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.