Richard Thompson & Linda - The End of the Rainbow: An Introduction to Richard & Linda Thompson
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Richard Thompson & LindaEdition: Music CD
Format: Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2000-08-01
Music Label: Fontana Island
Soundtracks:
- Roll Over Vaughn Williams
- The Poor Ditching Boy
- When I Get To The Border
- Withered And Died
- I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
- Down Where The Drunkards Roll
- The End of the Rainbow
- The Great Valerio
- Hokey Pokey
- Never Again
- A Heart Needs a Home
- For Shame Of Doing Wrong
- Night Comes In
- Beat The Retreat
- Dimming Of The Day
- Calvary Cross (Live)
Free Music Notes for The End of the Rainbow: An Introduction to Richard & Linda Thompson
Free Music Review: Superb collection of songs, though possibly not for everyone
Hit: 5 Stars
For thirty years I have been a closet Richard and Linda fan. While fashions have ebbed and flowed (in folk, as well as everywhere else) I have stuck to my belief that the series of Island albums sampled here constitute one of the absolute pinnacles of recorded folk music. I could not count the number of times I have listened to these songs.Lots of people have taken the view that "Shoot Out the Lights" was the best Richard and Linda album. Others lean more towards "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight", or even "Henry the Human Fly". "Sunnyvista" has had its champions as well, though not all that many. Personally, for me it was always "Pour Down Like Silver" - which is very well represented on this compilation.
Nearly three decades later, I haven't changed my mind. I still get a chill down my spine when the sombre and majestic swing of "Night Comes In" kicks in, or when I hear the plaintive melancholia of "Dimming of the Day".
If you think folk music should be endless rollicking jigs and reels, or hokey stories about ghosts, goblins and alienated ne'er do wells carving up morally stunted aristocrats, then perhaps this music is not for you. For much of it is slow, lots of it is melancholy and confessional, and the lyrics definitely have a tendency to take you into reflective states.
Not all of it - "For Shame of Doing Wrong", "When I Get to the Border" and "I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight" swing with the best of them - but the basic overall message you will take away from this set of songs is that life is not always a bowl of cherries. Do not play it at parties. If you do, it will be last CD that is played that night, believe me. But not every record is, or should be, a party record.
What is contained here is a set of superb singer-songwriter folk songs delivered with genuine emotion and soul, underpinned with a love of real life, and created with a profound recognition of the spiritual need for human beings to draw on each other for support and comfort.
These songs will stay with you for a lifetime. At their peak, Richard and Linda were the quintessential husband and wife team (with all the tensions and compromises that entails), with perfectly complimentary skills. It does not hurt that there are a killer set of musicians in the background doing their thing as well.
It all went a bit pear-shaped later on, but this is the real stuff. Whether it be the extraordinary live version of "Calvary Cross", or the gut-wrenching existential crisis of "The End of the Rainbow", it is doubtful that you will listen to this CD without being affected.
This is the best collection assembled so far, of the best period, of some of the best artists of the medium. Richard and Linda have gone on to to other great things - but this set of songs is very likely what they will be most remembered for. If you haven't caught up with this period yet, this CD is the perfect way to do so.
The End of the Rainbow: An Introduction to Richard & Linda Thompson Poster
Richard Thompson earned the respect of fans for his guitar playing with Fairport Convention in the late 1960s. But it was the albums he made with his then-wife Linda in the early 1970s that gained him the reputation as one the premier songwriters to emerge from the British folk-rock scene. The songs on this 16-song collection are taken from the couple's first four albums together: Henry the Human Fly (actually a Richard Thompson solo record with Linda's background vocals), the classic I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight, Hokey Pokey, and Pour Down Like Silver. Linda's slightly husky alto inspired some of Richard's sweetest melodies, such as "Dimming of the Day," "For Shame of Doing Wrong," and "Down Where the Drunkards Roll," even as their sometimes rocky relationship caused him to write some of his gloomiest lyrics. The words may sometimes paint a bleak view of human relations, but the beauty of Linda's voice and the perfection of Richard's guitar lines do an excellent job of lightening the heavy mood. --Michael SimmonsFolk Music CDs
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