Pour Down Like Silver
Encyclopedia
Pour Down Like Silver is the third album by the British duo of singer/songwriter/guitarist Richard and singer Linda
Thompson. It was recorded in the summer of 1975 and released in November 1975.
The Thompsons had adopted the Sufi faith in 1974 and had moved into a commune in London. The songs on this album reflect their new faith and the relief that Richard Thompson had found in that faith.
It seems that various and conflicting pressures were bearing down on the duo at the time.
And there was a recording contract. The Thompsons owed Island Records
an album. The compromise seems to have been that the album to be delivered was to have a strong spiritual aspect.
Linda Thompson: Pour Down Like Silver was when Sheikh Abdul Q'adir said we could make music as long as it was to God
... Dimming Of The Day, Beat The Retreat, Night Comes In, they're all about God, and considering they're all about God some of them aren't bad.'
Despite these surrounding constraints and conflicts, the album is recognisably a Richard and Linda Thompson album in terms of melodies and the lyrical style.
Pour Down Like Silver was recorded at Sound Techniques studio
in London, with John Wood
engineering. Richard Thompson would have been familiar with both engineer and studio from his time with Fairport Convention
. Joe Boyd
, who had both produced
and managed Fairport, did the vast majority of his production work at Sound Techniques and with Wood at the controls.
Richard Thompson had left Fairport Convention
in 1971 with a considerable reputation as an electric guitar
soloist. However, the first few albums of his post-Fairport career had placed more emphasis on the vocals and the songs themselves. As noted above, Thompson was under increasing pressure from his spiritual teacher to abandon the electric guitar. Certainly what recent live work there had been had placed the emphasis on acoustic guitar.
So it was notable that Pour Down Like Silver and the live shows either side of the album’s release saw Thompson’s electric guitar returning to the spotlight. Concert performances featured extended guitar solos on The Calvary Cross (from I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
) and on Night Comes In and For Shame Of Doing Wrong from the newly released Pour Down Like Silver.
The electric guitar is prominent indeed on the third Richard and Linda album. More so because of the more sparse arrangements and production that distinguish this album from it’s more lush sounding predecessor. Subsequently Thompson disclosed that this stark and simple production was more by accident than design. "It was a stark record, but I think it was by accident in a sense – we were intending to have Simon [Nicol] come and play rhythm guitar but he wasn’t available so everything ended up sounding very stark and I was always going to overdub rhythm guitar and stuff, but we thought we’ll just leave it, what the hell."
Thompson may perhaps be regarded as being a little too off-hand here. In fact he overdubbed
mandolin
, keyboard
and multiple guitar parts on some tracks, and session musician
s were also called in. Another noticeable instrumental element of the album is the accordion
of John Kirkpatrick which is prominent both on this album and during the Thompson's live shows in 1975.
The understated and elegant Dimming Of The Day was sung by Linda Thompson on this album, but Richard Thompson has continued to feature it in his own live shows for many years - an indication of its deep personal significance. This song is an example of Thompson writing in a centuries old Sufic tradition of expressing divine love in earthly terms. On the album Dimming Of The Day segues into a solo guitar performance of Scots composer James Scott Skinner
's Dargai that perfectly matches the mood of the song and serves to bring the album to a contemplative conclusion.
Night Comes In is another song of profound personal significance and recounts Richard Thompson's formal initiation into the Sufi faith. The song is also notable for several prominent passages of electric guitar playing notable for their lyrical intensity - especially the closing, multi-tracked solo.
Hard Luck Stories is the most musically upbeat song on the album, with sardonic lyrics and a typically incisive guitar solo.
After this album and the following short tour Richard and Linda Thompson took a sabbatical from recording, writing and performing music.
Linda Thompson (singer)
Linda Thompson is a British singer. Born Linda Pettifer in Hackney, Thompson became one of the most recognised names—and voices—in the British folk rock movement of the 1970s and 1980s, in collaboration with her former husband and fellow British folk rock musician, guitarist Richard...
Thompson. It was recorded in the summer of 1975 and released in November 1975.
The Thompsons had adopted the Sufi faith in 1974 and had moved into a commune in London. The songs on this album reflect their new faith and the relief that Richard Thompson had found in that faith.
It seems that various and conflicting pressures were bearing down on the duo at the time.
- Linda Thompson: '...At one point our Sheikh forbade Richard to do music... On the other hand, he always encouraged me, "you have a voice and you've got to sing".'
- Jo LustigJo Lustig-Early career:Jo was born on October 21, 1925 in Brooklyn, New York. At the age of 12 he saw Billie Holiday singing in a club and fell in love with music. He became an apprentice music journalist, meeting up with Gloria Swanson and Mel Brooks. Having gone solo, he handled publicity for Miles...
(managing the Thompsons at the time) :'Richard came to me and said "look, my Mullah doesn't want me to play electric guitar. I don't know what I'm going to do about my career... I'm not going to be working."'
