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CAPT. FANTASTIC - 1975
Your All-Genres Guide To
Exceptional CD Reissues & Remasters
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"...For Shame Of Doing Wrong..."
For their second album of 1975 and third as a duo – Richard and Linda Thompson kept up the high songwriting standards with "Pour Down Like Silver" (November 1975 on Island Records) – even if once again and like the previous two ("I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight" from April 1974 and "Hokey Pokey" from March 1975) sales still didn’t see it chart.
Fronting each song with alternating lead vocals and RT on guitars - back on board came their Folk-Rock crew of old alongside some guests – Drummer Dave Mattacks of Fairport Convention and The Albion Band, Bassist Pat Donaldson of Poet And The One Man Band and Fotheringay, Flutist Ian Whiteman of Mighty Baby, Concertina and Accordionist John Kirkpatrick of Steeleye Span and The Albion Band, Drummer Timi Donald of Trash and Blue, legendary Trumpeter Henry Lowther with the virtuoso Fiddle Player Aly Bain of The Boys Of The Lough (Folkie Nic Jones also on fiddle) - all making an impact to the rich dark materials. Beautifully engineered and produced by both Thompson and John Wood (of Nick Drake fame and many more Island Records artists) - it sounded the biz too (and still does now, especially on this CD).
Looking not unlike the Shiek of Araby on the front cover while a be-scarfed Linda looks tasty as one of his many harem concubines on the rear (come to your desert-daddy my dear) - I’ve always thought "Pour Down Like Silver" is the kind of mid 70ts charmer that got lost somehow in the sheer deluge of albums in that apex year for the decade. And it contains a genuine masterpiece in "The Dimming Of The Day..." – a song covered by contemporary artists like Bonnie Raitt, The Corrs, Mary Black and Any Trouble. Luckily this rather cool 2004 Island Remasters CD Reissue does that lost-in-the-shuffle R< album proud. To the shame of doing wrong...
UK released April 2004 - "Pour Down Like Silver" by RICHARD and LINDA THOMPSON on Universal/Island Remasters IMCD 306 / 981 790-1 (Barcode 602498179017) is an Expanded Edition CD Reissue and Remaster with Four Bonus Tracks that plays out as follows (67:43 minutes):
1. Streets Of Paradise [Side 1]
2. For Shame Of Doing Wrong
3. The Poor Boy Is Taken Away
4. Night Comes In
5. Jet Plane In A Rocking Chair [Side 2]
6. Beat The Retreat
7. Hard Luck Stories
8. Dimming Of The Day/Dargai
Tracks 1 to 8 are their third album (Richard Thompson's fourth) "Pour Down Like Silver" - released November 1975 in the UK and USA on Island Records ILPS 9348. Produced and Engineered by RICHARD THOMPSON and JOHN WOOD - it didn't chart in either country.
BONUS TRACKS:
9. Streets Of Paradise (3:55 minutes) - Live
10. Night Comes in (12:10 minutes) - Live
11. Dark End Of The Street (4:12 minutes) - Live
12. Beat The Retreat (6:23 minutes) - Live
Tracks 9 and 12 are PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED, 9 recorded at The Roundhouse 1975, 12 at The Queen Elizabeth Hall, April 1975
Tracks 10 and 11 first released May 1976 on the 2LP anthology "Guitar, Vocal" on Island Records ICD 8. Track 10 recorded in Oxford, November 1975 and Track 11 at The Queen Elizabeth Hall, April 1975 ("Dark End Of The Street" is a cover version of the James Carr 60ts Soul classic penned by Dan Penn and Chips Moman).
Original copies of this CD reissue came in a stickered card slipcase (later copies lose this) with a 12-page booklet inside the jewel case. The lyrics that were on the inner sleeve of the original 1975 LP are here, a photo and a short history of the project by DAVID SUFF (of Fledgling Records). The liner notes expound on their embracing of the Sufi faith, the 'recorded live in the studio' nature of the recordings, the sad songs bolstered up by many Fairport Convention musician pals with Thompson concentrating on Guitar - leaving all tracks minus keyboards. The CD label sports a 'black and orange eye' pink label logo that was actually only on 60ts Island pressings (it should have been a palm-tree orange label), but it's a minor glitch because the Audio Remastering (doesn't say who did it but I suspect Denis Blackham of Sky Mastering) is glorious. To the music...
There is an anger pouring of the lyrics in the decidedly accordion-led Folk-Rock of "Streets Of Paradise" that give the song a strange lilt - Richard asking for a racehorse and being given a mule. Linda's lovely voice opens the 'lover lover' of "For Shame Of Doing Wrong" - our lady nursing a broken heart and missing the times before she and her man went their separate ways. There's a warmth to this song that reminds me of The Waterboys when they hit that sweet melody note - Thompson's guitar and duet vocals so clear in the transfer. I wish I was a fool for you again, they sing, well, I am.
As if that track wasn't good enough, the album now moves into real beauty for me - both Linda and Richard handling the haunting leads on the gorgeous "The Poor Boy Is Taken Away". As it smooches into your listening space - Thompson's acoustic guitar is complimented by mandolin strums and lyrics about a poor boy dressed for the 'tinkering trade'. Then Side 1 ends on the magnificent rambling shimmering guitar-based beauty of "Night Comes In" - a brooding 8:11 minutes of tears and rooms closing in and dancing until your feet don't touch the ground. Fantastic stuff and a stunning Remaster transfer as he doubles up the guitars – swanning its way to an elegant crescendo finish. It reminds me of Fairport at their Folk-Rock best.
"I've been looking for a love like you..." both sing on the jaunty "Jet Plane In A Rocking Chair" - soft soap shuffle with nothing to sell. While I like this Side 2 opener, I worship at the altar of "Beat The Retreat" - such a simple song yet so powerful - a world so full of sadness - burning all his bridges - running back home to you. And again the acoustic guitar and subtle flute/Shakuhachi notes lingering behind are brought to beautiful life by a superb Remaster. Can't say I've ever liked "Hard Luck Stories" - everybody's idea of a waste of time but a true gem in the RT catalogue - “Dimming Of The Day/Dargai”, saves the Side. Linda sings of a house falling down around her ears - drowning in a river of tears - needing you at the dimming of the day. I've loved this love song and ballad for near 50 years now and it still makes me shiver. And about four minutes in - it suddenly ends and goes into the three-minute-plus acoustic instrumental "Dargai" - magical stuff.
While the unreleased live cut of "Streets Of Paradise" is good, my poison is the stunning twelve minutes of "Night Comes in" - accordion and electric guitar soon joined by a band enjoying this dark march. A surprisingly delicate acoustic take on "Dark End Of The Street" finds Linda in lovely vocal form and sounding not unlike a hurting Sandy Denny (it's credited as 'Live' but you can't hear the audience until their final applause). That delicate performance is cleverly followed by another Acoustic gem - "Beating The Retreat" – a smart extra that feels like it was always meant to be here and yet it's Previously Unreleased.
Maybe the Muslim garb of both on that striking cover art put people off - I don't know. But I do know that "Pour Down Like Silver" is an overlooked gem of an album and this 2004 CD transfer rocks in every way (running on back home to you). And I've seen it online for as little two quid. Now that's what I call a deal...
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