Shoot Out the Lights
Encyclopedia
Shoot Out the Lights is the sixth and final album by British
husband-and-wife folk rock
duo Richard and Linda Thompson. It was produced by Joe Boyd
and released in 1982 on his Hannibal
label. A critically acclaimed work, Allmusic's Mark Deming noted that Shoot Out the Lights has "often been cited as Richard Thompson's greatest work, and it's difficult for anyone who has heard his body of work to argue the point."
had sold poorly, Richard and Linda
Thompson found themselves without a record deal. In the spring of 1980 they toured as the support act for Gerry Rafferty
and in June of that year they recorded some demo
tracks at Woodworm
Studios in Oxfordshire
.
Later that same year and with the Thompsons still without a contract, Rafferty stepped in and offered to finance and produce a new Richard and Linda Thompson album and then use his contacts in the industry and the finished album to secure a new contract with the Thompsons. This album was recorded during September and October 1980 at Chipping Norton Studios in Oxfordshire.
As the project proceeded there was increasing tension between Richard Thompson and Rafferty. Thompson preferred a spontaneous approach to recording and found Rafferty's time-consuming and perfectionist approach hard to cope with. He also felt increasingly frozen out of the project: "When he got to the mixing, I just didn’t bother to turn up . . . because if I said something it was totally ignored and I thought 'hey, whose record is this anyway?'"
However the album was completed, but Rafferty was unable to interest any record companies and lost in the region of thirty thousand pounds on the project. Copies of the tapes of the Rafferty-sponsored sessions have subsequently become available as a bootleg
.
Finally, in the summer of 1981 Joe Boyd
signed the Thompsons to his small Hannibal label, and in November of that year the Thompsons went back into the studio and recorded a new album. Boyd's proposal, which the Thompsons accepted, was that the album be recorded in a matter of days so that money could be put aside for a tour of the USA. The resulting Shoot Out the Lights included six songs that had been recorded during the Rafferty-sponsored sessions and two newer songs. Linda Thompson was several months pregnant when the album was recorded and so there was no prospect of an immediate release or supporting tour. By the time the album was released Richard and Linda Thompson’s marriage was over.
Ironically, the album that was recorded when the Thompsons' career seemed all but over and which turned out to be their last album together was their best selling album and acclaimed as one of their greatest artistic achievements. Shoot Out the Lights and the May 1982 tour were crucial in re-launching Richard Thompson's career and in restoring his reputation as a songwriter and guitar player.
made it a pick hit saying "these are powerfully double-edged metaphors for the marriage struggle". At the end of 1982, many critics placed the album on their year-end "best of" lists, for example, placing it at #2 on the Village Voice Pazz & Jop
Critics Poll. It has continued to be highly regarded. Allmusic praises it as "a meditation on love and loss in which beauty, passion, and heady joy can still be found in defeat". And the Rolling Stone Album Guide
called the album "absolutely perfect" and cited it for its "vividly emotional writing and the stirringly impassioned playing".
In 1987, Shoot Out the Lights was ranked #24 on Rolling Stone
magazine's "100 Best Albums of the Last Twenty Years" and in 1989 it was ranked #9 on Rolling Stones list of the The 100 Best Albums of the Eighties. In 2003, the album was ranked number 333 on Rolling Stone
magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
. In March 2005, Q magazine placed the title song at number 99 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.
using Sony
's proprietary Super Bit Mapping
(SBM) mastering process to reduce the digital master from 20-bit to 16-bit required for the Red Book
compact disc standard. Dr. Toby Mountain again remastered the album in 2004 for release on Super Audio CD
(SACD) on Rykodisc. In 2005 the album was reissued on 180 gram vinyl by the 4 Men With Beards label. In October of 2010, Rhino Handmade issued a deluxe 2CD edition of the album with 11 live bonus tracks and a 40 page booklet.
Side one
Side two
"Living in Luxury" (2:32) was a B-side
included as a bonus track on reissues of the album.
