First Light (album)

Infobox Album | Name = First Light
Type = Album
Artist = Richard and Linda Thompson


Released = October 1978
Recorded = 1978 at Olympic Studios, London
Genre = Rock
Length = 43:13
Label = Chrysalis
Producer = Richard Thompson, John Wood
Reviews =
Last album = "Pour Down Like Silver
(1975)"
This album = "First Light'
(1978)
Next album = "Sunnyvista"
(1979) |

After the release of their third album, "Pour Down Like Silver", British folk-rock duo Richard and Linda Thompson took an extended break from music. They spent much of the next three years living in sufi communes in London and Norfolk. Humphries, Patrick, "Richard Thompson - The Biography", Schirmer, 1997. ISBN 0-02-864752-1] Smith, Dave, "The Great Valerio - a study of the songs of Richard Thompson", 2004]

This prolonged sabbatical was punctuated by occasional session work by Richard Thompson and a short tour in 1977 in which the duo performed mostly new, overtly religious material and were backed by musicians who were also practitioners of the sufi faith.

In 1978 Richard Thompson accepted an invitation from Joe Boyd to play on Julie Covington's eponymous solo debut album. The musicians hired for this album included three highly regarded American session players Willie Weeks, Andy Newmark and Neil Larson, who had also been working in the studio with George Harrison. According to Boyd the three Americans were hugely impressed by Thompson's playing and expressed a wish to work with him. Boyd also knew that Thompson had some new material and talked Thompson's manager Jo Lustig into taking advantage of the situation: "The material is there and these guys love Richard, they’re gonna kill to play with him. It would be great."

The resulting "First Light" was the fourth album by Richard and Linda Thompson and marked their resumption of their recording career. It is dominated by spiritual songs, some of them direct translations of sufi and koranic texts.

In retrospect Boyd's prediction of greatness was misplaced. The rhythm section of Weeks and Newmark were ill-matched to Thompson's style and songs, and the arrangements were often heavy handed.

In later years Thompson expressed dissatisfaction with his recorded output in the late 1970s: "The regrets I would have would be career stuff, I was too flaccid in the 1970s, I just wasn’t thinking tightly enough to make a difference. Especially the later 70s, where I made really indifferent records, I just didn’t have my mind on the job."

Track listing

All songs written by Richard Thompson; except "Pavanne" by Richard and Linda Thompson, and "The Choice Wife" traditional, arranged by Richard Thompson

#"Restless Highway"
#"Sweet Surrender"
#"Don't Let A Thief Steal Into Your Heart"
#"The Choice Wife"
#"Died For Love"
#"Strange Affair
#"Layla"
#"Pavanne"
#"House Of Cards"
#"First Light"

Personnel

*Richard Thompson - guitar, vocals, mandolin, dulcimer, whistle
*Linda Thompson - vocals
*Andy Newmark - drums
*Willie Weeks - bass guitar
*Neil Larson - keyboards
*John Kirkpatrick - accordion
*Chris Karen - percussion
*Dave Mattacks - percussion
*Dolores Keane - whistle
*Dave Brady, Heather Brady, Dave Burland, Bill Caddick, Philippa Clare, Julie Covington, Andy Fairweather Low, Trevor Lucas, Iain Matthews, Maddy Prior and Peta Webb - background vocals

References