Wire from the Bunker: Meet the Thompsons!

Linda and Richard Thompson

Teddy Thompson

I’m a stone-cold Elvis Costello nut.  Ever since I heard his song “Opportunity” coming out of a little transistor radio I was listening to in my folks’ backyard in 1980 (thank you DC101!), I’ve been hooked.  EC has been a continual source of inspiration:  his incredible catalog of songs, his voice, his recordings, and perhaps more than anything else, his live performances.  I first got to see him in 1983 and have lost count of how many times I’ve caught up with him since.  Already this year, I have plans to see him in Wilmington, Woodstock, and Nashville.  Crazy, I know.

But Elvis’ influence does not only extend to his own work but to the worlds of music he’s opened up for me that I may otherwise have never discovered.  His 1981 Almost Blue lp introduced me to Hank, Hag, George Jones, and Gram Parsons who then led to Emmy Lou, Waylon, David Allan Coe, Jimmie Rodgers, and Dwight Yoakum who then led to Joe Ely, Butch Hancock etc etc.  His collaborations with Allen Toussaint guided me to Lee Dorsey, Bobby Charles, and many other wonderful artists from the Crescent City.

I am thankful to Elvis for all of this … but perhaps the greatest artist he ever steered in my direction is Richard Thompson.  In 1984, EC released a single on his Imposter label of a song called Peace in Our Time b/w Richard Thomspon’s Withered and Died (more on this below).  EC’s unadorned solo acoustic performance of this RT ballad did me in.  I had to find out who this “R. Thompson” was as it said on the label of the 45.

As I’ve written before:  tracking down stuff before these handheld computers ruined everything wasn’t easy but it was better for the struggle.  In 1985, I somehow learned that Thompson was playing a folk festival at the Kennedy Center and somehow made my way down there to see him.  I was astonished by his performance:  he sounded like a least two guitarists playing at once and his songs sank in upon first listen.  This was my big opportunity.

The only album of RT’s I could find at the time was his then current Across A Crowded Room lp.  Though I’ve since come to appreciate this record, at the time, I found Joe Boyd’s lukewarm production to be less than compelling.  

However, a year later, in New York City, a fellow Lion handed me – in an almost conspiratorial fashion -- a copy of Shoot out the Lights on cassette after a class on Hegel’s Prolegomena and said me: check this out, man. I distinctly remember a few nights later laying down on my back on the linoleum John Jay dormitory floor at midnight, wigged out of my mind about something so inconsequential it pains me now to even consider it, staring at the ugly ceiling and listening to that tape until dawn.  I was utterly transfixed:  1982’s Shoot out the Lights is the final record that Richard made with his first wife Linda after a series of brilliant folk-rock albums in the 70s.  If Boyd’s production on Across A Crowded Room was less than stellar, it was perfect here:  the songs led the way – dark by even Richard’s standards – and Linda’s vocals were at their heartbreaking best … but that’s another story.

Well, that was it:  I’ve been trailing Richard ever since with so many highlights that it would be impossible to enumerate them all here.  Seeing him play the Bottomline after the release of 1986’s Daring Adventures had to be one of them:  drummer Dave Mattacks broke his wrist or something so Kenny Aronoff stepped in.  What a night!  Aronoff’s snare combined with RT’s strings??? Lawd have mercy! I think Shawn Colvin may have opened.  Or how about the time that Slo-Mo introduced me to RT backstage in Harrisburg.  The man gave me full reign over his deli tray!

In addition to deli meatz, RT also led me to a world of music – English folk – that I may have overlooked:  Fairport Convention (Richard’s legendary initial band), Sandy Denny, Nick Drake, Nic Jones, Dick Gaughan, Paul Brady and on and on.  Thank you, RT.  Thank you, EC.

