Richard & Linda Thompson - Watching The Dark (1980)

Richard and Linda Thompson have just released an 8-CD career-spanning retrospective, taking in all the albums that they released together between 1972 and 1982, and included as bonus tracks are some 1980 recordings that they made with Gerry Rafferty for an album to be called 'Shoot Out The Lights'. Although in the end these weren't used, re-recorded versions of some of the songs were included on their final album together, which kept the title but didn't emerge for another two years. After their 1979 album 'Sunnyvista' had sold poorly, Richard and Linda Thompson found themselves without a record deal, but they still toured as the support act for Gerry Rafferty, and in June 1980 they recorded some demo tracks at Woodworm Studios in Oxfordshire. Later that same year Rafferty stepped in and offered to finance and produce a new album for them, and then use his contacts in the industry to secure a new contract for them. Sessions took place in September and October 1980, but as the project proceeded there was increasing tension between Richard and Rafferty, with Thompson preferring a spontaneous approach to recording, as opposed to  Rafferty's time-consuming and perfectionist approach. Nevertheless, the album was completed, but Rafferty couldn't interest any record companies and lost in the region of £30,000 on the project. Finally, in the summer of 1981 Joe Boyd signed the Thompsons to his small Hannibal label, and in November of that year they went back into the studio and recorded the album again from scratch, re-recording some of their earlier songs, and replacing others with newly written ones. Although these recording sessions were more enjoyable than the earlier ones, the couple had been experiencing inter-personal problems, and by the time the album was released Richard and Linda Thompson's marriage was over. Ironically, the album that was recorded when the Thompsons' career seemed all but over, and which turned out to be their last album together, was their best selling record, and has been acclaimed as one of their greatest artistic achievements. The Rafferty recordings have surfaced on bootlegs over the years under various titles, but they are now extremely hard to find, with only one track available to hear on Youtube, so enjoy these alternate versions of songs that you'll already know well and see which you prefer. Linda herself has said that she considers some of the Rafferty recordings to be better than the ones which ended up on 'Shoot Out The Lights', so see if you agree.

Track listing

01 Don't Renege On Our Love
02 Back Street Slide
03 Walking On A Wire
04 The Wrong Heartbeat
05 Shoot Out The Lights
06 For Shame Of Doing Wrong
07 I'm A Dreamer
08 Modern Woman
09 Just The Motion
10 Wall Of Death

Thanks to Anonymous for spotting that track 6 was repeated, so now fixed.