And there was a recording contract. The Thompsons owed Island Records
Island Records
Island Records is a record label that was founded by Chris Blackwell in Jamaica. It was based in the United Kingdom for many years and is now owned by Universal Music Group...
an album. The compromise seems to have been that the album to be delivered was to have a strong spiritual aspect.
Linda Thompson: Pour Down Like Silver was when Sheikh Abdul Q'adir said we could make music as long as it was to God
God
God is the English name given to a singular being in theistic and deistic religions who is either the sole deity in monotheism, or a single deity in polytheism....
... Dimming Of The Day, Beat The Retreat, Night Comes In, they're all about God, and considering they're all about God some of them aren't bad.'
Despite these surrounding constraints and conflicts, the album is recognisably a Richard and Linda Thompson album in terms of melodies and the lyrical style.
Pour Down Like Silver was recorded at Sound Techniques studio
Sound Techniques (studio)
Sound Techniques was a popular London recording studio at 46a Old Church Street, Chelsea, London, SW3 founded in December 1964. The premises were originally built as a dairy. It quickly became one of the top independently-owned studios in England. In 1976 the original location in Old Church Street...
in London, with John Wood
John Wood (music producer)
John Wood is an English sound engineer and producer, best known for his work with Fairport Convention, John Martyn, Cat Stevens, Sandy Denny, Nick Drake, the Incredible String Band, Pink Floyd, Nico and Squeeze.-Career:...
engineering. Richard Thompson would have been familiar with both engineer and studio from his time with Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...
. Joe Boyd
Joe Boyd
Joe Boyd is an American record producer and former owner of the Witchseason production company. Boyd was instrumental in launching the careers of Nick Drake, Fairport Convention, and The Incredible String Band.-Career:...
, who had both produced
Record producer
A record producer is an individual working within the music industry, whose job is to oversee and manage the recording of an artist's music...
and managed Fairport, did the vast majority of his production work at Sound Techniques and with Wood at the controls.
Richard Thompson had left Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention
Fairport Convention are an English folk rock and later electric folk band, formed in 1967 who are still recording and touring today. They are widely regarded as the most important single group in the English folk rock movement...
in 1971 with a considerable reputation as an electric guitar
Electric guitar
An electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
soloist. However, the first few albums of his post-Fairport career had placed more emphasis on the vocals and the songs themselves. As noted above, Thompson was under increasing pressure from his spiritual teacher to abandon the electric guitar. Certainly what recent live work there had been had placed the emphasis on acoustic guitar.
So it was notable that Pour Down Like Silver and the live shows either side of the album’s release saw Thompson’s electric guitar returning to the spotlight. Concert performances featured extended guitar solos on The Calvary Cross (from I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight
Q : "After his 1971 departure from Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson found his ideal foil in recent bride Linda. A hugely inventive guitarist, he gives full vent to his talent on this dark, brooding album...
) and on Night Comes In and For Shame Of Doing Wrong from the newly released Pour Down Like Silver.
The electric guitar is prominent indeed on the third Richard and Linda album. More so because of the more sparse arrangements and production that distinguish this album from it’s more lush sounding predecessor. Subsequently Thompson disclosed that this stark and simple production was more by accident than design. "It was a stark record, but I think it was by accident in a sense – we were intending to have Simon [Nicol] come and play rhythm guitar but he wasn’t available so everything ended up sounding very stark and I was always going to overdub rhythm guitar and stuff, but we thought we’ll just leave it, what the hell."
Thompson may perhaps be regarded as being a little too off-hand here. In fact he overdubbed
Overdubbing
Overdubbing is a technique used by recording studios to add a supplementary recorded sound to a previously recorded performance....
mandolin
Mandolin
A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
, keyboard
Keyboard instrument
A keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments...
and multiple guitar parts on some tracks, and session musician
Session musician
Session musicians are instrumental and vocal performers, musicians, who are available to work with others at live performances or recording sessions. Usually such musicians are not permanent members of a musical ensemble and often do not achieve fame in their own right as soloists or bandleaders...
s were also called in. Another noticeable instrumental element of the album is the accordion
Accordion
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
of John Kirkpatrick which is prominent both on this album and during the Thompson's live shows in 1975.
The understated and elegant Dimming Of The Day was sung by Linda Thompson on this album, but Richard Thompson has continued to feature it in his own live shows for many years - an indication of its deep personal significance. This song is an example of Thompson writing in a centuries old Sufic tradition of expressing divine love in earthly terms. On the album Dimming Of The Day segues into a solo guitar performance of Scots composer James Scott Skinner
James Scott Skinner
James Scott Skinner was a Scottish dancing master, violinist, fiddler, and composer.Skinner was born in Banchory, near Aberdeen. His father was a dancing master on Deeside. James was only eighteen months old when his father died. When James was seven, his elder brother, Sandy, gave him lessons in...
's Dargai that perfectly matches the mood of the song and serves to bring the album to a contemplative conclusion.
Night Comes In is another song of profound personal significance and recounts Richard Thompson's formal initiation into the Sufi faith. The song is also notable for several prominent passages of electric guitar playing notable for their lyrical intensity - especially the closing, multi-tracked solo.
