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CAPT. FANTASTIC - 1975
Your All-Genres Guide To
Exceptional CD Reissues & Remasters
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"...Ice Cream Songs..."
Following on from their April 1974 debut album as a duo - Richard and Linda Thompson matched "I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight" in my eyes with their first platter of 1975 - "Hokey Pokey" ("Pour Down Like Silver" would make it a trio of album releases in November 1975). Chock full of melodies - fast ones and slow ones that all hooked you in such subtle ways - I also liked that slightly drunk-sodden feel to the tunes. No doubt about it, there was something cool and musical about the pair of them when they hooked up with their natural home - Chris Blackwell's Island Records.
This 2004 'Island Remasters' Expanded Edition also offers five tasty extras - four of which are Previously Unreleased. There's three from BBC sessions plus two live cuts including one recorded November 1975 at Oxford that first appeared on the Island Records retrospective double-album "Guitar, Vocal" in 1976. They're not exactly Audiophile it has to be said (Linda's vocals especially) – but they do show that the Thompson band dynamic was in raring form on the live front too - RT ripping into his guitar on the title track "Hokey Pokey". The Remaster of the album is lovely. Let's get to the Smiffy's Glass Eye and the Ice Cream Songs...
UK released April 2004 - "Hokey Pokey" by RICHARD and LINDA THOMPSON on Universal/Island Remasters IMCD 305 / 981 790-6 (Barcode 602498179062) is an 'Expanded Edition' CD Reissue and Remaster with Five Bonus Tracks that plays out as follows (67:43 minutes):
1. Hokey Pokey (The Ice Cream Song) [Side 1]
2. I'll Regret It All In The Morning
3. Smiffy's Glass Eye
4. The Egypt Room
5. Never Again
6. Georgia On A Spree [Side 2]
7. Old Man Inside A Young Man
8. The Sun Never Shines On The Poor
9. A Heart Needs A Home
10. Mole In A Hole
Tracks 1 to 10 are their second album "Hokey Pokey" (as Richard and Linda Thompson) - released March 1975 in the UK on Island Records ILPS 9305 (same release date and catalogue number for the USA). Produced by JOHN WOOD and SIMON NICOL with all songs written by RT except "Mole In A Hole" by Mike Waterson - it didn't chart in either country.
BONUS TRACKS:
11. Wishing (Live)
12. I'm Turning off A Memory (Live)
13. A Heart Needs A Home (Live)
Tracks 11 to 13 PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED, recorded for the John Peel Show 11 February 1975, first transmitted 24 February 1975
14. Hokey Pokey (Live)
Track 14 PREVIOUSLY UNRELEASED, recorded live at The Roundhouse
15. It'll Be Me (Live)
Track 15 recorded November 1975 in Oxford, first issued on the May 1976 UK 2LP compilation "Guitar, Vocal" on Island Records ICD 8 (it was called "Live More Or Less" in the USA with the same catalogue no)
MUSICIANS were:
LINDA THOMPSON – Lead and Duet Vocals
RICHARD THOMPSON – Lead and Duet Vocals, Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Mandolin, Electric and Hammered Dulcimer and Piano
SIMON NICOL (of Fairport Convention) – Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Piano and Backing Vocals
IAN WHITEMAN (of Mighty Baby) – Organ and Piano
ALY BAIN (of The Boys Of The Lough) – Violin and Fiddle
JOHN KIRKPATRICK (of Steeleye Span and The Albion Band) – Accordion
PAT DONALDSON (ex Poet and The One Man Band and Fotheringay) – Bass
TIMI DONALD (ex Trash, later with Blue) – Drums and Percussion
The outer card slipcase afforded original April 2004 issues of the three Richard and Linda Thompson CDs lends each release a feel of classiness. The 12-page booklet thankfully reproduces the lyrics that appeared on the UK LP's inner sleeve (inside the Gatefold sleeve of the US issue) while DAVID SUFF of Folk Music Reissue Specialists Fledg'ling Records does the short but hugely informative liner notes. Doesn't say who did the Remaster but it 'feels' like the masterful hand of Denis Blackham at Skye Mastering - either way - whomever transferred these original master tapes did the business by them.
Aly Bain of Folk Group The Boys Of The Lough provides the fiddle on the wickedly good opener "Hokey Pokey" - but it's Linda's 'shiver down your spine' vocals and RT's fantastic guitar soloing that thrills - the whole shebang just working so sweetly. Things slow down and beautifully so with the whiskey-head hurt that lingers in the slyly acidic "I'll Regret It All In The Morning" - someone succumbing to the wiles of the flesh just once too often. Disfigurement and the cruelty it evokes in smaller crueller minds is the subject of the strangely sad-happy "Smiffy's Glass Eye" - girls laughing - girls not interested - until the heartache became too much. Diamonds flash, ruby rings glitter and bloodshot eyes blink in the lowlife shimmy-dance of "The Egypt Room" - Hobnail Kelly and the Beefcake Kid in town to catch the princess as she beguiles. Side 1 closes on a softer note, "Never Again" sounding so clean and clear as Linda asks who will remember the salt tears of lovers, the whispers of a lover and friend gone too soon - a song that apparently harks all the way back to 1969 when RT lost his then girlfriend Jeannie Franklyn in that infamous Fairport Convention motorway crash.
Side 2 goes Country Rock with "Georgie On A Spree" - Linda relaying a sad tale of Isabel and her flash beau Georgie - King and Queen - with all the girls mad jealous as he drives his Chevrolet by - Isabel lording it in the passenger seat. Better for me is the fabulous "Old Man Inside A Young Man" - a so-Richard Thompson world-weary tale of old Billy rueing his loveless lot - tired of the madams who know how to extract cash from his loneliness. I know many adore "The Sun Never Shines On The Poor" - but I find its urchins writhing around in the bourgeoisie mud just a little too downtrodden masses for comfort. Having said that those acoustic guitars sound gorgeous on the Remaster. I feel fairly certain that many fans like myself would have raced towards the wistful ballad "A Heart Needs A Home" on this CD Remaster - eyes crying rivers - the world is no place to be in when you're on your own.
The extras open with two Country rocked-up cover versions - Buddy Holly's "Wishing" and Merle Haggard's "I'm Turning Off A Memory" - both of which are good. Not surprisingly they also do one of the LP's strongest songs "A Heart Needs A Home" and the piano playing is lovely. Two live stints hit you and despite not having the greatest audio in the world, the accordion and guitar work in "Hokey Pokey" both sing (a sure fan pleasing moment). They then do another cover that of Jack Clement's "It'll Be Me" - a bopper in the Crawdaddy tradition - me looking for you - where the lights are blue...
There are some who say that "Hokey Pokey" is actually one of his best albums. I don't know about that in truth, but the musical gems on Island Remasters IMCD 305, the top class audio, the cool enhanced presentation and all of it washed down with a clutch of genuinely interesting extras - make this a proper CD reissue winner in my book. Give this one a lick when the ice cream bell rings out in your street...
