Thin Lizzy’s Bad Reputation is the latest in an on-going series of deluxe reissues from the band. Breaking from the last set of reissues, this disc doesn’t include a second bonus disc but rather appends six bonus tracks to the original disc’s nine tracks to take the total running time up to 58 minutes. (Strangely, this reissue was originally announced as coming with a nine-track bonus CD).

Bad Reputation was originally released in 1977 and the band benefited from a switch to producer Tony Visconti as he captured critical elements of the band’s live sound and swagger that were missing from Johnny the Fox. This new reissue sounds great – there is a notable improvement over the previously released versions of Bad Reputation and this set of reissues (which includes Black Rose and Chinatown) are the first to actually use the 2010 remasters by Andy Pierce. The five of the bonus tracks are from a John Peel Session that the band recorded for the BBC in 1977. Four of the five tracks were released on Thin Lizzy’s Peel Sessions CD in 1994 but that disc is way out of print and used copies generally sell for too much on Amazon and eBay ($40+). The last track is a soundcheck recording of “Me and the Boys” which was recorded at an unspecified location.

The high point of this reissue is that it sounds great and it is selling at a reasonable price point (~$16.00, which includes shipping to the US if you order from Amazon.co.uk; the US version will be released next month and is posted at a pre-sale price of $17.99 on Amazon.com).

The only potential negative is that Thin Lizzy announced last month that “October 2012 will see the release of a lavish collection of BBC material 'At The BBC’ that will be available in three formats ' a 7CD, 1 DVD boxset, a 2CD anthology and a 5 LP vinyl set”. Given this, it makes me wonder how quickly these five BBC tracks are going to be redundant.



Bad Reputation Bonus Tracks:
1. “Killer Without A Cause” - BBC Session, 01/08/1977
2. “Bad Reputation” - BBC Session, 01/08/1977
3. “That Woman's Gonna Break Your Heart” - BBC Session, 01/08/1977
4. “Dancing In The Moonlight (It's Caught Me In A Spotlight)” - BBC Session, 01/08/1977
5. “Downtown Sundown” - BBC Session, 01/08/1977
6. “Me And The Boys” – Soundcheck

Links:
Thin Lizzy