Doubtless, the sentiments are correct, and the lyrics are twistingly vivid in a Dickensian way ("The urchins are writhing around in the mud/Like eels playing tag in a barrel"). "Ting-a-ling," goes the chorus, giving this dance of poverty the sense of eternality that its subject deserves.
"A Heart Needs a Home" - This is Richard Thompson’s greatest song to date, and by all rights should be regarded as a classic. Had Linda Rondstadt (or some other contemporary diva) issued this tune as a single, it would have broken records (and hearts) and would be a standard in the classic-rock, folk-rock, country-rock or any-rock category - not to mention "beyond-rock," a la The Beatles’ "Yesterday." But certainly no version could be more effectively sung than by Linda Thompson.
The haunting, simple melody is so incredibly unaffected, shifting from major to minor quietly, with broad pools of modal phrasings reminiscent of some of the best Joni Mitchell of the period. The instrumentation is simple, led by a harp and supporting guitars. Linda sings this in her open, unemotional, straightforward style with incredible restraint.
The lyrics represent Richard at his best, as the song is capable of being taken straightforwardly or ironically. This is the statement of a basic human truth, and if it is rooted in self delusion or psychological dependency, well that is simply the nature of the human animal.
The singer speaks succinctly and eloquently of her lover:
I know the way
That I feel about you.
I’m never going to run away,
I’m never going to run away.
She contrasts her current state with her loneliness before:
I came to you
When no one could hear me.
I’m sick and weary
Of being alone . . .
The world’s no place
When you’re on your own.
A heart needs a home.
These five words sum up so perfectly, so poetically, the core of why people all over the earth suffer such ravaging relationships and suffer such pain from one another. We are born with an inward yearning to share, and the loneliness of isolation makes any love match preferable to loneliness. Even the singer concedes:
Some people say
That I should forget you.
I’m never going to be a fool,
I’m never going to be a fool.
A better life they say,
If I’d never met you.
I’m never going to be a fool . . .
Clearly, there must be some obvious problems here. Her friends are urging her to get out of what clearly appears to them some self-destructive relationship. The singer is not going to listen. To leave would to "be a fool."
Being a "fool" here is ambiguous. Would it be foolish for her to leave because she knows in her heart that this is the right relationship for her? Or is it because of fear of being alone - that anything is better than that?
Obviously, she has experienced the alternatives and knows better than to be looking out among the crowd. She clearly does not trust the world:
Tongues talk fire and
Eyes cry rivers,
Indian givers,
Hearts of stone."
No matter what else can be said about her love, she is safe from fear and loneliness. He has constancy, and whatever else, his devotion gives her strength.
What makes the song so powerful, of course, is what it does not say, but only implies. We can imagine the best to worst about her lover and their relationship - it could be anything from simply dull to emotionally and physically dangerous. We simply do not know. And this is what makes the song all the more poignant - no matter what the situation, the basic human condition remains unchanged.
"A Heart Needs a Home" can be seen and sung as a simple love song. It could simply reflect a matter of heart, a conquest of substance over style. Her lover could really be the ideal. What does it matter what her friends say? Surely they could be wrong, could they not? This could be interpreted as humility in the face of true love, validating constancy as a supreme value.
Or it could be another nightmare, another delusional hell. We cannot know from the text of the song itself. What does remain constant, however, is the universality of the condition of dependency, no matter how happy or sad the ultimate outcome.
This is an absolutely beautiful song - a masterpiece that should be as widely known as any love song from the pop era.
Video - Richard & Linda Thompson - "A Heart Needs a Home"
http://youtube.com/watch?v=5upiUrUw0Jk
"A Mole in a Hole" - Hokey Pokey closes with a breezy version of this Sam Waterson song, leader of the 1960s British folk group, the Watersons. Its title and sentiment seems to hearken back to an old song by the legendary "Minstrel of the Appelations," Bascom Lamar Lunsford, whose "I Wish I Was a Mole in the Ground" (compiled in Harry Smith’s classic anthology, Anthology of American Folk Music. I point out the Lunsford song because of Greil Marcus’ analysis of it as a confounding, nihilistic classic.
(There is possibly a relationship to another song by a 1950s-era British folk group, "I Am a Mole and I Live in a Hole," but I am not sure of this. It’s funny how this "mole" theme gets around, though.)
In true Thompson fashion, it contradicts the previous song, by demanding freedom, albeit of a strange kind. Sung by Linda, the self-proclaimed "refugee," with a kind of liberating (yet still ironic) glee, she happily annunciates her humble desires:
‘Wanna be a mole in a hole,
Diggin’ low and slow,
‘Wanna be a fly flying high in the sky.
