471 - Richard and Linda Thompson - I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight - Avery Pearson
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EPISODE SUMMARY:
Hope can be hard to come by, faith sometimes falters, and love might be fleeting. But as the tender guitar tones and soulful harmonies found in the brighter tracks of Richard and Linda Thompson's 1974 folk rock masterpiece I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight suggest, all three of those qualities are an essential balance to the heartbreaking pain that life has to offer. Comedian, actor and musical savant Avery Pearson is no stranger to both joy and sadness. And it is his ability to accept both the good and the bad with an unceasing zest for living that makes him perhaps the most qualified of all to pick apart an album that, while having little success in its day, is nearly unmatched in its equal share of exuberant musicality and woeful lyricism. After all, it's Avery's boundless positivity that has drawn audiences to his performances in Showtime’s Masters of Sex, USA’s Suits, and on stage in his own monthly comedy showcase at the Hollywood Improv, 'The 88 Show with Avery Pearson.'
SHOW NOTES:
01:15 – Intro
09:15 – Paul McCartney liked Avery’s chord progressions
12:30 – Avery loves Richard Thompson’s chord progressions
15:15 – Dealing with a lack of mass appeal
23:15 – A lifetime career of being picked on
26:30 – War & People Who Don’t Signal: the two great evils
30:45 – Love, Faith, Hope & Chicken Tenders: the four great virtues
33:15 – Being a slave to success
36:15 – Getting on the level of a two-year-old
43:45 – What makes a great night out?
52:30 – How to deal with the drunks in your life
59:45 – The best and worst of New Year’s Eve
01:04:30 – Trapped in the Friend Zone
01:05:00 – Life as Darth Vader’s wingman
01:12:45 – The poorest rich person in the world
01:19:45 – The transition from being parented to being a parent
01:29:45 – Breaking up to fall in love
01:31:15 – Facts!
01:33:30 – When stress takes its toll
01:37:00 – Taking pride in others
01:46:45 – Outro
01:48:45 – ‘Watching from a Distance’ by David Ramirez