Richard & Linda Thompson - I Want To Poll the Bright Lights Tonight

HI DERE

I interviewed Linda once, and she told me her family nicknamed her "Shozzy" because she looked a little like Sharon Osbourne but acted more like Ozzy.

speaking of american/british analogues, i've always been curious what "when i get to the border" means for britishers. as an american that most definitely means mexico which has its banditry/escape from the law mythology. is that what thompson means here as well? or is there a british analogue

xp haha! would love it if linda wrote a memoir ... i feel like the shoot out the lights tour alone would make an amazing book.

isn't the scottish-english border just referred to as "The Border" ? Or am I making that up.

the satie quote at the end of Valerio <3 <3 <3

^YES x1000

has to be one of the best-ever endings to an album

isn't the scottish-english border just referred to as "The Border" ? Or am I making that up.

Most borders are referred to as The Border by someone or other.

The area in South East Scotland bordering England is called The Borders but a song called "When I Get to the Borders" would sound like it was immortalizing a day trip to Peebles.

this is near impossible

when i get to Borders (1)

(1) a medieval bookstore chain

I only just bought this earlier this year though I had most of these tracks in one form or another. It is, indeed, nearly flawless.

Robyn Hitchcock does a killer cover of "Calvary Cross" which was the first time I heard that song. It's weightings has stayed with me ever since.

Was this album praised when it came out or has it become more appreciated over time?

i remember it being on rolling stone's top 100 albums ever in a late 80s list

This one or "Shoot?" Because I'd be surprised if two R&T albums made it to that list.

I thought it'd been considered a classic forever but Wiki claims otherwise, though that seems to totally US-centric.

I bought both in NYC in the second half of the eighties, presumably based on something I read somewhere.

Made No. 28 in NME's Albums of the Year for 1974, which is middling I suppose, some pretty good albums ahead of it though!

I first heard of it through the 'Virgin Top 1000 Albums' book from 1998 - just looked this up and it placed at #150. I was intrigued by the cover but didn't get around to buying it until several years later, around the same time I started listening to Fairport - it became a favourite pretty much instantly.

Shoot was the one written about the most when i started getting into him in the mid-80s, for sure. I didn't hear Bright Lights until the nineties via an older head I knew.

isn't the scottish-english border just referred to as "The Border" ? Or am I making that up.

Most borders are referred to as The Border by someone or other.

lol yeah, just trying to think of the specific border RT was thinking of.

feel like Thompson has always had pretty vocal fans, even if it's a small group. weirdly it seems like the pere ubu dudes were on to him pretty early, i think david thomas said they were all heavily into this record, and Laughner covered Calvary Cross

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6l1A4chNB7E

Am I the only one who sometimes wants to say Richard & Linval Thompson?

Xpost and DT later recorded with Richard and became buds with Linda

The SPIN Alternative Guide gave this a full 10/10 in 1994.

"Withered and Died." Haven't played it for a while, but I'd put it right alongside Jackson C. Frank's "Blues Run the Game" as maybe the most depressing song I can think of.

Josh - there were actually two! both made it, Shoot was higher iirc, I read that issue a zillion times and in many cases (like in the case of these) had never heard the albums and wouldn't for years

just want to say that I love the cover of this album. and I especially like how, on first look it's quite horrifying cos it looks like blood daubed on a wall. but when you look closer and at the back cover, it's clearly fingerprints on a rainy window and it's kind of romantic

xxxp - Or is "When I Get to the Border" another death metaphor like "Meet on the Ledge" or "Wall of Death"?

Voted "Drunkards," with "Border" second.

I have to confess that although I love Calvary Cross, I have no idea what it's about.

border is a death metaphor, yes: "if you see a box of pine, with a body looks like mine" etc

first LP i owned was a secondhand copy of pour down like silver which i still own, purchased early 80s: not sure when i first *heard* of RT but i'm guessing the "illustrated nme book of rock", which viewed him very favourably -- the illustration was a little thumbnail of "bright lights", which is maybe even more evocative that size (the glimpses of cheer thru the fingerwriting on a steamy window: out of the cold and dark into the warm)

don't recall any discussion much in the UK music papers of 76-79 but from round about 80 -- when their focus switched away for a while from rock ordinaire to other kinds of sounds -- he definitely became a minor touchstone (as someone who had broken with orthodoxy before it was popular or profitable, i guess) (ditto fripp)

minor touchstone

minor but quite intense: as in, he had done very important work in the past that you shd seek out, even if his current work fell below that mark (viz sunnvista, 1979) didn't really match it -- i recall its reviews being iffy and disappointed) (not sure i've ever actually heard it)

I picked up Sunnyvista earlier this year. It's got a couple of great songs but it's otherwise unremarkable. Nothing on it matches the intensity of their best work.

Yes, I think I first became aware of RT around the time of Sunnyvista, and dimly (and v possibly inaccurately) recall that some of the music press (by which I mean the NME) were critical not only of that alb, but also of RT's conversion to Islam.

yes, dimly (very VERY dimly) recall a difficult nme interview round that time (possibly with graham lock)?

if i think abt it i've *always* associated R< w/feeling bad on L's behalf :(

lol R< = R & LT

a high school friend tipped my to "live more or less," so i was in pretty early. i saw richard thompson's big comeback show at the bottom line in 1982 (possibly his first solo show ever in the states?), and i saw a couple of the richard and linda thompson shows later that year. one was in glen cove long island, where i believe they opened for robert hunter. i'd brought my album jacket. when we got to the venue, we saw richard and linda arguing outside. i interrupted them, and they very graciously and politely signed my album. then they went back to arguing.

at a subsequent show at the bottom line, linda introduced "don't renege on our love" as "don't ronald reagan our love." they were not on good terms with one another at that show either. notwithstanding, it was marvelous.

tipped *me*

There's one story about them playing at Lupo's in Providence during that tour and getting into a fight backstage right after leaving the stage. Linda allegedly hit Richard in the head with a bottle, and he came back out to play the encore solo with blooding dripping from his head.

Just saw another story where it said she actually kicked him in the shins in the middle of that performance. Who knows.

Sunnyvista - Love the 5 upbeat tracks on side 1. The 5 more low key songs on side 2 aren't as good--unfortunate since that's where most of Linda's lead vocals are.

Are the Chrysalis R&L lps OOP, at least in the UK? Would have thought somebody would have been trying to keep everything in print.
I think there was a Dekuxe version of Shoot oUt The LIghts a couple of years ago. Was that a limited thing Rhino Handmade or something.

Band I was in used to play Calvary Cross, so that: those big chords were such fun to crash out. We stopped playing it because people used to tell us how it was our best song......

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Are the Chrysalis R&L lps OOP, at least in the UK?

I think Richard has asked the rights holders to keep them OOP. FWIW the art direction on the Sunnyvista sleeve is A+.

Voted "When I Get to the Border."

Which makes me feel good, since I voted for the title track and that was my alternate.

New Mojo has an R + R&L buying guide wit Bright Lights at #1, Pour #2, Shoot #4.

Give us the rest of their top 10 (assuming it also encompasses rt solo)

I too am curious. Presuming Rumor & Sigh or Mirror Blue at #3?

Amnesia?

(Which, amusingly, I forgot about). Amnesia > Rumor > Mirror, I think.