The Best of Thin Lizzy

Rating:
Summary: NO TAB!! Get the Total Accuracy/Jam Trax book instead
Review: I bought this book when it was the only Thin Lizzy book available. It was better than nothing and does contain most of the very best early songs. Since then a much better book has appeared by the Total Accuracy/Jam Trax folks -- which cover less songs but which is far better. That book has a musical overview of each song, briefly discussing key(s), tunings, scales used, equipment, etc. and a CD with 2 excellent versions of each of the songs one with and one without lead guitar, in standard tuning [see below]. This book on the other hand just contains old-fashioned music notation -- which just does not work well for rock guitar, in my humble opinion. Also, the chords seem odd because the transcriber failed to notice that Thin Lizzy tuned their guitars down a half a semi-tone when playing live. There is no CD or discussion of how to approach the tracks musically. It is an old fashioned book. Life is good now, learning guitar from books in the 70's really [was hard] because of the poor material and poor formats used. That said many great guitarist appeared after the 60's -- they learnt by listening to records though. If you read music well then by all means get this book (bear in mind my tip about down tuning though) for everybody else though, get the newer book from Jamtrax.

Rating:
Summary: NO TAB!! Get the Total Accuracy/Jam Trax book instead
Review: I bought this book when it was the only Thin Lizzy book available. It was better than nothing and does contain most of the very best early songs. Since then a much better book has appeared by the Total Accuracy/Jam Trax folks -- which cover less songs but which is far better. That book has a musical overview of each song, briefly discussing key(s), tunings, scales used, equipment, etc. and a CD with 2 excellent versions of each of the songs one with and one without lead guitar, in standard tuning [see below]. This book on the other hand just contains old-fashioned music notation -- which just does not work well for rock guitar, in my humble opinion. Also, the chords seem odd because the transcriber failed to notice that Thin Lizzy tuned their guitars down a half a semi-tone when playing live. There is no CD or discussion of how to approach the tracks musically. It is an old fashioned book. Life is good now, learning guitar from books in the 70's really [was hard] because of the poor material and poor formats used. That said many great guitarist appeared after the 60's -- they learnt by listening to records though. If you read music well then by all means get this book (bear in mind my tip about down tuning though) for everybody else though, get the newer book from Jamtrax.

Rating:
Summary: Latest version does include TAB
Review: The current version of this songbook (with Phil on the cover) does in fact include TAB along with notation unlike the one mentioned by a previous reviewer. Solos and fills are also included and harmony parts are broken out. The songs transcribed seem to be mostly accurate if not dead on. As with a lot guitar tab I see, I question some of the fingerings but you at least have the right notes to work with.
My only minor complaint is the song selection, I would prefer to dump stuff like Sarah, Do Anything You Want, and Waiting for an Alibi for something else like Black Rose, Cold Sweat, or Holy War, etc. I give it 4 stars because ultimately I wish it included more songs than it does but there is an extremely limited amount of other Thin Lizzy tab available out there so this book is certainly worth buying.

Rating:
Summary: Great Song Selection and Detail
Review: This book covers most of Thin Lizzy's best songs - "The Boys are Back in Town", "Cowboy Song", "Don't Beleive a Word","Are You Ready?", "Waiting for an Alibi", "Chinatown", "Warriors", "Jailbreak" (15 songs). It covers multiple guitar parts in detail - all rhythm and lead parts. This is an advanced book.
The "Jam With" series by Total Accuracy ("Jam With Thin Lizzy") is a bit better, but this book covers more songs. 10 of the 15 songs are on "Dedication - Best of Thin Lizzy".
I found a few of the songs in this book avaiable online for "Power Tab Editor" (freeware - get it), but I find this book to be easier to read and more accurate than the tab of the net.