Richard and Linda Thompson Shoot Out the Lights (1982)

From somethingelsereviews.com

Infidelity, bottle-throwing, love and loss swirl around the great album produced by the soon-to-be-divorced duo of Richard and Linda Thompson in November 1981 at Olympic Studios in London.

Recorded live to tape by producer Joe Boyd, Shoot Out the Lights started and almost ended in dramatic fashion. Sessions began with Gerry Rafferty (of “Baker Street” fame) in the producer’s chair, but quickly disintegrated as Baker seemed more interested in making time with Linda Thompson than making an album.

Even though this version of the LP was completed, Rafferty was unable to find a label to release it. Boyd ultimately provided a home for the Thompsons on his fledgling Hannibal Records, and re-recorded a majority of the album in just a few days.

The eight songs they emerged with are stunning. Except for the telling “Did She Jump or Was She Pushed,” a collaboration with Linda, Shoot Out the Lights was composed by Richard Thompson. Additionally, the core band (featuring the mighty Dave Mattacks on drums, Simon Nichol on rhythm guitar, Pete Zorn and Dave Pegg swapping bass duties, and Richard Thompson on lead guitar) provide a telepathic backing to Linda’s gut-wrenching vocals and Richard’s growl.

“Don’t Renege on Our Love,” the only single from the album, is a fine way to start. Mattack’s galloping drumbeat dances with Zorn’s bass and Nichol’s guitar work. Richard Thompson’s Stratocaster is lean and effective. Lyrically, Richard’s tale of obligation, alienation, and dissolution could not be more effective.

“Walking On a Wire” is perfection. Linda Thompson has a long history of great vocals, but is often overlooked when there’s a discussion of great singers in the folk-rock arena. Check out her truncated solo career for confirmation of Linda’s vocal and writing prowess. Those sporadic efforts only add to a string of high-water marks recorded with Richard. The Stratocaster-driven ballad “Walking On a Wire” has Linda wringing all the agony out of Richard’s lyrics, while his guitar solo heightens the anguish. Pain has never felt so great.

“A Man In Need” is joyous in comparison, at least until you listen to the words. The jaunty backbeat and the guitar interplay play between Richard and Simon Nichol are reminiscent of Keith Richards and Waddy Watchel. Add in Linda’s harmony vocals and you have the most upbeat song about a relationship falling apart ever.

Side one of the original track listing ends with the ballad “Just the Motion.” Richard provides gentle dulcimer overdubs, which fit perfectly with this electric guitar. This time, it’s Richard who provides the harmony to Linda’s lead vocal. And another heart-wrenching vocal it is: “Blown by a hundred winds, knocked down a hundred times / Rescued and carried along. Beaten and half-dead and gone / And it’s only the pain that’s keeping you sane / And gives you a mind to travel on.” You get the picture.

Side two opens with the tour-de-force title track. What can you say about this classic that hasn’t been said? The muscular backbeat by Dave Mattack and bassist Peter Zorn are matched by Nichol’s guitar. The rest of the song is carried by Richard Thompson’s middle eastern-flavored solos and urgent vocals. Recorded live without overdubs, “Shoot Out the Lights” is a testimonial to great songwriting, subtle production, and guitar wizardry.

“Back Street Slide” isn’t as high-falutin’, but more fun. It gets the big-band treatment with the addition of tuba, cornet and trombone. Richard also overdubs the accordion, which gives it a deranged polka feel matching Linda’s disinterested yet apropos backing vocal.

The collaborative “Did She Jump or Was She Pushed” is a fascinating contrast, with the band providing quiet nuances while Linda sings a tale disturbingly similar the the true-life tale of Richard’s departed Fairport Convention bandmate Sandy Denny. Richard’s restrained soloing perfectly underlines the mystery of the main lyrical theme – and the ending chorus, sung by Linda, further hammers home the loss.