A two disc "de luxe" edition of this album was issued by Rhino Handmade records in October 2010. The first disc had the eight tracks of the original album. The second disc comprised live tracks recorded during the 1982 tour of the USA.
The tracks on the second disc are
All tracks composed by Richard Thompson except where noted otherwise.
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
husband-and-wife folk rock
Folk rock
Folk rock is a musical genre combining elements of folk music and rock music. In its earliest and narrowest sense, the term referred to a genre that arose in the United States and the UK around the mid-1960s...
duo Richard and Linda Thompson. It was produced by 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:...
and released in 1982 on his Hannibal
Hannibal Records
Hannibal Records was a record label and one of the first to work with the World music genre.Hannibal was started by Joe Boyd in 1980. Boyd had produced records by artists such as Nick Drake, The Incredible String Band and Fairport Convention and released recordings by these artists as well as...
label. A critically acclaimed work, Allmusic's Mark Deming noted that Shoot Out the Lights has "often been cited as Richard Thompson's greatest work, and it's difficult for anyone who has heard his body of work to argue the point."
History
After their 1979 album SunnyvistaSunnyvista
Sunnyvista, released in October 1979 is the fifth album by Richard and Linda Thompson.After the artistic mismatch of the previous year's come back album , the Thompsons made greater use on this album of backing musicians that they had worked with previously.Sunnyvista is a curate's egg of an album...
had sold poorly, Richard and Linda
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 found themselves without a record deal. In the spring of 1980 they toured as the support act for Gerry Rafferty
Gerry Rafferty
Gerald "Gerry" Rafferty was a Scottish singer songwriter best known for his solo hits "Baker Street", "Right Down the Line", "Days Gone Down", "Night Owl", "Get It Right Next Time", and with the band Stealers Wheel, "Stuck in the Middle with You". Rafferty was born into a working-class family in...
and in June of that year they recorded some demo
Demo (music)
A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
tracks at Woodworm
Woodworm Records
Woodworm Records was a record label created in 1979 to enable the British folk-rock band Fairport Convention to release their album Farewell Farewell. The album was a recording of performances taken from the band's 1979 farewell tour...
Studios in Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire
Oxfordshire is a county in the South East region of England, bordering on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire , Buckinghamshire , Berkshire , Wiltshire and Gloucestershire ....
.
Later that same year and with the Thompsons still without a contract, Rafferty stepped in and offered to finance and produce a new Richard and Linda Thompson album and then use his contacts in the industry and the finished album to secure a new contract with the Thompsons. This album was recorded during September and October 1980 at Chipping Norton Studios in Oxfordshire.
As the project proceeded there was increasing tension between Richard Thompson and Rafferty. Thompson preferred a spontaneous approach to recording and found Rafferty's time-consuming and perfectionist approach hard to cope with. He also felt increasingly frozen out of the project: "When he got to the mixing, I just didn’t bother to turn up . . . because if I said something it was totally ignored and I thought 'hey, whose record is this anyway?'"
However the album was completed, but Rafferty was unable to interest any record companies and lost in the region of thirty thousand pounds on the project. Copies of the tapes of the Rafferty-sponsored sessions have subsequently become available as a bootleg
Bootleg recording
A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...
.
Finally, in the summer of 1981 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:...
signed the Thompsons to his small Hannibal label, and in November of that year the Thompsons went back into the studio and recorded a new album. Boyd's proposal, which the Thompsons accepted, was that the album be recorded in a matter of days so that money could be put aside for a tour of the USA. The resulting Shoot Out the Lights included six songs that had been recorded during the Rafferty-sponsored sessions and two newer songs. Linda Thompson was several months pregnant when the album was recorded and so there was no prospect of an immediate release or supporting tour. By the time the album was released Richard and Linda Thompson’s marriage was over.
Ironically, the album that was recorded when the Thompsons' career seemed all but over and which turned out to be their last album together was their best selling album and acclaimed as one of their greatest artistic achievements. Shoot Out the Lights and the May 1982 tour were crucial in re-launching Richard Thompson's career and in restoring his reputation as a songwriter and guitar player.
