Skinny Lizzy’s album Dangerous Repute got here out in September 1977 and have become their first to crack the UK high 10, making No.4 and happening to promote an terrible lot of copies. For his or her subsequent launch, it was determined {that a} stay album was the way in which to go. At all times an excellent band in live performance, it was an apparent selection, though it was one which David Bowie had a hand in.
Dangerous Repute and its hit single, “Dancing in the Moonlight (It’s Caught Me in Its Spotlight)” had been produced by Tony Visconti and he was the person that Phil Lynott needed to provide their subsequent album. Lynott gave Visconti a selection: Both begin a studio album then cease after a month to work with Bowie, after which resume working with Skinny Lizzy. Or Skinny Lizzy may simply spend the time engaged on placing out a stay album. Dwell and Harmful was the consequence.
Take heed to Dwell and Harmful now.
Based on Tony Visconti in his guide, Bowie, Bolan and the Brooklyn Boy, it was difficult. “I should have realized as soon as the tapes arrived that I was going to be in trouble. The band had recorded several shows in America and Europe, which in itself may not have been a problem. The difficulties started when I found the tape formats were different; some were recorded at the new fashionable 30 ips (inches per second) and the rest at 15 ips. Some used the Dolby A system, some didn’t, some used the AES frequency curve and some with the European CCIR curve. Without getting too technical, this was a nightmare.”
The European live performance was from Hammersmith Odeon, in London, from November 1976, through the Johnny the Fox tour, and the remaining from the band’s current Dangerous Repute tour recorded in Seneca School Fieldhouse, Toronto, in October 1977.
Based on Visconti, “When we listened to the tapes they were very definitely a little too rough to do straightforward mixing as originally planned. Phil begged to be able to fix a few vocals by dropping in a few lines in each song. It proved almost impossible to match the microphone characteristics on each track. The vocal tracks also had a lot of drums and guitar leakage, noticeably missing when Phil would re-sing a line in an acoustically dry studio. Rather than endless hours of trying to match the sound, we found it easier to have Phil simply re-sing everything! Things then got even more complicated. ‘The trouble is, Tony, that my bass playing really suffers when I’m singing live and playing at the same time.’ He was right. He missed a lot of notes. Once again we couldn’t match the sound from the different cities, so we set his stage gear up in the studio and he replayed every bass part. Good Earth (Visconti’s London studio) had a three-tiered control room. Phil stood on the top tier, towering over me sitting on the middle tier as I recorded his bass. Interestingly Phil used his radio transmitter for his bass, so that he could move around like he did on stage; I was also getting a visual performance, which made the whole thing more entertaining. Phil also wanted me to blast the volume, so that he could feel the sound rumble in his feet the way he did on stage.”
After working in Visconti’s studio, the band went to Paris for a weekend to complete it at Studio Des Dames. Based on Visconti, “Doing an ‘in concert’ album this way was cheating, slightly, but the album is about 55% live and the overdubs gave the poorly recorded performances a more uniform sound. This all took a lot more time than we planned, which meant I was again late for Bowie’s album. On the plus side, Live and Dangerous became a big hit… Even U2 claim it as an early influence.”
And the proof? Dwell and Harmful made No.2 on the UK album charts following its launch on June 2, 1978.
Take heed to the most effective Skinny Lizzy songs on Apple Music and Spotify.
