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Hollywood (Down on Your Luck)

1982 song performed by Thin Lizzy

Manuscripts, fine bindings, an engraving plate and preserved performance ephemera
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 17, 2025
Entity authorityQ17010424 ↗
Source-derived summary

"Hollywood (Down on Your Luck)" is a song by the Irish rock band Thin Lizzy, written by guitarist Scott Gorham and bassist/vocalist Phil Lynott, and released as a single in 1982. It was the only single to be released from their 1981 album Renegade.

Single release

The opening track on Side 2 of Renegade, "Hollywood (Down on Your Luck)" was released as a single in February 1982, over three months after the album which had been released the previous November. Vertigo Records refused to finance a promotional video for the song, which contributed to a relatively poor chart placing compared to past singles. In the UK, "Hollywood" reached no. 53, which apart from the previous single, "Trouble Boys", which also reached no. 53, was the lowest chart placing for a Thin Lizzy single in the UK since "Wild One" failed to chart in 1975. In Ireland, the single did not chart at all, again the worst performance since the mid-1970s. It did, however, reach no. 24 on the US Mainstream Rock chart.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Hollywood (Down on Your Luck)” as 1982 song performed by Thin Lizzy. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Hollywood, Down and Your.

Editorial reviewA useful identification and reception guide that helps separate the work itself from editions, performances, ownership and later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1982, 1981, 1975—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1982-03-06. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Hollywood, Down and Your providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Hollywood (Down on Your Luck)”, the useful work is to connect “1982 song performed by Thin Lizzy” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Reception evidence should be dated and situated: later canonical status may differ sharply from the work’s initial circulation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 17, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q17010424. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1982, 1981 and 1975.

Critical limits

Later fame can flatten the distinction between original context, subsequent adaptation and institutional collecting history. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Separate the work, its editions or performances, and its later reception. Catalogue records, publication histories and object files often preserve different parts of that story.

Best used for
  • Identifying works and editions
  • Tracing reception history
  • Finding collection records
Verify next

The original object or edition, catalogue raisonné, performance record, rights file and holding institution.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Hollywood (Down on Your Luck)”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Hollywood (Down on Your Luck) primary sources, Hollywood (Down on Your Luck) archive and Hollywood research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Hollywood (Down on Your Luck)”?
  2. Which edition, object, performance or recording is being described?
  3. How did later circulation or interpretation alter the work’s reception?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Hollywood (Down on Your Luck)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.