Cowboy Song

Philip Lynott packed a vast amount into his 36 years. An instantly identifiable singer, charismatic stage performer and supremely gifted songwriter, the guiding spirit of Thin Lizzy combined the instincts of a wild man with the soul of a poet. The first biography written with the cooperation of the Lynott Estate, Cowboy Song explores the fascinating contradictions between Lynott’s unbridled rock star excesses and the shy, sensitive “orphan” raised in working-class Dublin. The mixed-race child of a Catholic teenager and a Guyanese stowaway, Lynott rose above daunting obstacles and wounding abandonments. Cowboy Song analyzes his unsettled childhood; musical apprenticeship; key alliances with the poets, painters and folkies of 1960s Dublin; stardom with Thin Lizzy and drug-induced decline. It examines the unique blend of cultural influences which informed Lynott’s writing, connecting Ireland’s rich reserves of music, myth and poetry to hard rock, progressive folk, punk, soul and new wave. The results—including the hits “Whiskey in the Jar,” “The Boys Are Back in Town,” and “Dancing in the Moonlight,” and classic albums Jailbreak and Live and Dangerous—are now part of the rock canon. Including an afterword by Lynott’s former wife Caroline Taraskevics, Cowboy Song is the definitive authorized account of an extraordinary life and career. Drawing on scores of exclusive interviews with family, friends, bandmates and collaborators, it is both the ultimate depiction of a multifaceted rock icon and an intimate portrait of a much-loved father, son and husband.

Author Biography

Graeme Thomson is the author of several music books, including Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush, which the Irish Times described as “the best music biography in perhaps the past decade,” and George Harrison: Behind the Locked Door. His work has appeared in the Observer, New Statesman, the Guardian, Uncut, the Telegraph, GQ, Mojo, and Rolling Stone.