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Thin Lizzy - Killer on the Loose
Some people they call me jack
Some people they call me insane
I'm looking for somebody
And I don't even know her name
I might be looking for you
Wherever you may be
For there is something I've got to do to you honey
And it's between you and me
Now you might think it's funny
Or maybe it's a joke
But you've got plenty of reason to worry honey
'cause you wouldn't stand a hope
There's a killer on the loose again
A killer on the loose
There's a killer on the loose again
A ladykiller on the loose
Now I'm not trying to be nasty
Or I'm not trying to make you scared
But there's a killer on the loose
Or haven't you heard
He'll be walking around this town
Just about midnight
Yes, that's chinatown
That's right
That's right
Now you might think I'm messing
Or he don't exist
But honey I'm confessing
I'm a mad sexual rapist
There's a killer on the loose again
A killer on the loose
There's a killer on the loose again
A ladykiller on the loose
"i'll be standing in the shadows of love
Waiting for you
Don't unzip your zipper
'cause you know I'm jack the ripper
Now don't wail, don't... "
There's a killer on the loose again
Standing in the shadows
A killer on the loose
There's a killer on the loose again
Coming to get you
A ladykiller on the loose
There's a killer on the loose again
Standing in the shadows of love
A killer on the loose
There's a killer on the loose again
That's right jack
A ladykiller on the loose
There's a killer on the loose again
Standing in the shadow
A killer on the loose again, of love
There's a killer on the loose again
Oooh
You better watch out
A killer on the loose
Play that back
Check it back
Although not an overt publicity seeker, bass player, lyricist and principal composer Phil Lynott realised early on in his career that gimmicks and outrageous shenanigans generate considerably more publicity than saintly behaviour. "Killer On The Loose" was obviously written with the intention of courting controversy, and it succeeded. The lady killer on the loose in this song was Jack The Ripper, which would have been bad enough, but when it was released on the Vertigo label in September 1980, backed by the arguably even more provocative "Don't Play Around", there was a real Ripper on the loose in the UK. Although his reign of terror started some years before, the first documented murder by the Yorkshire Ripper was of prostitute Wilma McCann on October 30, 1975, but unlike the original Jack The Ripper, who is generally credited with five victims, all of them prostitutes, Peter William Sutcliffe murdered twelve women before he was caught, and his victims were not exclusively whores; in 1979 he murdered two decent young women, which aroused extreme public anger especially in Leeds, which was at that time a stronghold of the more loony type of feminists. All of this was obviously known to Lynott, whose band was even bigger in the UK than in Ireland at the time. "Killer On The Loose" was re-released the following year as the B Side of "Hey You"; the band also made a suitably tasteless video to promote the song. Peter Sutcliffe was arrested by chance in January 1981, in the company of a Sheffield prostitute. Convicted of thirteen murders, he was subsequently gaoled for life. Killer On The Loose charted at #10 in the UK and #5 in Ireland.
