother, Philomena, was unable to do so, has, over time, become the standout track. Lynott would revisit the theme when he recorded another song called ‘Sarah’, this time for his newly born daughter and a hit for Lizzy in 1979.

Little was Thin Lizzy to know that just around the corner in September 1972, their big break and the millstone around their necks, the massive hit single ‘Whiskey In The Jar’ was waiting. ‘Shades Of A Blue Orphanage’ is the sound of a young band trying to find their place in the world. It would not be too long before they would find their feet and embarked on their journey which led them to become one of the greatest rock bands of the 70s and Philip recognised as one of the best songwriters of his and any other generation.