Hard Luck Stories is the most musically upbeat song on the album, with sardonic lyrics and a typically incisive guitar solo.
After this album and the following short tour Richard and Linda Thompson took a sabbatical from recording, writing and performing music.
Track listing
All songs written by Richard Thompson except Dargai which is written by J. Scott Skinner and arranged by Richard Thompson.Side One
- "Streets Of Paradise" - 4.17
- "For Shame Of Doing Wrong" - 4.44
- "The Poor Boy Is Taken Away" - 3.35
- "Night Comes In" - 8.12
Side Two
- "Jet Plane In A Rocking Chair" - 2.48
- "Beat The Retreat" - 5.52
- "Hard Luck Stories" - 3.51
- "Dimming Of The Day"/"Dargai" - 7.16
Bonus Tracks
Available on 2003 Island Reissue- "Streets Of Paradise" (Live) - 3.57
- "Night Comes In" (Live) - 12.22
- "Dark End of the Street" (Live) (Chips MomanChips MomanLincoln Wayne "Chips" Moman is an American record producer, guitarist, and songwriter. As a record producer, Moman is known for recording Elvis Presley, Bobby Womack, Carla Thomas, and Merrilee Rush, as well as guiding the career of the Box Tops in Memphis, Tennessee during the 1960s...
, Dan PennDan PennDan Penn is an American singer, songwriter, record producer and sometime guitar player who co-wrote many soul hits of the 1960s including "Dark End of the Street" and "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man" and "Out of Left Field" & "Cry Like A Baby"...
) - 4.16 - "Beat The Retreat" (Live) - 6.25
Personnel
- Richard Thompson - guitarGuitarThe guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, vocalsSingingSinging is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
, mandolinMandolinA mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family . It descends from the mandore, a soprano member of the lute family. The mandolin soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections. A mandolin may have f-holes, or a single...
, banjoBanjoIn the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, keyboardsKeyboard instrumentA keyboard instrument is a musical instrument which is played using a musical keyboard. The most common of these is the piano. Other widely used keyboard instruments include organs of various types as well as other mechanical, electromechanical and electronic instruments... - Linda ThompsonLinda Thompson (singer)Linda Thompson is a British singer. Born Linda Pettifer in Hackney, Thompson became one of the most recognised names—and voices—in the British folk rock movement of the 1970s and 1980s, in collaboration with her former husband and fellow British folk rock musician, guitarist Richard...
- vocals - Timmy Donald - drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
- Pat DonaldsonPat DonaldsonPat Donaldson is a bass guitarist.The 2i's Coffee Bar in Old Compton Street, Soho was a legendary hang-out for early rock artists of Britain. It was here that Tommy Steele, Cliff Richard and Terry Dean played. Albert Lee and Pat Donaldson played here while they were members of Bob Xavier and the...
- bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Dave MattacksDave MattacksDave Mattacks is a rock and folk drummer. Best known for his work with Fairport Convention, Mattacks has also worked both as a session musician, and as a performance artist...
- drums - Dave PeggDave PeggDave Pegg is an English multi-instrumentalist and record producer, arguably most visible as a bass guitarist. He is the longest-serving member of the pre-eminent electric folk band Fairport Convention and has been bassist with a number of important folk and rock groups including The Ian Campbell...
- bass guitar - John Kirkpatrick - accordionAccordionThe accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family, sometimes referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist....
, concertinaConcertinaA concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It has a bellows and buttons typically on both ends of it. When pressed, the buttons travel in the same direction as the bellows, unlike accordion buttons which travel perpendicularly to it... - Ian Whiteman - fluteFluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, shakuhachiShakuhachiThe is a Japanese end-blown flute. It is traditionally made of bamboo, but versions now exist in ABS and hardwoods. It was used by the monks of the Fuke school of Zen Buddhism in the practice of... - Aly BainAly BainAly Bain MBE is a Shetland fiddler who learned his instrument from the old-time master Tom Anderson. Bain is now considered one of the finest fiddlers in the Scottish tradition. In the early days of his career he formed part of the band The Humblebums with two other ‘unknowns’ Gerry Rafferty and...
- fiddleFiddleThe term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music... - Nic JonesNic JonesNicolas Paul "Nic" Jones is an English folk singer, fingerstyle guitarist and fiddle player whose professional career spanned the years 1964-1982. He recorded five solo albums, and was a frequent guest performer.-Biography:...
- fiddle - Henry LowtherHenry Lowther (musician)Henry Lowther is an English jazz trumpeter.Lowther's first experience was on cornet in a Salvation Army band. He studied violin briefly at the Royal Academy of Music but returned to trumpet by 1960 though he sometimes played violin professionally...
- trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air... - Clare Lowther - celloCelloThe cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
- Jack BrymerJack BrymerJohn Alexander Brymer OBE , was a British clarinettist, born in South Shields.-Biography:The son of a builder, Jack Brymer started his working life as a teacher, being at Heath Clark School, Thornton Heath, Surrey in the late 1940s...
- clarinetClarinetThe clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...