Richard and Linda Thompson – I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (1974)
[Album 346/1001]
Up until earlier this year, if I heard the name Mr. Thompson, I would think of this:
.
I still think of that and smile of course (easily a Top 5 Simpsons episode) but now I’m also grinning ear to ear thinking about another Mr. Thompson.
Richard is something else.
If I didn’t gush enough over Fairport Convention’s Liege & Lief, I will not make the same mistake with I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight (IWTSTBLT): it’s simply exquisite.
With my most recent review, perhaps another reason I didn’t ooh and ahh over Tricky is that he had the misfortune of being experienced alongside this one. Maybe some potentially great albums have just seemed inferior because they were in the rotation next to an absolute masterpiece? That’s probably happened quite a few times in this project. To those albums, my apologies, one thousand and one of them.
Unlike with Maxinquaye however, it’s hard to pick standouts here as there isn’t a dud track on IWTSTBLT. And might I add, what a terrific, user-friendly acronym!
At a running time of less than 40 minutes, I was always left wanting more.
I could go on & on but I think I’d rather play the album again instead.
Oh, there are the opening chords to When I Get to the Border, if you’ll excuse me…
1001albumsin10years 
Sarca Sim, if you would just stop and listen to Richard Thompson and his varied body of work already! Geez!! – Sarca
No worries Ms. Sim, I only joined the party this year, never too late!
Credit to Linda Thompson as well, I quite enjoyed her vocals here
An amazing album. I feel sorry for anyone that hasn’t heard it!
As do I!
From the cover on in, this is a truly class act. Still haven’t vinylised it yet though.
I fear if I had listened to this on vinyl, I wouldn’t have been able to string together anything resembling a sentence – my appreciation would have been overwhelming!
Thanks for reminding me about this great album! I have it on the 2-fer “Live (More or Less).” Haven’t listened in a while, but I will tonight.
I’d highly recommend 1975’s “Pour Down Like Silver” as well.
Sounds promising – the more I hear, the more I have a feeling he’ll climb my list of “T” artists pretty quickly!