Review #485: I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight, Richard and Linda Thompson
#485: I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight, Richard and Linda Thompson
Richard Thompson was the frontman for Sixties Brit-folk-rock band Fairport Convention (terrible name, sorry, I don’t care if it was the vehicle for Sandy Denny) and bailed in 1971. His first solo release was titled Henry the Human Fly, which did horribly. Then he met session singer Linda Peters, and the two quickly fell in romantic and professional love. This was the first album they released as a married couple.
Richard has been praised for his inventive guitar playing, but it seems that this inventiveness was borne out of necessity more than anything — I love the quote from his son that shades him as being “a bad amateur player.” Yikes! But I think the basic acoustic chords on “When I Get to the Border” help make it relatable. Whereas, the spacey, electrifying intro of “The Calvary Cross” elevates it to a whole other level.
I really liked Richard’s voice, but Linda’s voice is something else. She got her start as a session singer, which means she wasn’t trying to show off, even though her versatility proves that she was more than capable of doing so. “Withered and Died” is an unadorned song of lost love, and “Has He Got a Friend for Me” is so mournful that you’d think she was singing about something even more heartbreaking than just wanting a boyfriend. Then on “The Little Beggar Girl,” she’s so sassy and cock-eyed and snippy that you’d think she was in the cast of Oliver! I’ll dance with me peg leg a-wiggling at the knee. … I love taking money off a snob like you. She carries it off impeccably. (By the way, Linda’s Wikipedia page is kind of hilarious — one of her compilation albums was described as being “received politely but did not sell well.”)
Richard is the sole credited songwriter, and there is something both modern and timeless about how he constructs his songs, even if you ignore the fact that they all sound like they could be sung in a pub in the late 1800s. See “Down Where the Drunkards Roll,” which connects down-and-out drunks across hundreds of years, and contrast it to “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight,” about needing to spend money recklessly and party and work off the steam of the working week. Then there’s “We Sing Hallelujah,” a sardonic take on faith despite the misery of the human condition, with a universal, timeless chorus of We work all day in the old-fashioned way/ Till the shining star appears.
There’s an allegorical pessimism that permeates all his lyrics — see “The Great Valerio,” where a tightrope walker is a metaphor for mankind’s desire for heroism, and the most downtrodden song of all, “The End of the Rainbow,” where Richard warns a baby that There’s nothing at the end of the rainbow/ There’s nothing to grow up for anymore. He’s claimed that the song isn’t completely pessimistic, and that “there’s always hope in the third verse of my songs,” but if he really thinks there’s an upbeat note in that song, he’s in denial.
The sad ending to this story is that Richard and Linda divorced in 1982. After bringing Linda to a Sufist commune for six months, after claiming he would never play music again and then going back on that, after an extremely acrimonious tour together, and after Linda gave birth to their third child, Richard left her. But all of their children are musical, and the two musically reunited at the behest of their son Teddy for the album Family, credited to Thompson. And I’ve read that it’s great.
Fun Fact: There’s another famous Linda Thompson, an actress who dated Elvis Presley and later married (and divorced) Bruce (now Caitlyn) Jenner.