“Wall of Death” is the perfect demented duet to end Shoot Out the Lights, the last Richard and Linda Thompson album: “Let me ride on the wall of death one more time / Oh let me ride on the wall of death one more time / You can waste your time on the other rides / This is the nearest to being alive / Oh let me take my chances on the wall of death.”

The melodic guitar and almost cheery harmonies remind me of people smiling through the pain – and what more appropriate final image can there be for this album?

Richard & Linda Thompson: Shoot Out The Lights (1982)

From hifinews.com

The outlook for the couple appeared grim, yet despite having no record contract, their marriage being on the rocks and Linda finding it difficult to sing, their sixth and what would be their final album together is now hailed as a British folk rock classic…

After a decade of recording and touring as a couple, Richard and Linda Thompson found themselves dropped by Chrysalis Records when their 1979 LP Sunnyvista flopped. They had made five albums in total, and brought two children into the world, with another one on the way. Clearly, it was time for a radical re-think.

Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty, going through his most commercially successful period, helped them keep afloat by booking the Thompsons as the support act for his 1980 tour. He also used Richard as a session player on his Night Owl album. So enamoured of the duo was Rafferty that he offered to finance and produce a new Richard and Linda Thompson album. Problem solved? Well, not quite.

While Richard was pleased with the songs he had composed, he couldn’t stomach Rafferty’s painstakingly detailed production methods. The result was that he fell out with him before the sessions were fully completed. With classic British understatement, Richard told Rolling Stone magazine, ‘I don’t think it was wholly successful’. Linda, however, said he hated it.

A Fresh Start
Nevertheless, Rafferty dutifully pitched the album as it stood to several companies, all of which turned it down, leaving Richard and Linda with an album’s worth of material, but no contract.

Remarkably, out of this disaster, they were eventually able to fashion what is now widely regarded as the best album of their career. The story begins about a year later, when Joe Boyd [HFN Oct ’16], who had produced Fairport Convention when Richard was their guitarist (and who had previously been engaged to Linda) signed the duo to his small indie label, Hannibal.

They reached an agreement to produce a new album quickly and cheaply in order to save money for an American promotional tour. Happily, as far as Richard was concerned, quick and cheap was a method that suited his spontaneous virtuosity right down to the ground.

The new album, Shoot Out The Lights, included re-recorded versions of six of the songs done with Rafferty plus two new compositions, and was said to have been mostly completed over just three days in November 1981 at Olympic Studios in West London.

The band assembled for this project was impressive, and included several of Richard’s former bandmates from Fairport Convention – Simon Nicol (rhythm guitar), Dave Pegg (bass), David Mattacks (drums) – plus folk stalwarts The Watersons and Any Trouble mainman Clive Gregson (backing vocals). This familiar and amiable crew should have made for a comfortable few days in the studio, but Linda was suffering from breathing problems which made it difficult for her to sing more than a couple of lines at a time.

‘It was bit out of the blue that Richard called me,’ Gregson told Triste magazine, ‘but in retrospect I kind of think he probably knew there were changes in his life and somewhere down the line changes were needed.’ In another interview, Gregson was more specific, saying, ‘Linda was very heavily pregnant, and I think she was physically feeling a bit ropey, and they just felt it would be nice having a couple of people propping up the croaking’.

From the outside, the sessions showed every sign of success. Hannibal Records’ publicist at the time, Bernard Doherty, told Thompson’s biographer Patrick Humphries, ‘My abiding memory is of each day Joe coming back with a new mix, which we’d play on the ghetto-blaster in his office, and each one sounded wonderful. I think they knew they were onto something’.

Emotional Turmoil
Nevetheless, much has also been made of the emotional turmoil Richard and Linda were apparently undergoing, usually ascribed to an affair Richard was conducting with American talent booker Nancy Covey, but even at this distance it’s hard to work out how much Linda knew of the affair while the album was being recorded. According to Richard, ‘The songs were already written, the album was already recorded and it wasn’t really until we took it on the road that the marriage stopped happening’.

Bitter Overtones
But Linda has said, ‘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’.