One of the great live rock and roll albums, Live and Dangerous by the great Thin Lizzy, is now available on one sonically explosive MP3 from Amazon this month for only $5. (Browse all 1,000 albums on sale this month for only $5 each, as well as several albums on sale this week for only $2.99 each.)

Originally recorded in London, Toronto, and Philadelphia during their 1977 tour, which was supporting their Bad Reputation album, and featuring the late, great Phil Lynott on bass and vocals, (whose birthday is today) Live and Dangerous showcases the band at an absolute peak. Thin Lizzy remains one of the most underrated heavy rock bands of all time, their unapologetic, fever pitch riffs, and pot boiling rockers influenced a huge generation of musicians in the band’s wake, and they are running on all musical cylinders here on Live and Dangerous and then some. Great live versions of classic radio smashes like “Jailbreak,” “The Rocker,” “Warrior,” and the hit songs “Dancing in the Moonlight” and especially the memorable 1970s zeitgeist cruncher “The Boys are Back in Town” get elevated to new musical stretches with these live renditions. Essential for any hard rock collection, as they wax ever so memorable in the cult film This is Spinal Tap and which can be applied to this album without question, “This One Goes To Eleven.”

[Update 2/7/2011: Reports are coming in now as to the circumstances and cause of death. See below for update.]

Rock and blues guitarist Gary Moore has died at aged 58. It was revealed on Planet Rock radio earlier today that Moore was found dead in his hotel room in Spain in the early hours of Sunday morning. No cause of death has been revealed at this time.

Born Robert William Gary Moore in Belfast, Northern Ireland, on April 4, 1952, Moore was a prolific guitar player. Since the late 1960s, Moore contributed to many musical projects and had three spells as lead guitarist in rock band Thin Lizzy playing on their classic album, Black Rose.

Known to many as an exceptional rock guitarist and most famous for his 1979 hit “Parisienne Walkways,” Moore was also a highly respected and talented blues player. Much of his twenty-plus catalogue of solo studio albums and live albums reflect this.

My favourite performance of Gary Moore’s was on an old BBC2 music show called “˜The Old Grey Whistle Test’. In 1976. he appeared with his Thin Lizzy bandmates Phil Lynott, Scott Gorham, and Brian Downey. Billed as Gary Moore & Friends they performed a stunning version of Thin Lizzy’s “Don’t Believe A Word,” the video of which I have included below. At the 2:40 mark, the video simultaneously demonstrates how incredibly talented Moore was and how tight this band was.

Update 2/7/2011: The Sun is reporting that Moore died after choking on his own vomit after a night of heavy drinking. He was discovered unconscious in his hotel room at 4AM by his girlfriend and was lifeless when medics arrived. There were signs of alcohol in the room.

Update 2/8/2011: The Mirror is now reporting that Moore’s death was from natural causes, a “suspected heart attack.” Tests are being done to determine exact cause of death.

Today marks the 25th anniversary of the death of musician Phil Lynott, frontman of the rock band Thin Lizzy.

Philip Parris Lynott was born in the UK on August 20, 1949 and grew up in Dublin, Ireland. Lynott began his musical career in the 1960s, playing with guitarist Gary Moore amongst others and in 1969 he co-founded Thin Lizzy as the band’s frontman and main songwriter, as well as lead singer and bassist. In the 1970s, the band hit it big with a rock version of the traditional Irish tune “Whiskey in the Jar” and again in 1976 with “The Boys Are Back in Town” and “Jailbreak.”