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THIN LIZZY NIGHTLIFE ALBUM COVER

The cover for Nightlife was a slightly odd one: I was very influenced by Roger Dean at the time (I still love his artwork) and it shows in the lettering, the rest is a photo montage influenced by the collages of comic book artists like Jim Steranko and Jack Kirby which were appearing in Marvel comics -and myself and Philip were huge fans. Both of us knew what we wanted and Philip was very sure of the direction he wanted to go, hence the sullen, moody, almost threatening cover. It was intended as an almost subliminal political statement. But we dared not say so.
What no one knows -up until right now –was that the black panther was a silent tribute by both of us to great African Americans like Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Bobby Smith, and John Carlos, Black Power and the Black Panther movement.
We would have had a real job of explaining that one to the record company! Anyway, they took my name off the cover which annoyed me so eff them.