Watching the Dark is an album

Album

An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...

 by Richard Thompson released in 1993.

This 3-CD retrospective set was compiled with Thompson's co-operation and consent. Thompson has often been reluctant to look backwards at his career and dig through the archives, but he took the pragmatic view that if somebody wants to assemble a set of this nature they'll do it anyway and so you might as well collaborate with them if possible. He had right of veto over the selections, and recorded one track (Poor Wee Jockey Clark) specially for the project.

The set is perhaps compromised by having to be all things to all people. Creating a "greatest hits" style compilation was going to be difficult because Thompson never really had any hits. Besides, a pure "best of" compilation would have had only minimal interest to Thompson's loyal and supportive fans. So about 1/3 of the selections are live, and 5 had never been released - at least not on any official Thompson release. Some of the material was donated by collectors of Thompsonia.

The set extends chronologically from 1969, when Thompson was a member of 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...

, through to 1992. However it is not sequenced in chronological order.

Notable inclusions are

• A live version of Can't Win with an extended guitar solo that is regarded by fans as being one of the finest Thompson solos committed to CD.
• From Galway To Graceland, a Thompson song that had never made it onto a commercial Thompson release
• A live version of A Heart Needs A Home from 1975.
• Solo, live versions of Jennie and Devonside
• An unreleased recording, thought to have been lost, of A Sailor's Life by 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...
  
  
• Three tracks from the un-released, 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...
  
   produced version of the Shoot Out The Lights
  Shoot Out the Lights
  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...
  
  … album.

The set includes a booklet with details of each recording, some rare photographs and an essay by Greil Marcus

Greil Marcus

Greil Marcus is an American author, music journalist and cultural critic. He is notable for producing scholarly and literary essays that place rock music in a much broader framework of culture and politics than is customary in pop music journalism.-Life and career:Marcus was born in San Francisco...

.

Track listing

All songs written by Richard Thompson except where noted otherwise

Disc A

1. "A Man in Need"
2. "Can't Win"
3. "Waltzing's for Dreamers"
4. "Crash the Party"
5. "I Still Dream"
6. "Bird in God's Garden/Lost and Found" (Hakim Conrad Archuletta/Frith
   Fred Frith
   Fred Frith is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisor.Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock group Henry Cow. Frith was also a member of Art Bears, Massacre and Skeleton Crew...
   
   )
7. "Now Be Thankful" (Swarbrick
   Dave Swarbrick
   Dave Swarbrick is an English folk musician and singer-songwriter. He has been described by Ashley Hutchings as 'the most influential [British] fiddle player bar none' and his style has been copied or developed by almost every British, and many World folk violin players that have followed him...
   
   /Thompson)
8. "A Sailor's Life" (traditional, arranged by Denny
   Sandy Denny
   Sandy 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...
   
   , Thompson, Nicol
   Simon Nicol
   Simon 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...
   
   , Hutchings
   Ashley Hutchings
   Ashley Stephen Hutchings is an English bassist, vocalist, songwriter, arranger, band leader, writer and record producer. He was a founder member of three of the most noteworthy English folk-rock bands in the history of the genre; Fairport Convention, Steeleye Span and The Albion Band...
   
    and Lamble
   Martin Lamble
   Martin Francis Lamble was the drummer for British electric folk band, Fairport Convention, from just after their formation in 1967, until his death in the Fairport Convention van crash in 1969...
   
   )
9. "Genesis Hall"
10. "The Knife-Edge"
11. "Walking on a Wire"
12. "Small Town Romance"
13. "The Shepherd's March/Maggie Cameron" (traditional, arranged by Richard Thompson)
14. "Wall of Death"

Disc B

1. "For Shame of Doing Wrong"
2. "Back Street Slide"
3. "Strange Affair"
4. "The Wrong Heartbeat"
5. "Borrowed Time"
6. "From Galway to Graceland"
7. "Tear Stained Letter"
8. "Keep Your Distance"
9. "Bogie's Bonnie Belle" (traditional, arranged by Richard Thompson)
10. "Poor Wee Jockey Clark" (traditional, arranged by Richard Thompson)
11. "Jet Plane in a Rocking Chair "
12. "Dimming of the Day"
13. "Old Man Inside a Young Man"
14. "Never Again"
15. "Hokey Pokey (The Ice Cream Song)"
16. "A Heart Needs a Home"
17. "Beat the Retreat"

Disc C

1. "Al Bowlly's in Heaven"
2. "Walking Through a Wasted Land"
3. "When the Spell Is Broken"
4. "Devonside"
5. "Little Blue Number"
6. "I Ain't Going to Drag My Feet No More"
7. "Withered and Died"
8. "Nobody’s Wedding"
9. "The Poor Ditching Boy"
10. "The Great Valerio"
11. "Twisted"
12. "The Calvary Cross"
13. "Jennie"
14. "The Hand of Kindness"
15. "Two Left Feet "
16. "Shoot Out the Lights"