Shoot Out the Lights

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Shoot Out the Lights
Shoot Out the Lights cover
Studio album by Richard and Linda Thompson
Released April 1982
Recorded November 1981 at Olympic Studios, London
Genre Rock
Length 38:16
Label Hannibal Records
Producer(s) Joe Boyd
Professional reviews
Richard and Linda Thompson chronology
Sunnyvista
(1979)		 Shoot Out the Lights
(1982)


Shoot Out the Lights is a 1982 album by the British husband-and-wife rock duo Richard and Linda Thompson. It was their last album recorded together, as the couple divorced later that year.

Contents

[edit] History

After their 1979 album Sunnyvista 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 tracks at Woodworm Studios with the intention of presenting these recordings to record companies.

Later that same year and with the Thompsons still contract-less, Rafferty stepped in and offered to finance and produce a new Richard and Linda Thompson and to use his contacts in the industry to secure a new contract for the duo. This album was recorded during September and October 1980 at Chipping Norton Studios in Oxfordshire. Rafferty was unable to interest any record companies in the resulting album and lost in the region of thirty thousand pounds on the project. Reportedly Richard Thompson and Rafferty fell out over the project, with Thompson unhappy with Rafferty's meticulous but unspontaneous recording methods. This album is now 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 Shoot Out The Lights was recorded on a small budget. Linda Thompson was pregnant at the time of recording, so the album's release and the supporting tour were held back until 1982.

In December 1981 Richard Thompson embarked on a series of low-key solo concerts in the USA (his first shows in that country for a dozen years). During this "mini tour" he commenced a relationship with Nancy Covey, who had arranged the tour and who was to become Thompson's second wife. Richard and Linda Thompson separated in early 1982, and severed their working relationship after the tour to promote Shoot Out The Lights.

This timeline is required to debunk the great myth about this album - that it deals specifically and publicly with the break-down of the Thompsons' marriage. Six of the eight songs that were included on the album had been recorded over two years earlier at Woodworm Studios and again during the Rafferty sessions - nearly a year before Richard Thompson met Nancy Covey. "Man In Need" and "Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed?" were newer than the other songs on the album, but they too had been recorded before there was any indication that the 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 one of their greatest artistic achievements.

Shoot Out The Lights was crucial in re-launching Richard Thompson as a performing artist in the USA and in his re-emergence as a one of the best and most original guitar players in popular music.

[edit] Critics' Praise

At the end of 1982, many critics placed the album on their year-end "best of" lists.

In 1989, it was ranked #9 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s. 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.

[edit] Track listing

All songs written by Richard Thompson except "Did She Jump Or Was She Pushed?" which is written by Richard and Linda Thompson.

  1. "Don't Renege on Our Love" – 4:19
  2. "Walking on a Wire" – 5:29
  3. "Man in Need" – 3:36
  4. "Just the Motion" – 6:19
  5. "Shoot Out the Lights" – 5:24
  6. "Back Street Slide" – 4:33
  7. "Did She Jump or Was She Pushed?" – 4:52
  8. "Wall of Death" – 3:43
  9. "Living in Luxury" – 2:32 ^

^ included on some versions of the album

[edit] Singles

  • "Don't Renege on Our Love (Single version)"/"Living in Luxury" (April 1982)

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Additional personnel

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