RICHARD & LINDA THOMPSON : ...IN CONCERT, NOVEMBER 1975

  1. I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
  2. Hard Luck Stories
  3. Night Comes In
  4. Morris Medley: Old Woman Tossed Up In A Blanket,Shepherd's Hey, Bean Setting, Shooting
  5. A Heart Needs A Home
  6. Why Don't You Love Me
  7. Now Be Thankful
  8. Jet Plane In A Rocking Chair
  9. Streets Of Paradise
  10. For Shame Of Doing Wrong
  11. Calvary Cross
  12. Hokey Pokey (The Ice Cream Song)
  13. Things You Gave Me
  14. It'll Be Me
  15. Together Again

Label : Island Records

Venue : Oxford Polytechnic, Oxford + Swindon + Norwich, UK

Recording Date : November 1975

Release Date : August 13, 2007

Length : 77:58

Review (AllMusic) : Thirty-two years after the fact, this live album presents a full-length version of the shows performed by Richard & Linda Thompson to promote their 1975 album Pour Down Like Silver, their third LP, following Hokey Pokey released earlier in 1975, and 1974's I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight. They are accompanied by John Kirkpatrick on accordion and concertina, Dave Pegg on bass, and Dave Mattacks on drums. The recordings have not been released previously, except for "Calvary Cross" and "It'll Be Me," which were included on Richard Thompson's 1976 compilation Guitar, Vocal, but which have been remixed for this album. The selections come mostly from the Thompsons' three albums, of course, with special emphasis on Pour Down Like Silver, and the performances are often stretched out with lengthy guitar solos. A nod to Richard Thompson's tenure in Fairport Convention is made with a version of "Now Be Thankful," and since the instrumental lineup mirrors that found on the album of traditional music Morris On, the players give Linda Thompson a break and perform a set of instrumental reels. The cover songs are all American country and country-rock numbers, Hank Williams' "Why Don't You Love Me" (with Linda Thompson on lead vocals), "Things You Gave Me" (learned from a Rick Nelson album), the Jerry Lee Lewis hit "It'll Be Me," and Buck Owens' "Together Again." This was a recording worth excavating from the vault, and it confirms Richard & Linda Thompson's reputation as a major folk-rock act of the '70s, making it all the more regrettable that they broke up, professionally and romantically, in the early '80s.

Review (Wikipedia) : In Concert, November 1975 is a live album by Richard and Linda Thompson, released on Island Records in 2007. It is a document of the pair's second tour as headliners, which took them through the United Kingdom during the autumn of 1975. Like every other album by the pair, it did not make the charts in either the UK or the United States. The album is compiled from recordings made during the tour to promote the Pour Down Like Silver album. Three of the concerts in that tour were recorded by John Wood, who had worked with the Thompsons on all three of their early 1970s albums. All of the Thompson originals derive from those albums with the exception of "Now Be Thankful," one of the final singles by Fairport Convention while Thompson was still in the band. The covers include a medley of Morris dancing songs, one rock and roll song, and three American country music tunes. "Why Don't You Love Me" is a 1950 single by Hank Williams, also played over the closing credits to the 1971 film The Last Picture Show; "Things You Gave Me" is a track on the 1967 album Country Fever by Ricky Nelson; "It'll Be Me" is a 1957 Jerry Lee Lewis b-side, also a 1962 single by Cliff Richard; and "Together Again" is a 1964 Buck Owens b-side that managed to top the Hot Country Singles as well as its A-side, "My Heart Skips a Beat." Recordings took place at venues in Oxford, Swindon, and Norwich. Three songs recorded on November 27 at Oxford Polytechnic had been released on the 1976 Thompson compilation (guitar, vocal); two of those, "Calvary Cross" and "It'll Be Me" are included here in different mixes. The version of "Calvary Cross" had also appeared on the 2001 compilation, The Best of Richard & Linda Thompson: The Island Record Years.