Foreigner; Thin Lizzy

That was yesterday? Flash back a couple of decades and witness the decline of rock and roll as various journeymen bands divvied up their talent to form even less talented groups. The mitosis of Spooky Tooth (itself already operating in its second lineup) gave us Foreigner by way of guitarist Mick Jones. With the addition of an American singer with the most un-rock name in music history (Lou Gramm), Jones and his fellow Brits saw the future: classic-rock radio.

Meanwhile, Irishman Phil Lynott had, with his outrageously compelling stagecraft, piloted hard-cocking rockers Thin Lizzy onto the American charts with “The Boys Are Back in Town” and several albums of convincing heft. Like Foreigner, Lizzy formed from a couple of stagnant UK bands and never achieved critical raves. Still, Lynott’s songwriting was craftier, influenced by Bob Dylan and hinting at class and racial politics, and the band’s attack had elements of glam about it that rescued its albums from vileness. The band crashed in the mid-’80s; Lynott died in January 1986, having survived hepatitis but not heroin. His image barely survived Huey Lewis, who had toured in The News predecessor Clover with Lizzy, publicly giving the recently departed Lynott credit for his success.

Lizzy still has a few original musicians at the core of its touring unit. John Sykes, one of the group’s guitarists, has assumed most lead vocal duties, essentially making Lizzy 2000 a tribute group to itself, like if Ringo joined Beatlemania.

As a Rolling Stone scribe wrote of Van Halen in 1986, rock and roll is all about finding ways to say, “Let’s fuck.” Foreigner managed to find plenty of names for songs that got roughly two of those ways across. It’s amazing that it took Jones and Gramm to add such titles as “Hot Blooded,” “Rev on the Red Line,” “Head Games,” and “Cold as Ice” to the rock canon. More impressive, Gramm came up with “Ready or Not” for a solo album. All that stuff is included on Rhino’s new Foreigner anthology, which compiles 39 profoundly guilt-inducing songs on two discs. Still, for some, venturing out to a relatively small venue (Foreigner packed Sandstone last year) to see these jukebox heroes in action will be nothing less than urgent.