#332 - Richard & Linda Thompson - Shoot Out the Lights (1982)
MUSIC HISTORY COMPILED BY ADAM BERNARD:
RICHARD & LINDA THOMPSON BIO
Richard Thompson was born in London in 1949, and grew up with the typical rock and roll influences of the time, as well as his father's jazz and traditional Scottish music collection. At the age of 18 he co-founded a folk rock group called Fairport Convention. They were a cover band at first, but Richard desired to do more, and his songwriting ability grew and was on display over their next 4 albums, when Thompson left the band in January 1971. On his decision to leave the band: "I left Fairport as a gut reaction and didn't really know what I was doing, except writing. I was writing stuff and it seemed interesting and I thought it would be fun to make a record. And at the same time—’70–’71—I was doing a lot of session work as a way of avoiding any serious ideas about a career."
His first solo album came out in April 1972 called "Henry The Human Fly", and among the musicians on the album was Linda Peters. While the album was poorly received, a relationship between he and Linda began. They married in October 1972, and Linda became the front woman for the group. They released their first album "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight" in April 1974 (the release was held up by a gas shortage that had an impact on vinyl availability), and recorded two more albums together before Richard decided to take a break from the music business. The couple became part of Sufi Islam (Sufism) over the previous years (The cover photo of the album "Pour Down Like Silver" had Richard wearing a turban), and moved to a Sufi community in 1975. Richard became involved in music again in 1977 and the couple started recording again, but the first post-break album "First Light" didn't sell well despite being well-received. After their 1979 release "Sunnyvista" had similar results, the Thompson's found themselves without a record contract.
Enter Gerry Rafferty, who needed a support act for his 1980 tour and knew Richard from his days as a session player. Raffety offered to finance the recording of a new album by Richard & Linda, which he was hoping to recoup the money after it was signed by a record label. No record labels wanted it, and Rafferty never made his money back. Also Thompson & Rafferty had a falling out due to Richard not being happy with how the mixing process went and favored a more spontaneous approach to recording vs Rafferty's time-consuming perfectionist approach. Copies of the tapes of the Rafferty-sponsored sessions have subsequently become available as a bootleg under the titles Rafferty's Folly and Before Joe Could Pull the Trigger.
A year later, American producer Joe Boyd signed them to his small Hannibal label, leading us to today's album. Boyd had produced Fairport Convention records, and was previously engaged to Linda.
BACKGROUND – SHOOT OUT THE LIGHTS
This was the sixth and final album produced by the husband-wife duo. It was released on March 15th, 1982, and recording began in London in November 1981. The process was done in a matter of days so money could be put aside for a tour of the United States. Six songs were re-recorded from the Rafferty sessions that were written the previous Summer, and 2 new songs were written and recorded. Linda was several months pregnant during the recording process, so a release and tour weren't going to happen immediately, especially because breathing problems that occurred from her pregnancy also meant that she could not sing the lead part on some of these songs as she had done on the demo tapes. By the time the album was released, their marriage was over, though. As an interim measure, Richard Thompson agreed to a short 5-day, low-key solo tour of the U.S. This tour was set up by Nancy Covey, then concert director for McCabe's Guitar Shop in Santa Monica. It was during this tour that Thompson and Covey developed an intimate relationship (they later married in 1985), and during that month Richard and Linda Thompson separated The duo went out with a bang though, with this being their best-selling album and widely considered their best overall.
Some consider this album to be a narrative of their divorce, but broken relationships was something they always wrote about. Richard said, “I know people call Shoot Out the Lights a break-up album, but I can honestly say that was never the intention,” Richard told Uncut. “‘Don’t Renege on Our Love,’ ‘Wall of Death’ and ‘Walking on a Wire’ are dark, I suppose. But they were all written a year before we split up, so people can think what they like.” Linda said, “It was kind of a subliminal thing. I think we both were miserable and didn’t quite know how to get it out. I think that’s why the album is so good. We couldn’t talk to each other, so we just did it on the record.”
The Thompsons, now a couple for professional purposes only in 1982, toured the United States in support of the album, their only American tour together. Both the album and their live shows were well received by the American media, and Shoot Out the Lights effectively relaunched their career – just as their marriage was falling apart. The performances, with a backing band, were seen as strong, but the tension between Richard and Linda was all too obvious. For this reason, the Thompsons' fans often refer to the Shoot Out the Lights tour as "The Tour from Hell". Upon returning home, Richard and Linda went their separate ways.
This was ranked 9th on RS Magazine's Top 100 albums of the 1980s (list made in 2007). It didn't make the Billboard charts, but it was their best selling album in America.
Other musicians on this album: Simon Nicol (rhythm guitar), Dave Pegg on bass for tracks 3,6,7,8, Pete Zorn on bass for tracks 1,2,4,5 & backing vocals, and David Mattacks on drums.