Richard Thompson - Invisible Means (with French, Frith, & Kaiser) - Alternate Version (1990)

In the late 1980s, Richard Thompson was a member of "the world's most obscure supergroup:" French, Frith, Kaiser, and Thompson. A few months ago, I posted a Richard Thompson-centric version of that band's first album, "Love, Life, Larf & Loaf." Basically, I kept all the Thompson songs and removed the rest.

The album does the exact same thing, except with the band's second (and last) album, "Invisible Means." Like the band's other album, the original album is fairly long. So if one keeps just the Thompson songs, and adds a couple of bonus tracks, it ends up being 40 minutes long, which is a  nice album length.

French, Frith, Kaiser, and Thompson (FFKT) were deliberately arty and experimental, and thus they had a niche audience only. I think a lot of Richard Thompson fans stayed away. But Thompson's songs aren't that different from his usual fare. So, just as last time, you get a solid "lost" Richard Thompson album. He does get experimental on a couple of songs, such as "March of the Cosmetic Surgeons," which is kind of a mock opera, and "Days of Our Lives," which means fun of soap operas. But they're still good songs, just different.

"Now That I'm Dead" is a song written by John French of the FFKT quartet. On the original "Invisible Means" album, there is a studio version sung by him. Personally, I think it's a great, funny song, but his vocal delivery totally ruined it. Luckily, Thompson sings it in concert as a bonus track that was added to a later edition of the album, and I've added that here.

All the other songs are Thompson originals, with the exceptions of "Loch Lomond" and the other bonus track "Love Has Made a Fool of You - Iko Iko."

01 Peppermint Rock (French, Frith, Kaiser & Thompson)
02 March of the Cosmetic Surgeons (French, Frith, Kaiser & Thompson)
03 Begging Bowl (French, Frith, Kaiser & Thompson)
04 Loch Lomond (French, Frith, Kaiser & Thompson)
05 Days of Our Lives (French, Frith, Kaiser, Thompson)
06 Killing Jar (French, Frith, Kaiser & Thompson)
07 Now that I Am Dead (French, Frith, Kaiser & Thompson)
08 Love Has Made a Fool of You - Iko Iko (French, Frith, Kaiser & Thompson)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16376680/RICHRDTHMPSN1990InvsibleMensAlternte_atse.zip.html

For some unknown reason, there have been two totally different official album covers for this album. You can see the more popular one in the Wikipedia entry for the album. I've chosen the lesser known one.

Richard Thompson - Live, Love, Larf & Loaf (with French, Frith, & Kaiser) - Alternate Version (1987)

The next in my series of Richard Thompson albums is a strange one. In 1987, he linked up with John French, Fred Frith, and Henry Kaiser to form "French Frith Kaiser Thompson," a collaboration dubbed "the world's most obscure supergroup." They put out two albums, this one ("Live, Love, Lard and Loaf") in 1987, and one in 1990 ("Invisible Means"). They played in a variety of styles, but the generally had an avant-garde and experimental approach. All four musicians contributed with their own songs and vocals, making this a truly collaborative band.

Now, I hate if this sounds harsh, but Richard Thompson is one of the greatest musicians of all time, and the other three are not. Furthermore, the music of the other three isn't my cup of tea. So when it comes to the band "French Frith Kaiser Thompson" I'm pretty much exclusively interested in the musical contributions of Thompson. Luckily, the album is rather long, and I found a couple more songs to add. Thus I was able to make an album just of the songs on "Live, Love, Lard and Loaf" that are written and/or song by Thompson.

Out of the 12 songs on the original version of "Live, Love, Lard and Loaf," four were written or co-written by Thompson, and also sung by him. He also sings on the medley "Bird in God's Garden - Lost and Found" even though he didn't write any of it. So that makes up 25 minutes of music. That's short for a typical album.

But luckily, I found two more songs to add, which were done live by French Frith Kaiser Thompson in 1987. One, "Madness of Love," is mostly sung by someone else in the band (though Thompson can be heard on some vocals, and guitar). However, I decided to include it because it's a very rare song written by Thompson that he only played live a few times in 1977 and never officially released. The other added song is a version of the Rolling Stones' hit "Play with Fire," sung by Thompson and turned into a ten-minute long guitar solo workout.

If you add it all up, you get a 42 minute long album that would have been a very solid Richard Thompson solo album if he'd decided to go that route. Although the band is fairly experimental, on the Thompson songs, it pretty much sounds exactly like other Thompson songs from the era. If you're a fan of everyone in French Frith Kaiser Thompson, then more power to you, and this album is not for you. But if you're like me and especially interested in Thompson's music, you should be just as interested in this version of the album as any of his other albums from the era.

By the way, I plan on posting a Thompson-focused version of the 1990 French Frith Kaiser Thompson album too.

01 Killerman Gold Posse (French, Frith, Kaiser & Thompson)
02 Drowned Dog Black Night (French, Frith, Kaiser & Thompson)
03 A Blind Step Away (French, Frith, Kaiser & Thompson)
04 Tir-Nan-Darag (French, Frith, Kaiser & Thompson)
05 Bird in God's Garden - Lost and Found (French, Frith, Kaiser & Thompson)
06 Madness of Love (French, Frith, Kaiser & Thompson)
07 Play with Fire (French, Frith, Kaiser & Thompson)

https://www.upload.ee/files/15268286/RichrdT_1987_LiveLveLarfLoafAlternte_atse.zip.html

There appear to be two totally different versions of the cover art for the official album. I chose one of them and didn't make any changes.