Thin Lizzy and their cover of Rosalie. Back in early ‘73, my band Beckett – who were signed to Raft which was a subsidiary of WEA UK – bought a brand-new Mercedes van with the advance from Island Music Publishing and it came with an 8-track player in the dash. We’d never even seen an 8-track cartridge let-alone owned one, so we asked the folks at WEA if they had some – they had 3: LA Woman, Abbey Road and Back in ‘72. Most of us hadn’t heard any Bob Seger, so his album was played incessantly – in particular Turn the Page which we all considered to be an ‘on-the-road’ classic.
On June 22nd of that year we were booked to play our local Mecca (Locarno – Sunderland) in support of Thin Lizzy who were riding the success of Whiskey in the Jar. While our crew were loading our gear into the lift under the venue, Lizzy turned up and we all stood around in the sunshine chewing the fat (we’d just played the Rainbow with Captain Beefheart in the May, and Lizzy had been there the month previous, so we were swopping stories) while playing in the background was our tape of Back in ‘72. Phil was much taken with Rosalie and they decided, there-and-then, that they would cover it in their live show. Thinking back: he may well have commandeered that 8-track cassette of ours too.
Bob Seger and Thin Lizzy: two of the most heart-poundingly exciting live rock shows I ever saw
Thanks to Keith Fisher