Ahhh.  I’m rambling here.  Here’s five to further tell the story >>>

King of Bohemia:  No one – and I do mean no one – can write a ballad like Richard Thompson.  A Heart Needs a Home, Never Again, Dimming of the Day, Vincent Black Lightning, Beeswing, and a whole lot more.  Peerless stuff.  But even among Richard’s most ardent followers, King of Bohemia is rarely mentioned which is why I included it here.  “Did your dreams die young // were they too hard won // did you reach too high and fall? // and there is no rest // for the ones God blest // and he blessed you best at all.”  See what I mean?  And dig this creepy vid, yo. 

Talking Like a Man:  The Thompson’s marriage dissolved just as they were reaching a wider audience with their Shoot Out The Lights masterwork.  Richard got off to a strong start with his solo career (yes, trainspotters, I know about Henry the Human Fly) and Linda soon followed suit with One Clear Moment, a record of formidable songs mostly compromised by over the top 80s pop production.  Talking Like a Man, however, works in the same way that the synth driven songs of Leonard Cohen’s I’m Your Man succeeded at precisely the same time (1985).  Regardless of the dressing, the beauty of Linda’s voice is never in question.  Other than her good friend Sandy Denny, who I wrote about here https://phawker.com/2020/07/14/wire-from-the-bunker-meet-sandy-denny/ Linda Thompson must be the greatest female singer of her generation:  no bullshit vibrato, pure tone, straight to the gut.  “Talking like a man, acting like a heartsick girl … if you get lonely, don’t come back this way.”  She twists the knife again, indeed, Rich!

Withered and Died:  Here’s the cut that led me to RT.  The original can be found on Richard and Linda’s 70s classic Ip, I Want To See the Bright Lights Tonight, probably their best collection other than Shoot out the Lights.  Linda’s singing on Withered and Died cannot be surpassed but damned if Elvis didn’t come close.  The plaintiveness of his voice and raw acoustic accompaniment slayed my 15 year old heart.  “If I was a butterfly // live for a day // I would be free // just blowing away.”  Why this sort of thing resonated so profoundly in a teenager is probably a question best left to an adolescent psychologist.  What can I say?  I was a troubled kid and remain a troubled adult.  If you aren’t as well, we’re probably not looking at the same thing, right?  RT’s influence on EC can be heard around this same period in a song like The Great Unknown from Goodbye Cruel World (another record badly served by 80s production values) but even more so in EC’s 1985 masterwork, King of America.  The ballads on that album somehow simultaneously recall Hank Williams and Richard Thompson!

Valerie:  Another RT cover, this time by the great Marshall Crenshaw, who, like Richard, is capable of playing a complex guitar part and singing at the same time.  A trick known to very few.  I picked this one because I love Crenshaw and you should too!  MC’s first four records were chock full of powerpop bangers but by his fifth record – Good Evening – he seems to have run dry.  Fortunately, Crenshaw had the good taste to lean on writers such as John Hiatt and Thompson whose original version of Valerie appeared on the aforementioned Daring Adventures.  This live version features Crenshaw backed up by the mighty Bottle Rockets, a potent combination that a few of us were lucky to catch in Sellersville just prior to COVID and before Brian H. landed his spaceship for good.  When John Train’s sixth member, Jon Jolles, requested that we learn Valerie, I actually found myself more tuned in to Crenshaw’s take than the author’s.  

A Picture of Me Without You:  Can you imagine trying to make a name for yourself as a professional musician when your parents are Richard and Linda Thompson?  Well, Teddy Thompson pulled it off!  Personally, I submit that you must slay the father (or Fathers with a capital F as the case may be). I’m not talking about your dad … tho, RT’s got one called ‘dad’s Gonna Kill Me – bagh naturally.  Anyway, Teddy inherited some of his old man’s songwriting dexterity and a whole lot of his mother’s vocal prowess.  Here he has the cojones to take on a George Jones’ classic and acquits himself more than adequately.  

Slo-Mo and I are delighted to support Teddy at the Sellersville Theater on Wednesday, February 12th [2025].  https://www.st94.com/events/teddy-thompson/  Come on up there and we’ll shoot out the lights!ys y’all!