Critical response
For a release on an independent label, Shoot Out the Lights had a significant critical impact. Robert ChristgauRobert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
made it a pick hit saying "these are powerfully double-edged metaphors for the marriage struggle". At the end of 1982, many critics placed the album on their year-end "best of" lists, for example, placing it at #2 on the Village Voice Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop
The Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics...
Critics Poll. It has continued to be highly regarded. Allmusic praises it as "a meditation on love and loss in which beauty, passion, and heady joy can still be found in defeat". And the Rolling Stone Album Guide
Rolling Stone Album Guide
The Rolling Stone Album Guide, previously known as The Rolling Stone Record Guide, is a book that, along with its sister publication Rolling Stone magazine, contains professional reviews of popular music...
called the album "absolutely perfect" and cited it for its "vividly emotional writing and the stirringly impassioned playing".
In 1987, Shoot Out the Lights was ranked #24 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine's "100 Best Albums of the Last Twenty Years" and in 1989 it was ranked #9 on Rolling Stones list of the The 100 Best Albums of the Eighties. In 2003, the album was ranked number 333 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...
. In March 2005, Q magazine placed the title song at number 99 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks.
Release history
In 1991, Hannibal released Shoot Out the Lights on CD with the b-side "Living in Luxury" as a bonus track on the first run. This song is not included on any subsequent editions of the album. In 1993, Rykodisc released it as part of their AU20 Mastering Gold CD series. Dr. Toby Mountain of Northeastern Digital Recording, Inc., in Southborough, MassachusettsSouthborough, Massachusetts
Southborough is an affluent town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. It incorporates the smaller villages of Cordaville, Fayville, and Southville. Its name is often informally shortened to Southboro, a usage seen on many area signs and maps. Its population was 9,767 at the 2010...
using Sony
Sony
, commonly referred to as Sony, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan and the world's fifth largest media conglomerate measured by revenues....
's proprietary Super Bit Mapping
Super Bit Mapping
Super Bit Mapping is a Noise Shaping process, developed by Sony for CD mastering.Sony's SBM, a process that is intended to raise the standard of 16-Bit recording and playback quality...
(SBM) mastering process to reduce the digital master from 20-bit to 16-bit required for the Red Book
Red Book (audio CD standard)
Red Book is the standard for audio CDs . It is named after one of the Rainbow Books, a series of books that contain the technical specifications for all CD and CD-ROM formats.The first edition of the Red Book was released in 1980 by Philips and Sony; it was adopted by the Digital Audio Disc...
compact disc standard. Dr. Toby Mountain again remastered the album in 2004 for release on Super Audio CD
Super Audio CD
Super Audio CD is a high-resolution, read-only optical disc for audio storage. Sony and Philips Electronics jointly developed the technology, and publicized it in 1999. It is designated as the Scarlet Book standard. Sony and Philips previously collaborated to define the Compact Disc standard...
(SACD) on Rykodisc. In 2005 the album was reissued on 180 gram vinyl by the 4 Men With Beards label. In October of 2010, Rhino Handmade issued a deluxe 2CD edition of the album with 11 live bonus tracks and a 40 page booklet.
Track listing
All songs written by Richard Thompson except as noted.Side one
- "Don't Renege on Our Love" – 4:19
- "Walking on a Wire" – 5:29
- "Man in Need" – 3:36
- "Just the Motion" – 6:19
Side two
- "Shoot Out the Lights" – 5:24
- "Back Street Slide" – 4:33
- "Did She Jump or Was She Pushed?" (Richard Thompson, 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...
) – 4:52 - "Wall of Death" – 3:43
"Living in Luxury" (2:32) was a B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
included as a bonus track on reissues of the album.
A two disc "de luxe" edition of this album was issued by Rhino Handmade records in October 2010. The first disc had the eight tracks of the original album. The second disc comprised live tracks recorded during the 1982 tour of the USA.
