Graham Reid | | 1 min read
Or Nothing at All
People of “a certain age” speak of Linda Thompson with some approaching awe and reverence. Her albums with her former husband Richard Thompson – who has appeared frequently at Elsewhere in reviews and interviews – are the stuff of legend: marriage, love, separation all distilled into songs.
However you read it, albums by the Thompson entitled I Wanna See the Bright Lights (1974) then later Shoot Out The Lights (year) kind of tell their own story without even drilling down into detail.
Lotta water under the bridge since then: separate careers and lives which would intercross through children, family and folk connections.
Linda Thompson may have lost the ability to sing (she suffers from spasmodic dysphonia) but her humour remains intact.
On the cover of this celebration-cum-tribute, the 76-year old replicates model Kari-Ann Moller's seductive pose on the cover of Roxy Music's 1972 self-titled debut.
Here her songs are sung by family and friends – her proxy singers – including Rufus and Martha Wainwright, the Proclaimers, the Unthanks, her former husband Richard, and their son Teddy and daughter Kami Thompson.
There are layers of referencing: John Grant sings her paean to him John Grant (which he co-wrote); producer/co-writer Teddy sings Those Damn Roches about the Roche sisters whose lives and music were interwoven with the Thompsons and the McGarrigle sisters: Rufus and Martha are the late Kate McGarrigle's children with Loudon Wainwright, Loudon later married Suzzy Roche.
A complex family tree which notes that the Thompson's “can't get along 'cept when we're apart”.
There is quiet beauty here: Martha with the moving piano ballad Or Nothing At All (a late-in-life love letter-cum-song of loss), the Proclaimers with Bonnie Lass
With classy trans-Atlantic folk and folk-rock, some barbed lyrics, moving ballads and cabaret songs (Rufus with Darling This Will Never Do), Linda Thompson may be denied her voice but isn't silenced.
As the final line of Those Damn Roches says: “When we're singing loud and strong, who can take us?”
A fine album which should send people back to the careers of these many artists, not the least the great Linda Thompson.
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You can hear this album at Spotify here
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