Back From the Retreat

After nearly three years of religious sabbatical, Richard and Linda Thompson returned to the recording studio, having signed a deal with the Chrysalis label (of Jethro Tull fame), and completed two albums: First Light (1978) and Sunnyvista (1979). Unlike the first three albums from the duet, these releases got decidedly more mixed reviews. Unfortunately, neither of them are available for appraisal today. Hopefully, sometime in the near future, someone will make the decision to re-release these albums. Not only will we then be able to fill in some essential knowledge about the duo’s late-’70s, pre-Shoot Out the Lights work, but we may also find ample space for re-appraisal of this material.

Richard & Linda Thompson: First Light [October 1978]
According to the article in Wikipedia, First Light “is dominated by spiritual songs, some of them direct translations of Sufi and Koranic texts.”

The only song I possess from the album is called “Strange Affair,” and it appears on the 1993 Richard Thompson box set collection, Watching the Dark. Naturally, I can’t reconstruct an album from one song, but at least we have something here.

“Strange Affair” - This is a slow, brooding ballad sung by Linda. It is a portrait of an old person, looking about to find her family and friends gone, her youthful dreams dissipated, now cast adrift, alone. The unstated religious implication is lack of focus on the divine has left all transient things slip by, with nothing constant to cling to. It is a portrait of a life lived in the absence of God.

The singer asks:

And what do sleepers do make them listen,
Why do they need more proof?

Well, why indeed? Without a center, life can indeed seem to be a long series of fleeting good times, all succeeded by loss, and eventually capped by death. The absence of the assertion of what is missing makes the song more potent and universal than if it preached of any specific answer.

This is a lovely song, nicely textured, and Linda sings it with great sensitivity. The impression is given that most of the album is given over to soft, spiritual ponderings.

Richard & Linda Thompson: Sunnyvista [October 1979]

States Wikipedia:

“Sunnyvista is a curate’s egg of an album in terms of its mood. Stylistically it covers wide ground and includes some of Thompson’s most overtly rocking songs - possibly reflecting pressure from the record company to deliver a big-selling album.”

As with First Light, the Watching the Dark collection contains only one song from Sunnyvista:

“Borrowed Time” - This one is a paranoid rocker in a minor key that uses outlaw imagery to express a sense of persecution for freedom:

They hunt you down ‘cos you dare to tell the truth,
A man ain’t safe today under his own roof.
But you can’t live your life under no man’s thumb,
They’ll all pay double for what they’ve done,
Our day’s coming but their day’s come.
Living on borrowed time.

It’s not a great song, perhaps, but it does have some interest and excitement, and Richard plays lots of stinging electric guitar.

The overall impression is that this is one stylistic example of a very eclectically fashioned record.

Both of these albums need to be heard, and it is a pity that no one is currently printing or distributing them. It does a great disservice to the Thompson’s fans and anyone interested in RT’s development. Hopefully, this is a situation that will be rectified soon.