Richard & Linda Thompson - The Madness of Love - Non-Album Tracks (1977)

Here's the next in my series of Richard Thompson stray tracks albums, with this still in the middle of the Richard and Linda Thompson years.

In 1974, Richard Thompson converted to Islam, and he remains Muslim to this day. His wife Linda Thompson converted as well, but apparently more reluctantly. They released two albums in 1975, but then they moved to a Sufi community in the English countryside, much like a religious commune, and dropped out of the music business for a while.

In 1977, Richard wrote some new songs and went on a short tour with Linda. He also made an attempt to record a new album in the studio. However, something felt off to him about the new songs, or maybe getting back into music in general, because the new album never materialized. He put out another Richard and Linda Thompson album in 1978, "First Light," but it didn't contain any of the 1977 songs.

Luckily though, one concert (at Drury Lane, London) from that short 1977 tour was recorded fairly well. The first five songs here come from that Drury Lane concert. Many years later, Richard was asked about these songs, and he said, "Some songs deserve to fall off the radar." He's avoided putting them on retrospective compilations or adding them as bonus tracks or the like, so he really must have an issue with them. But it's very puzzling, because they're all good songs. Graham Parker even covered one of them ("Madness of Love") for a Richard Thompson tribute album.

If you take the five unreleased songs from that 1977 concert and add in two other obscure songs released in 1978, it makes up a lost 1977 album. In my opinion it's just as good as their other albums, though the song quality is a bit lower than ideal on the live songs.

In late 2020, the box set "Hard Luck Stories" was released. Happily, it contained better versions of four of the songs. Unfortunately, that means it didn't contain two of them, "Rescue Me" and "The Fire in the Garden." Those two sound a bit worse than the others. 

The bonus track "The Flute Tells a Story" seems to be another original from this time period. But while it was played at that same Drury Lane concert, it didn't make it to the bootleg. Instead, I found a version from a different concert bootleg. The sound quality is okay, but of lesser quality than all the others on this album, which is why it's only a bonus track.

01 The Madness of Love (Richard & Linda Thompson)
02 Rescue Me (Richard & Linda Thompson)
03 The Fire in the Garden (Richard & Linda Thompson)
04 A Bird in God's Garden (Richard & Linda Thompson)
05 The King of Love (Richard & Linda Thompson)
06 If I Were a Woman and You Were a Man (Richard & Linda Thompson)
07 Rainbow Over the Hill (Linda Thompson & the Albion Band)
08 Things You Gave Me (Richard & Linda Thompson)

The Flute Tells a Story (Richard & Linda Thompson)

https://www.upload.ee/files/16376670/RICHRDLNDATHMPSN1977TheMadnssLve_atse.zip.html

When I first posted this, I had a different cover. But I wasn't happy with it, due to the lack of good color photos of Richard and Linda Thompson, especially in their first years. Many months later, I found a better picture, from December 1974. It was in black and white, but by then I had a program to help with colorizing, so I colorized it.