The singer has lost her only friend to Jesus, and she has no interest in following. Another had such wisdom that he is now dead. Isolation, in a naturalistic setting, is the only thing that’s going to suit her, and she does not exhibit any despair.
In a sense, the song is no more than convincing in its sentiments than Thompson’s own declaration of independence, "When I Get to the Border," which kicked off I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight. Both songs are the [word] imaginings of would-be refugees, hopelessly seeking a way out of the whole mess we call life.
"A Mole in a Whole" is infectiously fun, however, despite (or perhaps because) of its ironies, and is delivered with gusto in a ‘round-the-campfire style that balances the opening song and is a fitting way to conclude the whole of Hokey Pokey itself.
BONUS TRACKS
"Wishing" - The first of five bonus cuts on the Island (British) re-release of Hokey Pokey is a BBC recording for the John Peel show in February 1975. I had always thought that these BBC recordings were done "live" in the studio, but this cut is obviously a studio recording, as evidenced by Linda’s double-tracked vocal.
"Wishing" is an absolutely gorgeous Buddy Holly song with which I was previously unfamiliar. Thank goodness it’s preserved here, in the Thompson’s rendition, which is both joyous and wistful. The band settles into the groove and lets Holly’s transcendence carry the day, with Linda’s open, heartfelt vocal. Richard takes a minimalist Holly-respectful solo with just a hint of his sliding acrobatics as a signature.
I can’t help but think again how much this sounds like some big contemporary acts - particularly here like Fleetwood Mac. I’ve got to stop asking why the Thompsons weren’t famous. God, this is gorgeous, though.
"I’m Turning Off a Memory" - Another BBC recording from the same date, here Linda Takes on the cruel honky-tonk blues of Merle Haggard, and she pulls it off effortlessly. Here, she feels much more comfortable with delivering country nuances (though there are a few Brit-folk mannerisms thrown in for charming effect) than she did with "Together Again," and the emotional commitment is pure and affecting.
What a voice! It’s wonderful to have these recordings, not only for themselves, but to hear some of the deep-felt sources of the Thompson’s emotionally charged material.
"A Heart Needs a Home" - The last of the three BBC recordings here, coming off the heels of the first two, demonstrate aptly Richard Thompson’s debt to American music, and country music in particular, for both its form and depth. What can we say about this song that we haven’t before? Sheer perfection.
"Hokey Pokey" - This roadhouse-raucous version of "Hokey Pokey" was recorded at the Roundhouse, London, September 7, 1975. Let’s just say that it kicks ass, with the band chomping in a hip-swaggering form that "nasties up" the original. Richard’s sly and raunchy solos interweave with Linda’s verses for some real fun. No question what this one’s about here.
"It’ll Be Me" - This has always been one of my favorite old rockers. Written by producer/engineer Jack Clement for Jerry Lee Lewis, it has an insanely obsessive style that the Thompsons take on at a less frantic pace than the Killer, but with just as much unbridled enthusiasm. (Oddly, the sound of this one is reminiscent of the way that John Doe and Exene Cervenka would recast oldies and project them into the contemporary punk of the early 1980s - a process that is no way a copy of Richard & Linda, but more an observation that like experiments can produce like results.) Richard sounds just as crazy singing these words as his own, and his guitar solos, while not reaching the heights they later would, wrap barbed-wire riffs around every turn.
The band is the perfect R&L band: John Fitzpatrick (accordian), Dave Pegg (bass), Dave Mattocks (drums). Oh, to have been so lucky to see this group in a club back in 1975! Who would have guessed that the material in their songbook would reach so deep and make so many connections with their original material? These are great add-ons that produce a more rounded picture.
Altogether, the duo’s follow-up to I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight does not match the fearsome intensity of that debut - and that’s a good thing. The Thompsons stretch out more here, cover more musical and emotional territory, and more importantly, begin to sound like a genuine, singular unit of expression. While Light had the great songs, along with the primal shock of revelation, it still felt a bit cobbled together - You’re my wife, you’re a singer, I’m a writer, let’s work together. Here, Richard and Linda Thompson seem to merge together, two voices with one vision - or better, one voice with two tonal ranges. It’s a good name for a marvelous album by two people in the prime of their lives. Richard and Linda play Hokey Pokey together all through the record - and will continue to do so down to the bitter end.
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