Watching The Dark: The History of Richard Thompson [Box set]

Watching The Dark: The History of Richard Thompson [Box set]

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
Richard Thompson did not achieve overnight his now-acknowledged status as a pillar of British folk-rock, as a towering guitarist, and as a songwriter as distinctive and thematically provocative as any of his contemporaries. As late as 1980 when Thompson already had a formidable dossier of wonderful recordings with Fairport Convention as well as with his then-wife Linda, the would-be folk god was more cult artist than recognizable entity. This superb three-disc retrospective provides an intelligent overview of his evolution, avoiding the conventions of a "hits first" approach (silly in this case) or a completist's preoccupation with chronology and minutiae (dreary move, that). Instead, the discs shuttle back and forth across different period's in Thompson's career, swap excellent live performances and alternate takes for certain tracks, and let the music dictate the flow. That makes Watching the Dark as engaging for life-long Thompson fans as it will surely be for new recruits. --Sam Sutherland

Tracks:

A Man In Need
Can't Win
Waltzing's For Dreamers
Crash The Party
I Still Dream
Bird In God's Garden / Lost And Found
Now Be Thankful
A Sailor's Life
Genesis Hall
The Knife-Edge
Walking On A Wire
Small Town Romance
Shepherd's March / Maggie Cameron
Wall Of Death

Tracks:

For Shame Of Doing Wrong
Back Street Slide
Strange Affair
The Wrong Heartbeat
Borrowed Time
From Galway To Graceland
Tear Stained Letter
Keep Your Distance
Bogie's Bonnie Belle
Poor Wee Jockey Clarke
Jet Plane In A Rocking Chair
Dimming Of The Day
Old Man Inside A Young Man
Never Again
Hokey Pokey (The Ice Cream Song)
A Heart Needs A Home
Beat The Retreat

Tracks:

Al Bowlly's In Heaven
Walking Through A Wasted Land
When The Spell Is Broken
Devonside
Little Blue Number
I Ain't Going To Drag My Feet No More
Withered And Died
Nobody's Wedding
The Poor Ditching Boy
The Great Valerio
Twisted
Calvary Cross
Jennie
Hand Of Kindness
Two Left Feet
Shoot Out The Lights

Amazon.com essential recording

Richard Thompson did not achieve overnight his now-acknowledged status as a pillar of British folk-rock, as a towering guitarist, and as a songwriter as distinctive and thematically provocative as any of his contemporaries. As late as 1980 when Thompson already had a formidable dossier of wonderful recordings with Fairport Convention as well as with his then-wife Linda, the would-be folk god was more cult artist than recognizable entity. This superb three-disc retrospective provides an intelligent overview of his evolution, avoiding the conventions of a "hits first" approach (silly in this case) or a completist's preoccupation with chronology and minutiae (dreary move, that). Instead, the discs shuttle back and forth across different period's in Thompson's career, swap excellent live performances and alternate takes for certain tracks, and let the music dictate the flow. That makes Watching the Dark as engaging for life-long Thompson fans as it will surely be for new recruits. --Sam Sutherland

Customer Reviews:

A Fine Introduction........2007-06-24

This 3 CD set covers Richard Thompson recording career through 1969 until 1992. A mixture of early Fairport Convention, his work with his former wife Linda and solo recordings. Many tracks have not been previously released, most of them live-recordings or alternate versions.

Obviously a 3 CD-set will give a pretty good overview of this period of his career, but some might find it a little confusing that there is no strict chronology in the tracklisting. But musically I think it works very well.

The earliest tracks are Fairport Convention recordings; one from "Unhalfbricking", a fine alternate version of "A Sailor's Life" and the catchy 1970 single "Now Be Thankful".

In 1972 Thompson released his first solo album "Henry the Human Fly", which unfortunately did not sell very well. A shame as the album ranks with the very best of his albums; this the 3 tracks from the album here clearly document.

Most of my favourite Thompson recordings come from the period when he worked with his wife Linda. The duo released 6 albums during 1974-82, all of which are represented here; even the two hard to find Chrysalis albums "First Light" and "Sunny Vista". These two albums are often considered their weakest, but a song like "Strange Affair" is simply moving. Great to have the song here.

Thompson's later solo albums vary quite a lot in style and approach, but his strong influence by traditional British folk shines through on most songs.