The tracks on the second disc are
- "Dargai" (J. Scott SkinnerJames Scott SkinnerJames 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...
, arr. Richard Thompson) - "Back Street Slide"
- "Pavanne" (Richard Thompson, Linda Thompson)
- "I'll Keep It With Mine" (Bob DylanBob DylanBob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...
) - "Borrowed Time"
- "Did She Jump or Was She Pushed?" (Richard Thompson, Linda Thompson)
- "I'm A Dreamer" (Sandy DennySandy DennySandy Denny , born Alexandra Elene Maclean Denny, was an English singer and songwriter, perhaps best known as the lead singer for the folk rock band Fairport Convention...
) - "Honky Tonk Blues" (Hank Williams)
- "Shoot Out The Lights"
- "For Shame Of Doing Wrong"
- "Dimming Of The Day"
- "The Price of Love" (Don Everly, Phil Everly) (bonus track)
All tracks composed by Richard Thompson except where noted otherwise.
Personnel
- Richard Thompson – 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...
, lead guitarLead guitarLead guitar is a guitar part which plays melody lines, instrumental fill passages, guitar solos, and occasionally, some riffs within a song structure...
, 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....
, hammered dulcimerHammered dulcimerThe hammered dulcimer is a stringed musical instrument with the strings stretched over a trapezoidal sounding board. Typically, the hammered dulcimer is set on a stand, at an angle, before the musician, who holds small mallet hammers in each hand to strike the strings... - 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 - Simon NicolSimon NicolSimon John Breckenridge Nicol is a guitarist, singer, multi-instrumentalist and record producer. He was a founder member of British folk rock, or electric folk group Fairport Convention and is the only founding member still in the band...
– rhythm guitarRhythm guitarRhythm guitar is a technique and rôle that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with singers or other instruments; and to provide all or part of the harmony, ie. the chords, where a chord is a group of notes played together... - 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...
– bassBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
on 3 6 7 8 - Pete ZornPete ZornPete Zorn is an American multi-instrumentalist who plays roots music. He is best known as a longstanding member of Richard Thompson's touring band, where he serves as backing vocalist and plays acoustic guitar, mandolin, saxophone, flute, and tin whistle.Although he frequently tours with Thompson,...
– bass on 1 2 4 5, backing vocals - David 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...
– 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 ....
Additional personnel
- The WatersonsThe WatersonsThe Watersons were an English folk group from Hull, Yorkshire. They performed mainly traditional songs with little or no accompaniment. Their distinctive sound came from their closely woven harmonies.-Career:...
(NormaNorma WatersonNorma Christine Waterson is an English musician, best known as one of the original members of The Watersons, a premier English traditional group. Other members of the group included her brother Mike Waterson and sister Lal Waterson, and in later incarnations of the group her husband Martin...
, Mike, LalLal WatersonLal Waterson was an English folksinger and songwriter. She sang with, among others, The Watersons, The Waterdaughters and Blue Murder. She was born in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire and died suddenly in Robin Hood's Bay, of cancer diagnosed only ten days before...
, and Martin CarthyMartin CarthyMartin Carthy MBE is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon and later artists such as Richard Thompson since he emerged as a young musician in the early days...
) – backing vocals - Clive GregsonClive GregsonClive Gregson is an English singer/songwriter, musician and record producer. He has toured in bands, provided backup for well-known musicians, and written songs that have been covered by Kim Carnes, Norma Waterson and Nanci Griffith.-Solo:At the end of 1984 Gregson released his first solo record,...
– backing vocals - Stephen Corbett – cornetCornetThe cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...
- Brian Jones – cornet
- Phil Goodwin – tubaTubaThe tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...
- Stephen Barnett – tromboneTromboneThe trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
- Mark Cutts – trombone
Personnel for the live disc of the October 2010 "de luxe" re-issue
- Richard Thompson – vocals, lead guitar
- Linda Thompson – vocals
- Simon Nicol – rhythm guitar, backing vocals
- Pete Zorn – bass, backing vocals
- Dave Mattacks – drums