Shades of a Blue Orphanage is the second studio album by Irish band Thin Lizzy

Thin Lizzy

Thin Lizzy are an Irish hard rock band formed in Dublin in 1969. Two of the founding members, drummer Brian Downey and bass guitarist/vocalist Phil Lynott met while still in school. Lynott assumed the role of frontman and led them throughout their recording career of thirteen studio albums...

, released in 1972. The title is a combination of the members' previous bands: Shades of Blue and Orphanage.

"Sarah" was written for Phil Lynott

Phil Lynott

Philip Parris "Phil" Lynott was an Irish musician who first came to prominence as a founding member, principal songwriter, and frontman of the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy....

's grandmother who raised him when his mother, Philomena, was unable to do so. This song should not be confused with the 1979 song of the same name

Sarah (Thin Lizzy song)

Sarah is a pop song released in 1979 by Irish rock group Thin Lizzy, included on their album, Black Rose: A Rock Legend. The song was written by the band's frontman Phil Lynott and guitarist Gary Moore about Lynott's newborn daughter...

, for Lynott's daughter, included on Black Rose: A Rock Legend

Black Rose: A Rock Legend

Black Rose: A Rock Legend is the ninth studio album by Irish band Thin Lizzy. Released in 1979, it has been described as one of the band's "greatest, most successful albums"....

.

Track listing

All songs written by Phil Lynott

Phil Lynott

Philip Parris "Phil" Lynott was an Irish musician who first came to prominence as a founding member, principal songwriter, and frontman of the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy....

, except where stated.

Side one

1. "The Rise and Dear Demise of the Funky Nomadic Tribes" (Lynott, Eric Bell
   Eric Bell
   Eric Robin Bell is a Northern Irish rock musician and guitarist, best known as a founder member and the original guitarist of the rock group Thin Lizzy.-Early career:...
   
   , Brian Downey
   Brian Downey (drummer)
   Brian Michael Downey is an Irish drummer.Downey is the drummer and a founding member of the rock band Thin Lizzy, and a friend from childhood of co-founder and frontman Phil Lynott. Along with Lynott, Downey was the only constant member of the pioneering hard rock group until their break-up in...
   
   ) – 7:06
2. "Buffalo Gal" – 5:30
3. "I Don't Want to Forget How to Jive" – 1:46
4. "Sarah" – 2:59
5. "Brought Down" – 4:19

Side two

1. "Baby Face" – 3:27
2. "Chatting Today" – 4:19
3. "Call the Police" – 3:37
4. "Shades of a Blue Orphanage" – 7:06

Remastered and expanded release

On 11 October 2010 a new remastered and expanded version of Shades of a Blue Orphanage was released. This version features the following bonus tracks:

1. "Whiskey in the Jar" (Full-length version)
2. "Black Boys on the Corner"
3. "Buffalo Gal" (1977 Overdubbed and remixed version)
4. "Sarah" (1977 Overdubbed and remixed version)
5. "Brought Down" (1977 Overdubbed and remixed version)
6. "Suicide" (BBC Radio 1 John Peel Session)
7. "Black Boys on the Corner" (BBC Radio 1 John Peel Session)
8. "Saga of the Ageing Orphan" (BBC Radio 1 John Peel Session)
9. "Whiskey in the Jar" (BBC Radio 1 John Peel Session)

Reception

Eduardo Rivadavia of Allmusic was largely critical of the album, describing it as "disappointing", and both the opening track and the title track as "overblown and disjointed". However, he picked out "Baby Face" and "Buffalo Gal" as bright moments, and praised Lynott's "eloquent and personal" performance on "Sarah".

Personnel

Thin Lizzy

• Philip Lynott
  Phil Lynott
  Philip Parris "Phil" Lynott was an Irish musician who first came to prominence as a founding member, principal songwriter, and frontman of the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy....
  
   – vocals, bass guitar
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  , acoustic guitar
  Acoustic guitar
  An acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
  
  
• Eric Bell
  Eric Bell
  Eric Robin Bell is a Northern Irish rock musician and guitarist, best known as a founder member and the original guitarist of the rock group Thin Lizzy.-Early career:...
  
   – lead guitar
  Lead guitar
  Lead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
  
  , acoustic guitar
• Brian Downey
  Brian Downey (drummer)
  Brian Michael Downey is an Irish drummer.Downey is the drummer and a founding member of the rock band Thin Lizzy, and a friend from childhood of co-founder and frontman Phil Lynott. Along with Lynott, Downey was the only constant member of the pioneering hard rock group until their break-up in...
  
   – drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  , percussion
  Percussion instrument
  A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
  
  

Additional personnel

• Clodagh Simonds
  Mellow Candle
  Mellow Candle were a progressive folk rock band. Principally Irish, the members were also unusually young, Clodagh Simonds being only 15 and Alison Bools and Maria White 16, and still at school, at the time of their first single, "Feelin' High", released in 1968 on Simon Napier-Bell's SNB...
  
   – harpsichord
  Harpsichord
  A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It produces sound by plucking a string when a key is pressed.In the narrow sense, "harpsichord" designates only the large wing-shaped instruments in which the strings are perpendicular to the keyboard...
  
  , keyboards
  Keyboard instrument
  A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
  
  , mellotron
  Mellotron
  The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical, polyphonic tape replay keyboard originally developed and built in Birmingham, England in the early 1960s. It superseded the Chamberlin Music Master, which was the world's first sample-playback keyboard intended for music...