With a 52 pages booklet with liner notes from Greil Marcus, a fine biography by Leslie Berman and detailed information about each track, this makes a great introduction to one of Britain's finest guitarists and songwriters of at least three decades.

It's OK by me 4 1/2 ****'s.......2006-06-27

This three disk set is a perfect dose of Richard Thompson for a modest fan of the singer/songwriter/ guitarist extrodinaire's vast talented career. It falls right in the middle of The Best of Richard and Linda Thompson:The Island Years or Action Packed and the recent mega box set RT; The life and Music of Richard Thompson.

For someone like myself, who owns quite a few Thompson disks, it provides a number of live and alternative takes on some of the classics that I already have in my collecton, as well as fills in the blanks on some of the more obscure albums that I don't yet own, as well as provide some solid songs that are previously unreleased. I can see where some fanatics may have some of these items, thus making it a somewhat redundant package. On the other hand, I can see it frustrating someone who is just beginning to explore Thompson's vast catalog. It does jump around a bit, thus frustrating those who look for continuity of performance.

Nobody should find fault in the numerous great performances included here such as a cathartic version of CAN'T WIN, the sublime WALTZINGS FOR DREAMERS or the haunting A BIRD IN GOD'S GARDEN. This set does a great job of hitting the highlights from the Fairport years through the Richard and Linda era, all the way to his solo works of the early ninties.

As with all box set type compilations, WATCHING THE DARK is not going to be 100% of what one is looking for. You may find that there are too many live cuts and rarities at the expence of original "hits", or complain that certain favorites have been omitted. I know that there are a few songs I'd like to see, but all in all I'm quite happy to enjoy the over three hours of fine music included here. It's not perfect, but then, what is?

Fans can never be objective..........2006-04-26

From an OBJECTIVE reviewer...critically WAY over rated, commercially perhaps underrated, but still forgettable sorta folk music.

Best Of/Rarities mixture.......2006-01-13

Although this emerged on Rykodisc's Hannibal label, it includes material first released on Island, Rhino, Capitol, Elixir, Chrysalis and Polydor, and spans the period 1969 to 1992, bringing it up to date at the point of its original release. This means that nothing has been unearthed from Richard Thompson's musical life prior to Fairport Convention (a couple of songs on the eponymous debut album were written during this period) or from Fairport's first, relatively underground couple of years, before they re-invented folk rock.
One major highlight is a long, previously unheard outtake of A Sailor's Life performed by the band alone, with Sandy Denny's wonderful vocal. The official Unhalfbricking version featured a guest appearance on fiddle from future band member Dave Swarbrick, and he is featured on lead vocal and fiddle on their 1970 non-album single Now Be Thankful, in a stereo mix. The other included Fairport track is Genesis Hall, originally the flip of Si Tu Dois Partir and readily available on Unhalfbricking and on compilations.
This pinpoints one of the flaws with this collection, in that it mixes previously unavailable or hard to find material with regular album tracks which Thompson followers are likely to already have. Over one hour 40 minutes, or approximately half of this box set is taken directly from albums, something that needs to be factored in when considering purchase.
Care has been taken to show Richard Thompson's considerable range, both in his songwriting and in his mastery of both acoustic and electric guitars. An explosive live version of Tear Stained Letter has some blistering, giddying guitar solos. He is also shown dabbling in a number of other instruments and, of course, exploring various musical styles. These are less successful when he moves towards the mainstream, as he does latterly in too much of this collection, and at their best when he utilises the fabulous interpretive skills of Linda Thompson, whose vocals on their joint seventies output is just matchless. Almost half of the 16 Richard and Linda Thompson tracks are not taken from their albums and make a strong argument in favour of this box set. Of course, if you are new to his work, and the price is right, there is no need to hesitate.

Had I Known ????!!!!.......2006-01-05

Another reviewer gave this collection 2 stars because they were disappointed that many of the tracks were sung by Linda Thompson.Wha...!Did they not know that almost a decade of Richard's career was spent making records with his former wife.Or that many of his finest songs were originally recorded with Linda providing the lead vocal.How could the inclusion of several (previously rare)tracks featuring one of the most lovely and distinctive voices in the history of folk-rock make this set anything less than a treasure.JB, please go back to your Paul McCartney & Al Stewart discs and reel with shock that they suck even though neither artist has made a worthwhile album in decades.Leave Richard (& Linda)Thompson to those who are not tone-deaf.

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