Whiskey in the Jar

Well, I was planning on doing this one for a few weeks. I wasn't sure where I was going to fit it in until last week. Someone I follow on Twitter had pointed out that a local radio station played the Metallica version of Whiskey in the Jar several times in a row. Of course, seeing that prompted me to tweet at the radio station in a blind rage that it's unfathomable that this radio station play the Metallica version when there's a clearly superior version by Thin Lizzy.

Oh and as you may have noticed from that last paragraph, I'm totally on the Twitter. So if you want, you can follow me: @AJLezak. I tweet whenever I do a new blog post so that's a good way to see what's up.

Whiskey in the Jar is actually a traditional Irish song and has been performed by like a million different artists. It's about a Highwayman who is betrayed by his lover. Apparently, an Irish folk band called the Dubliners first made the song popular in the 60s. I think it's also worth mentioning that the Grateful Dead also do a version of the song. I chose to do Thin Lizzy and Metallica because I think they’re probably the most well known versions.

Thin Lizzy released the song as a single in 1972. It topped the Irish charts for 17 weeks, and stayed in the top 30 of the British charts for 12 weeks, where it reached as high at number 6.

Thin Lizzy:

The music video for their version is actually a live performance. I know I said I was going to avoid using live versions of songs, but I figured that if I was going to use the official Metallica music video I should use the Thin Lizzy one too. Here's the studio version of the song in case you wanted to compare that. The quality of the live version is right up there with the studio version. It just goes to show how tight they were. Thin Lizzy was super awesome live. If you're into music and this kind of hard rock is your thing and you don't have Thin Lizzy Live and Dangerous in your collection. Just stop reading this right now, Go to Amazon and order it. I'm not even kidding.

Metallica released their version in 1998. It won them a Grammy for best hard rock performance.

Metallica:

The results of this one probably aren't much of a surprise when you consider the last sentence of the first paragraph. Thin Lizzy wins. Of course they do. Who would even question that? Their version is so heartfelt. It's a traditional Irish song; these guys bleed green, and it shows in the performance. Their version has an authentic feel that sets the mood of the song and really immerses the listener in the story being told. I don't have too much to say about Metallica's version. They sped their version up a little bit, and tried to make it heavier. I find that it sounds pretty generic. To me is seems like a weaker copy of Thin Lizzy's version. If you like Metallica's version you might say I’m biased, and I totally am, but I'm also right.